558 



TESTIMONY. 



Fiftli. Deponent is further of the opinion, from his long observation 



Alaska and Co er ^"^^ handling of tlie skins of the several catches that 



Bkins^caciiiy d^sUn- the sldns of the Alaska and Copper catches are readily 



guishabie. distinguishable from each other and that the herds 



from which such skins are obtained do not in fact intermingle with each 



„ , , . . , other, because the skins classihed under the head of 



Herds do not mmgle. /-, , i ^ ^ j ^i • j. 



Copper catch are not found among the consignments 

 of skins received from the Alaska catch, and vice versa. 



Sixth. Deponent further says that the distinction between the skins 

 of the several catches is so marked that in his judgment he would, for 

 instance, have had no difficulty had there been included among 100,000 

 skins in the Alaska catch, 1,000 skins of the Copper catch in distin- 

 guishing the 1,000 Copper skins and separating them from the 90,000 

 Alaska skins, or that any other person with equal or less experience in 

 the handling of skins would be equally able to distinguish them. And 

 in the same way deponent thinks from his own ])ersonal experience in 

 handling skins that he would have no difficulty whatever in separating 

 the skins of the North west catch from the skins of the Alaska catch by 

 reason of the fact that they ai-e the skins almost exclusively of females, 

 and also that the fur upon the bearing female seals is much thinner 

 than upon the skin of the male seals; the skin of the animal while 

 pregnant being extended and the fur extended over a large area. 

 Seventh. Deponent says that the number of persons who are employed 



in the handlhig, dressing, dyeing, cutting, and manufac- 

 du^try'in London. ^^ turiug of scal skiiis lu tlic city of London is about 



2,000, many of whom are skilled laborers earning as 

 high as £3 or £4 a week. Deponent estimates the amount paid in the 

 city of London for wages in the preparation of fur-seal skins for a 

 manufacturer's uses, and excluding the wages of manufacturers' em- 

 ployes, prior to the beginning of the pelagic sealing in 1885, at about 

 £100,000 per annum; and deponent furtlier says that in his judgment 



if this pelagic sealing be not prohibited, it is a ques- 

 th^eatened!*^*'"" "^' tiou of but a fcw ycars, probably not more than three, 



when the industry will cease, by reason of the exter- 

 mination of the seals in the same way in which they have been exter- 

 minated on the vSouth Sea Islands by reason of no restrictions being 

 imposed upon their killing. 



Alfred Frasek. 



Subscribed and sworn to before me this 1st day of April, 1892. 



Edwin T. Eice, 

 Notary Puhlic, New York County. 



Exhibit A. 



Salted Alaska fur-seal sold in London. 



*}fOO(lBlli«4. 



