ESTIMONY RELATING TO THE GENERAL SEALSKIN INDUS- 

 TRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



DeiJosiilon of 11. S. Beringtoii, head of the firm of Bevlngion & Morris, 

 furriers, London. 



GENERAL SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 



H. S. Beviiigton,M. A., beiug duly sworn, dotli depose and say: Tliat 

 lie is 40 years of age and a subject of Her Britannic 

 Majesty, and is the head of the firm of Bevington & Experience. 

 Morris, doing business as fur merchants and manufac- 

 turers, at 28 Cannon street, in the city of London. That his said firm 

 was founded in the year 1726 and has been continued in the same 

 family during tlie Avhole of these years down to the inesent time, and 

 has been engaged during the whole of the period since 1726 in the 

 same business, dealing in furs and leather. That deponent has been 

 in the business ever since the year 1873. During the whole of the 

 period since that date his said firm have been in the habit of buying 

 fur-seal skins, and he knows from his general knowledge of the buvsiness 

 that prior to that time they were in the habit of buying seal skins ever 

 since they became an article of commerce. That deponent has, per- 

 sonally, handled many thousands of skins of the fur-seal, and by 

 reason of that fact and of his experience in his business has a general 

 knowledge of the history of the fur-seal skin business, and a general 

 and precise knowledge of the several kinds of skins which now, and 

 for many years last past, have come upon the London market. That 

 since deponent has been in business skins coming upon the London 

 market have been principally divided into three classes, 

 known as the Alaska catch, the CoiHjer catch, and the Alaska, copper, and 



-Tvy ,1 , , 1 o 11 T 1 1 1 Northwest skins, cut- 



Northwest catch. . Small supplies have also been re- lerences between. 

 ceived from the Southern Sea, the Lobos Islands, Falk- 

 land Islands, and Cape Horn, but the skins arriving from these last 

 mentioned localities make no figure in the market. That what is known 

 as the Alaska catch consist of skins of seals which are killed upon the 

 Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, and the Copper catch of skins, 

 which are killed upon the Copper and Bering Islands, in E-ussian 

 waters. 



Tliat the Northwest skins consist of skins taken from animals which are 

 caught in the open Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia or in 

 the Bering Sea. That the differences between the three several sorts of 

 skins last mentioned are so marked as to enable any j)ersou skilled in 

 the business, or accustomed to handle the same, to readily distinguish 

 the skins of one catch from those of another, especially in bulk, and it 

 is the fact that wlien they reach the market the skins of each class come 

 separately and are not found mingled with those belonging to the other 



551 



