SEALSKIN INUaSTRY IN UNITED STATES. 557 



as tliey are on the Russian and Pribilof Islands, by prohibition from 

 the Ivilling of females and limiting the number of males killed in each 

 year. A statement of the seals killed on Lobos Island is hereto an- 

 nexed and marked Exhibit E, from which it a^^pears that there is a 

 regular annual supply obtained from that source, which shows no dimi- 

 nution. 



(F) There are also a certain number of skins sold in London, obtained 

 from rookeries at or near the Oajie of Good Hope, 

 the exact nuiaber of which deponent is not able to ^^cape of Good Hope 

 state, but which, he is informed, shows a steady yield. 



The statements marked A, B, C, D, and E, hereunto appended, have 

 been carefully prepared by me personally, and the 

 figures therein stated have been compiled by me from tip^^"''''® °^ miorma- 

 the several sale catalogues of G. M. Lampson & Co. 

 and others from my private books which I had kept during all the 

 years covered by the statements, and I am sure that those statements 

 are substantially accurate and truly state the respective numbers of 

 the skins caught and sold which they purport to state. 



Third. The great majority of the skins sold from the Northwest catch 

 are the skins of female seals. Deponent is not able to state exactly 

 what proportion of such skins are the skins of females, but estimates it 

 to be at least 85 per cent, and the skins of females are 

 readily distinguishable from those of the males by rea- ^fatSiftemS^" 

 son of the fact that on the breast and on the belly of the 

 bearing female there is comparatively little fur, whereas on the skins 

 of the male seals the fur is evenly distributed; and also by reason of 

 the fact that the female seal has a narrow head and the male seal a 

 broad head and neck; and the skins of this catch are also distinguish- 

 able from the "Alaska" and "Copper" catch by reason difference between 

 of the fact that the seals are killed by bullets or buck- North wesrakfu rand 

 shot, or speared, and not, as on the Pribilof and Com- Alaska and copper. 

 mander Islands, by clubs. Marks of such bullets or buckshot or spears 

 are clearly discernible in the skins, and there is a marked difference in 

 the commercial value of the female skins and of the male skins. This 

 fact, that the Northwest skins are so largely the skins of females, is 

 further evidenced by the fact that in many of tlie early sales of such 

 skins they are classified in deponent's books as the skins of "females." 



Fourth. Deponent further says that in his judgment the absolute 

 prohibition of pelagic sealing, 1 e., the killing of seals 

 in the open sea, whether in the North Pacific or the Be ^a^y."'''''"''*'' "^'"''" 

 ring Sea is necessary to the preservation of the seal 

 herds now surviving, by reason of the fact that most of the females so 

 killed are heavy with young, and that necessarily the increase of the 

 species is diminished by their killing. And further, from the fact that 

 a large luimber of females are killed in the Bering Sea while on the 

 search for food after the birth of their young, and that in consequence 

 thereof the pups die for want of nourishment. Deponent has no per- 

 sonal ki owledge of the truth of this statement, but he has information 

 in resi)ect of the same from persons who have been on the Pribilof Is- 

 lands, and he believes the same to be true. Deponent further says that 

 this opinion is based upon the assumption that the i:)resent restriction 

 imposed by Russia and the United States on the killing of seals in their 

 respective islands are to be maintained, otherwise it would be neces- 

 sary to impose such restrictions as well as to iHohibit pelagic sealing in 

 order to preserve the herds. 



