620 TESTIMONY. 



otiier skins. While preparing skins for dressing it is necessary to 

 "work" them and open the pores in order to "leather" them, and it is 

 during- this process that I have noticed the fact that Copper skins are 

 much less porous than the others. The pelt being harder and stiffer 

 and the hair more brittle we can hardly ever unhair a Copper skin as 

 satisfactorily as we can the other skins. 



I was sent to New York from Albany a few days ago by Mr. George 

 H. Treadwell, with instructions to go through a certain lot of seal skins, 

 which I understand he had recently bought in Victoria, and to find out 

 how many of these skins were taken jrom female animals. I have 

 spent four days in doing this, working about seven hours a day. 



There were several men who unpacked the skins and laid them before 

 me, so that all of my time was spent in examining the 

 (p^S'^""^*'''*''^ individual skins. The lot contained 3,550 skins. I 

 found that, with the possible exception of two dried 

 ones, they were taken from animals this year; they were a part of what 

 is known as the spring catch. I know this to be the case by the fresh 

 appearance of the blubber and of the skin as a whole. This aflbrds a 

 sure way of telling whether the skin has lain in salt all winter or whether 

 it has been recently salted. 1 personally inspected each one of these 

 skins by itself and kept an accurate record of the result. I divided the 

 skins according to the three following classes: Males, females, and 

 pups. In the class of pups I placed only the skins of animals less than 

 two years of age, but without reference to sex. 



I found in the lot 395 males, 2,1G7 females, and 988 pups. Leaving 

 out of account the pups, the percentage of females was 

 females!^ ■*''*"''''■ ''°* therefore about 82. 



The great majority of what I classed as male skins 

 were taken from animals less than 3 years of age. There was not a 

 single wig in the lot. On the other hand, nearly all of the female skins 

 were those of full-grown animals. On every skin which I classed among 

 the females I found teats, with bare spots about them on the fur side. 

 Such bare spots make it absolutely certain that these teats were those 

 of female skins. 



With regard to the pup skins, I will say that I did not undertake to 

 deterniine whether they were males or females, because they had a 

 thick coat of blubber, which, in the case of an animal less than 2 years 

 old, makes it very hard to tell the sex. 



All of the skins that I examined were either shot or speared, I did 



, „ , ^ , not keep a close count, but I am of the opinion that 



All shot or speared. , . _% i_ n _li i x 



about 75 per cent of them were shot. 



The result of the examination is about what I had expected it would 



Kiiie-tenths in ^^' Tlic flgurcs Only coufirm what I have always uo- 



"NorUiw°st'coast tlccd in a general way, that nearly uine-tei-ths of the 



LaicB^ usually le- gjjjug j^ j^jjy shipment of Northwcst coast skins are 



those of female animals. 



John J. Phelan. 



Sworn to before me this 18th day of June, 1892. 



[SEAi.J Willis Van Valkenbueg, 



Notary Puhlie. Khifjs Co., 



(Cert, filed iii N. Y. Co.) 



\ 



