,05 b • TESTIMONY. 



SO canglit have boon sold by doxioiieut's firm in tlie city of London, and 



the total number of such "Copper" catch from the 

 i8mo\^92. "^' ^""" ye.ar 1872 to 1892 appears upon the statement which is 



hereto annexed and marked Exhibit B, showing the 

 total so sold diu'ing such years of 708,096 skins. 

 The "Northwest" catch, being the skins of seals caught in the open 

 Northwest skins ^^^ either of the Pacific Ocean or of the Bering Sea. 



These skins were originally caught exclusively by the 

 Indians and by residents of the colony of Victoria and along the 

 coast of the British possessions. A statement of the total number of 



the catch from the year 1868 to 1884, inclusive, is ap- 

 ismfiSf. °^' *"■■"" pended hereto and marked Exhibit C, showing a total 



of 153,348. That statement is divided into three heads : 

 First, the salted "Northwest" coast skins; second, the dried "North- 

 west" coast skins, both of which were mainly sold through deponent's 

 firm in London; and third, salted "Northwest" coast skins, dressed 

 and dyed in London, but not sold there. It will be noticed that in the 

 years 1871 and 1872 an unusually large proportion of dried skins aj)- 

 pear to have been marketed. Tliose skins were purchased in this year 

 from the Eussian American Company, which was the lessee of the 

 Russian Government on the Pribilof Islands prior to the cession of Rus- 

 sian America to the United States. Those skins had been accumulated 

 by the Russian Company and sold when the Americans took posses- 

 sion. For the years 1871 and 1872, therefore, the surplus skins over 

 the average for the other years should be rejected in a computation of 

 the general average of seals killed during the years from 1868 to 1884, 

 inclusive. 



From the year 1885 to the year 1891 the number of skins included in 



the "Northwest" catch enormously increased, and a 

 i885'to 1891. *^^' ^^""^ statement of such skins is hereto annexed and marked 



Exhibit D, showing a total of 331,962, and is divided, 

 like the statement marked Exhibit C, into three heads: The salted 

 Northwest coast skins, the dry Northwest coast skins, and the salted 

 skins dressed and dyed in London, but not sold there. The majority 

 of the first two classes were, as in the previous case, sold by dex)onent's 

 firm. The great majority of these skin s appearing in the last-mentioned 

 statement are the skins caught by vessels sent out from the Canadian 

 Provinces; many also by vessels sent out from San Francisco, Port 

 Townsend, and Seattle; and a few from vessels sent out from Yokohama; 

 the majority, however, are supposed to have been caught by vessels 

 sent out from British harbors. A large number of the skins included 

 ill Exhibit D have been consigned to C. i\l. Lampson & Co., by the firm 

 or Herman Liebes & Co., of San Francisco. In estimating the total 

 number of the "northwest" catch it should also be mentioned that some- 

 thing like 30,000 skins belonging to that catch have been dressed and 

 dyed in the United States, which have not gone to London at all. 

 (E) Besides the "Alaska," " Copper," and "Northwest" skins there 

 Lobos Island skins ^^^ ^^^^ ^ Certain number of skhis arriving in London, 



known as the Lobos Island skins, although the same are 

 not handled by the firm of C. M. Lampson & Co. ; but "the total num- 

 ber of which, from the year 1872 to the year 1891, inclu- 

 i8f2toi89T. °*^' ^"""^ ^i^'^' is, as appears from the catalogues of sales, 247,777. 



The Lobos Island skins are those of seals killed on the 

 Lobos Island, belonging to the Republic of Uruguay; and deponent 

 is informed and believes that there is no open sea sealing in the 

 vicinity of such island, and that the animals are protected on the island 



