SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 553 



sliillings apiece. The commissions on the selh'ngf of the ft'oods inchid- 

 iiig' wiivehousiiig, insurance, and so forth, deponent believes amount to 

 6 per cent of the price obtained. That the amount paid for dressing, 

 dyeing, and machining each skin averages say 16 shillings. These pro- 

 cesses take together about four or five months. The next expenditure 

 upon the skin is, say, an average of five shillings at least for each skin 

 for cutting up, and that thereafter there will be an average of at least 

 from 3 shillings to 4 shillings per skin expended in quilting, lining, and 

 making up the jackets or other garments, showing a total expenditure 

 upon each skin for labor alone, in the city of London, of 25 shillings 

 in addition to the percentage paid for brokerage, before the processes of 

 manufacture began, and the most of this money is actually paid out in 

 wages. 



Deponent says, that in the above estimates he has given the bottom 

 figures and that the amount actually exi)ended upon the skins in the 

 city of London undoubtedly averages a larger sum. This would make 

 on an average of 200,000 skins a year, which is not excessive, a total 

 expenditure annually in the city of London of £250,000, minus the 

 amounts paid for cutting and making up in respect to the skins sent 

 to the United States. 



Deponent further says that the preservation of the seal herds and 

 the continued supj)ly of fur-seal skins, which, fur- 

 thermore, it is important should be constant and regu- ahminteifnecllatfy 

 lar in supply, is absolutely necessary to the mainte- 

 nance of this industry. Deponent says that the reason for this opinion 

 is shown in the history of last season's business. For instance, at the 

 October sale the prices of skins were very high, as a short supply was 

 expected. The skins purchased at that sale were then put into the 

 hands of the dressers and dyers, where they would be retained, as 

 above stated, in process of treatment four or five months. During this 

 interval it appeared that instead of there being a short supply the 

 poaching vessels had caught a large number of skins, 50,000 or 60,000, 

 which being unexpectedly plumped on the market, brought the price 

 down so that there was a loss of perhaps 25 shillings per skin on the 

 skins bought at the October sales; and deponent further says that it is 

 of course obvious that the business can not be maintained unless the 

 herds are preserved from the destruction which has overtaken the South 

 Sea herds, which formerly existed in such large numbers, and so im- 

 portant has the sealskin business become that if the herds were exter- 

 minated deponent says it would hardly be worth while to remain in the 

 fur business. 



Deponent says while he does not wish to express any opinion upon the 

 matters which are in controversy, that nevertheless, looking at the ques- 

 tion of preserving the seals from a natural -history point of view alone, and 

 having no regard whatever to the rights of any individuals or nations,but 

 looking at the matter simply from the point of view of how best to preserve 

 the seals, he has no hesitation in saying that the best 

 Avay to accomplish that object would be to prohibit ab- sary."**'''""" ^eces- 

 solutely the killing of all seals except upon the islands, 

 and, furthermore to limit the killing of seals on the islands to the male 

 species at particular times, and to limit the numbers of the males to be 

 so killed. If, however, the rights of individuals are to be considered, 

 and sealing in the open sea is to be allowed, then deponent thinks that 

 the number of vessels to be sent out by each country ought to be lim- 

 ited, and the number of seals which may be caught by each vessel 

 should be specified. 



