SEALSKIN rNDTJSTRY IN UNITED STATES. 515 



D€])osiUon of Isaac Liebes, furrier, San Francisco. 



general sealskin industry. 



State of California, 



City and Gonnty of San Francisco, ss: 



Isaac Liebes, being duly sworn, deposes and says: I reside at San 

 Francisco, iji the State of California. I am by occu- 

 pation a fur mercbant, and I have been so engaged xpenence. 

 permanently for the last twenty-three years, during which time I have 

 been constantly handling large quantities of raw fur-seal skins; in fact 

 more so than any other individual in the United States or Canada. 

 I claim to be thoroughly conversant with all kinds of seal skins, and 

 from all the difterent locations, and can readily distinguish one from 

 the other. I am also thoroughly familiar with their mode of capture, 

 handling, x^acking, etc.; also when the skin is dressed, dyed, and man- 

 ufactured. 



Some eighteen years ago several thousand seals were taken on the 

 Guadelupe Islands off the coast of Mexico, but their ^ ^ 

 hunting being unrestricted, they were practically exter- seais'^praJticau/ "ex^ 

 minated inside of three years. So much so that a ves- terminated- 

 sel visiting these islands some four months ago was only able to secure 

 3 fur seals, and the captain states that he does not think that even 

 these would have been obtained had it not been for the large number 

 of caves on that particular island, which probably gave shelter to a 

 few of the animals while the extermination was being practiced. 



The fur-seal belonging to this island does not migrate, the climate 

 being sufficiently uniform all the year round to make ^.^ ^ , 

 it unnecessary for them to do so. Their fur is of a dif- not migrate)! ^^ °^^ 

 ferent nature from the northwest skins, being much 

 shorter and of a darker color. 



The Gallapagos Island rookery was much larger than 

 the Guadelupe, and the animals have also become neariyTxtmct. ^^* ^ 

 nearly extinct there by reason of unrestricted hunting. 



Several vessels have visited the rookeries in the vicinity of Cape 

 Horn and the Straits of Magellan, and the last vessel n r 

 returned from the latter place only last week with a strains of°Mageiian 

 catch of twenty-six skins, representing a seven months' popu'^ated ^^^'^^^ ^^ 

 cruise. 



Heretofore some expeditions went from this port to the Shetland Is- 

 lands, but their catches were so small that in the last few ,. ,, c.,, , ^ -r 



' . ,. , , -, • .1 ,-••.•, 1 South Shetland Is 



years no hunting has been done in that vicinity, it be- lands seal extinct. 

 ing understood that the animal is extinct there. 



Isaac Liebes. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 3d day of May, A. D. 1892. 

 [l. s.] Clement Bennett, 



Notary FiiMic. 



