SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES. 527 



The foregoing statement is the one referred to in the annexed affida- 

 vits of Henry Tread well, E. R, McOarty, Xo. 52, notary public; Hugo 

 Jaekel, Frederick C. Scliniidt, notary public; Franklin L. Gunther, 

 J)an'l L. Tower, notary public; Joseph [Samuel] Ullmann, Altred 

 Harris, 0. Francis Bates, George Kissinger, jr., notary public; E. J. 

 Stake, S. Steinheimer, notary public, I^Tew York. 



T)e2)ositi()n of Samuel Ullmann, memher of the firm of Joseph Ullmann^ 



furrier. 



general sealskin industry. 



State of ]N"ew York, 



Gitij and County of New Yorlc, ss: 



Samuel Ullmann, being duly sworn, says: I am 34 years of 

 age, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city 

 of New York. The house of Joseph Ullmann, in which I am a part- 

 ner, began business at St. Paul, in the State of Minnesota, in 1854. 

 It has always been engaged in the wholesale fur business, and since 

 the time when fur-seal skins first became an important article of 

 commerce in this country it has dealt in large numbers of them. 

 1 have personally handled seal skins for the last twelve or thir- 

 teen years, and am familiar with the whole seal-skin 

 trade of this country. The house of Joseph UU- ^penence. 

 mann now does business at St. Paul, Leipzig, London, and Few 

 York. The books of the New York house show the following pur- 

 chases of dressed and dyed Alaska fur-seal skins in London between 

 tlie vears 1885 and 1891. All of these purchases were 

 brought to this country: 1885, 11,818 out of a total siduT'fmportLi'^^b? 

 Alaska catch of about 100,000; 1886, 12,646 out of a a™ from isss to 

 total Alaska catch of about 100,000; 1887, 25,344 out 

 of a total Alaska catch of about 100,000 ; 1888, 17,900 out of a total 

 Alaska catch of about 100,000; 1889, 14,160 out of a total Alaska 

 catch of about 100,000; 1890, 3,509 out of a total Alaska catch of 

 about 21,000; 1891, 3,240 out of a total Alaska catch of about 13,000. 



I have signed the name of Joseph Ullmann to the an- corroborates 

 uexed statement, which I have carefully considered, cecifn|°8tattment^ el- 

 and to the best of my information and belief this state- g^f^^ff *° ^^^ """^ 

 ment is correct, except that I know nothing about the 

 silk consumed. I regard the figures given therein as conservative. 



I am of the opinion that the nations interested should arrive at some 

 agreement bv which the killing of seals in the water 

 will be stopped. It is true that the Northwest Caast shouWbistopped.''^ 

 catches have of late years placed upon the market a 

 certain number of good skins which could be purchased at prices far 

 below those for which skins of the Alaska catch were sold. But I 

 realize that this can not continue to be the case, for it is a matter of 

 common knowledge amongst furriers that these North- Northwest catch 

 west Coast catches are composed mainly of the skins of comrosed mairiy of 

 female animals, and I understand that the killing of fe- ^''™"^*'^- 

 male seals is rapidly impairing the value of the herd. Then, too, dur- 

 ing the last few years buying fur-seal skins has be- 

 come a business of a very specnlative character, be- tor orthe*busi^^s8?*^ 

 cause it is impossible now to calculate at what times and 



