382 TESTIMONY 



skin on the outside of* the bundle; that to roll four or more skins in one 

 bundle in the manner necessary for the preservation of the skins is an 

 impossibility. 



Deponent further says: 



That immediately on landing the Alaska sealskins at San Francisco 

 they were packed in casks, the bundles being the same 

 skins PI from San as when taken from the vessel which brought them from 

 Francisco. t]ie p^iof Islands; that since the year K 79 the casks 



were headed at the wharf and taken directly to the railroad freight 

 depot for shipment to London, each cask being marked with the num- 

 ber of skins it contained, which number was obtained by multiplying 

 the number of bundles put into the cask by two; that to 1879 the 

 bundles were placed on drays after having been counted by the cus- 

 tom-house officer and taken to the warehouse of the Alaska Commer- 

 cial Company, where they were at once packed in casks and taken to 

 the railroad station ; that when such packing in casks was done at the 

 warehouse all the skins had been reshipped within live days after the 

 arrival of the vessel, and that since 1879 all skins have been shipped 

 by rail within three days after such arrival; that all sealskins received 

 by the Alaska Commercial Company from the Pribilof Islands were 

 consigned to Messrs. C. M. Lampson & Company, of London, and no 

 sales of said sealskins were made by the Alaska Commercial Company 

 during the term of its lease of the Pribilof Islands except through 

 the said firm of 0. M. Lampson & Company. 



Deponent further says: 



That he is familiar with every action and proceeding of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company since its organization ; that said 

 never engaged in P e- company never fitted out. employed, or m any manner 

 lagic sealing. wag c ]i re ctly or indirectly engaged in the fitting out or 



employment of any vessel or vessels for the purpose of netting or tak- 

 ing of full-grown or pup seals while the same were in the passes of 

 the Aleutian Islands or anywhere else, but that said company has 

 always purchased a certain number of gray pup- skins from the native 

 Aleut hunters, which in some years reached as many as 2,000; but 

 whether such gray pups, or any of them, were taken with nets, depo- 

 nent is unable to state; that if such netting of seals ever occurred it 

 took place without the knowledge or consent of the members of said 

 company. 



G. Niebaum. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of November, A. D. 

 1892. 

 [seal.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary Public. 



Deposition of Gustave Niebaum, vice-president of the Alaska Commercial 



Company. 



State of California, 



City and County of San Francisco, ss: 

 Captain Gustave Niebaum, of the city of San Francisco, in the State 

 of California, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 



I am the vice-president of the Alaska Commercial Company and have 



been a member of said company since its organization. 



Ex^-nonce. . j haye boen ftt all ^ mes thoroughly familiar with the 



actions of said company and with all the persons employed by said 



