SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES. 533 



Victoria, British Columbi.a, with the exception of 499, which were pur- 

 chased in August, 1889, at San Francisco. Said books show the fol- 

 lowing assortment of portioDS of these skins, respectively, 1,835 and 

 1,070 in number, bought in May and June, 1888, together with the 

 prices paid for eaeh grade i)er skin: 



May, 7SSS. 



885 Beriii o- Sea seals $4. 57 



r 551 West Coast seals 5. 00 



I < 102 West Coast gray inii^s 1. 25 



[ 2 West Coast pups 2. 50 



f 252 West Coast seals 5. 00 



II { 41 West Coast gra j^ pups 1. 00 



1. 2 West Coast pups 2. 50 



June, ISSS. 



985 seal skins 4. 80 



18 seal skins 6.00 



100 gray pups 1. 25 



The skins marked I. formed one lot and represented the catch of a 

 single vessel. The same is true of the skins marked II. The percent- 

 age of gray pups contained in each of these lots, both of which were 

 bought on assortment, is not an unusual one. I have for many years 

 personally examined numerous shipments of Northwest Coast skins pur- 

 chased at Victoria. I have had such experience in handling fur-seal 

 skins as enables me, readily in most cases, but always 

 upon careful examination, to distinguish a female skin 8iJn''/jnosTiy^ilma"iel! 

 from a male skin, and I know it to be a fact that a very 

 large proportion of the skins in such shipments are those taken from 

 female animals. It is also true that a large number of skins in many of 

 these shipments are rendered almost valueless through 

 the numerous bullet holes which they contain. The ^'^i'^* '^''i^^- 

 house of Joseph Ullmann has, of late years, been one of the largest single 

 buyers of seal skins at Victoria, and my knowledge and experience 

 enable me to state that the prices paid by this house, as contained in 

 the annexed statement, represent fairly the value of such skins at Vic- 

 toria in each of the past five years. 



The rapid rise in the price paid for these skins in the years 1890 and 

 1891 can only be exi)lained through the sudden de- + ■ • 



crease, which in the years 1890 and 1891, took i^lace in ^^^^ nsempnc . 

 the annual catch on the Pribilof Islands. As soon as it became known 

 in the latter part of the summer of 1890 that only about 21,000 skins had 

 been taken that year on the Pribilof Islands, the price of skins rose 

 rapidly at Victoria; and reference to the annexed statement will show 

 that while in June we had bought at less than $7 a skin, in September 

 of the same year we purchased at $11 a skin, these September pur- 

 chases having been made at my direction immediately after the receipt 

 of the information concerning the reduced catch on the Pribilof Islands. 



Our Northwest Coast purchases of 1891 were made in open market. 

 The still higher prices paid in that year were directly due to the so- 

 called modvs Vivendi between the United States and Great Britain, 

 whereby the Pribilof catch was reduced to 7,500 skins, and sealing iu 

 the waters of Bering Sea entirely prohibited. 



Samuel Ullmann. 



Sworn to before me this 21st day of June, 1892. 



[seal.] George Kissinger, Jr., 



Notary ruhlic, City and County of New York, No. 99. 



