570 TESTIMONY. 



Seventli. Deponent vsays that the preservation of the seal herds 

 found in the northern Pacific region is necessary to 

 sary"^^"*'"" "*'°*'^- the continuance of the fur-seal business, as those herds 

 are the principal sources of supply of seal skins left in 

 the world ; and from his general linowledge of tlie customs of tliat busi- 

 ness deponent feels justified in expressiug the opinion that stringent 

 regulations of some kind are necessary in order to prevent those herds 

 from disappearing like the herds which formerly existed in large num- 

 bers ofttlie South Pacific seas. Specifically what regulations are neces- 

 sary deponent does not feel himself in a position to state. 



Walter Martin. 



Sworn at No. 4 Lambeth Hill, in the city of London, England, this 

 23d day of April, 1892, before me. 



Francis W. Frigout, 

 Vice and Deputy Consul- General of ilie 

 United States of America at London, England. 



Dejjosition of Henry Poland, head of the firm of P. E. Poland & Son, 

 furriers, London. 



GENERAL SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. PELAGIC SEALING. 



Mr. Henry Poland, being duly sworn, doth depose and say: That he 

 is 40 years of ageandasubjectofherBritannicmajesty ; thathe isthehead 

 of the firm of P. E. Poland & Son doing buisness at 110 Queen Victoria 

 street, in the city of London, and has been engaged in that business 

 twenty-one years ; that the said firm of P. 11. Poland & Sou are doing 

 business as fur and skin merchants,. and have been engaged in that 

 business for over one hundred years, having been founded by depo- 

 nent's great-grandfather in the year 1785, and having been continued 

 without interru])tion since that date from father to son; that for many 

 years last past deponent's said firm have been in the habit of buying 

 large nuiiibers of fur-seal skins, in fact ever since skins of that charac- 

 ter have become an article of connnerce, both on their own account and 

 on commission for other persons resident in the IJnited States and 

 Canada and elsewhere; that by reason of having pur- 



xpenence. chased SO many skins deponent has a general and sub- 



stantial knowledge of the history of the fur-seal skin business, and ol 

 the character and kinds of fur-seal skins coming upon the London 

 market; that from about the year 1871) down to the 



Sources of snpplv. ,',. ,, • • i x- i i • • j. j.i 



present time the principal tur-seal skins coming to the 

 London market have been what are known as the Alaska catch, being 

 the skins of fur-seals killed upon the Pribilof Islands, in the Bering' Sea, 

 the Copper Islands catch being the skins of fur seals killed upon the 

 Kommandorski and Roben islands of Pussia, and what are known as 

 the ISIorthwest catch. Until within two or three years ago a very con- 

 siderable number of skins also arrived on the London market, amount- 

 ing perha])s to several thousand annually, which were kuown as 

 Japanese skins. 



