548 TESTIMONY. 



evident that if these animals are followed into the Bering Sea and 

 hunted down in a calm sea in the quietest months of the year a practi- 

 cally unlimited (juantity of females might be taken, and, as you say, it 

 would be only a few years till the Alaska seal was a thing of the past. 

 Yours, very truly, 



C. M. Lampson & Co. 

 C. A. Williams, Esq., 



Mew London. 



Deposition of Josei)li B. Williams^ furrier, New TorJc. 



general sealskin industiiy. 



State of New York, 



City and County of New York, ss : 

 Joseph D, Williams, being duly sworn, says: That he is 74 years of 

 age, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the 

 State of New York; that he has been engaged in the 

 Experience. busiucss of dressing and dyeing fur-seal skins contin- 



uously for fifteen years last past, and prior to that time 

 at intervals during the whole time he has been engaged in business, 

 during a period of some fifty-odd years, he has dressed and dyed seal 

 skins, and that his father was engaged in the same business before 

 him; that for the last fifteen years he has had consigned to him by fur 

 dealers from 8,000 to 10,000 seal skins annually, for the purpose of dress- 

 , ing and dyeing the same; that about 50 per cent of the 



Fifty per cent of,. •-,■,-,• i> ti • i 



skins. skms SO received by him came from London m casks 



marked as they are catalogued by C. M. Lampson & 



Co., and are the skins bekmging to what is known as 

 "Northwest catch." ^^^ "Northwcst catcli ;" and deponent is informed and 

 believes that the Northwest catch, as the term is used in the trade, 

 means the skins of seals caught in the open sea and not upon the 

 islands. Another reason for this belief is the fiict that all of the skins 

 of the Northwest catch contain marks showing that the animal has been 

 killed by bullets or buckshot, the skins being pierced by the shot, 

 whereas the skins killed on the American and Russian islands are 

 killed on land by clubs and are not pierced. 

 That of the skins of the Northwest catch coming into his hands for 



treatment probably all are the skins of the female 

 feSel!" seal, and that the same can be distinguished from the 



skins of the male seal by reason of the breasts and of 

 tiSshed. ^"^ ^^^' the thinness of the fur around the same and upon the 



belly, most of the female seals being killed while they 

 are bearing their young, and the fur therefore being stretched and 

 thinner over that part of the body; and also for the further reason 

 that the head of the female seal is much narrower than that of the 

 male seal, and that this point of difierence is obvious in the skins of 

 the two classes. That of the total number of the skins received by kim 



about 25 per cent are the skins of the "Alaska" and 



"Alaska" and " CoppcT " catch. That all the sldus of the "Alaska " 



ne^riTan"ufaie*8!'''^^ catch are male seals, and an overwhelming propor- 



tion of the " Copper " catch are likewise male skins. 

 That the remainder of the skins sent to deponent for dressing and dye- 



