SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 579 



(a) Wliat are known as the Alaska catcli, wliich are the skins of 

 male seals, killed upon St. Pauls and St. Georces Is- , , , 



1 1 • XT T-. • ei Alaska catch. 



lands in the Bering Sea. 



(6) The Copper catch which come from the seals killed upon the 

 Eussian islands of Copper and Bering, called the Com- ^^ ^^ 



mander Islands, which are located in the Eussian part °^^^' '^"*^' 

 of Bering- Sea, and also the Eobben Island, in the Okhotsk Sea, all which 

 are also the skins of male seals. 



(c) The Northwest catch. These are the skins of seals caught in the 

 ox)en North Pacific and Bering Sea. 



Fourth. The history of the sealskin fishery coming from the North- 

 ern Pacific regions is briefly as follows: 



In the early part of the century a Eussian company ^^^g"'*^*''"'^ Pacific 

 was formed which obtained from the Eussian Govern- 

 ment a right to kill seals, both upon the Commander and Pribilof 

 Islands, and in and around the Bering Sea. Up to the year 1853 

 about 20,000 skins were annually received in London from the com- 

 pany in the parchment state. By the parchment state, I mean skins 

 which were dried with the top or water hair left on. They were not, 

 in consequence of this method of preservation by drying, in a con- 

 dition to be unhaired, and they were after having been dressed in 

 London largely returned to the Eussian markets. 



In the year 1853 a trial shipment of salted skins was made to J. M. 

 Oppenheim & Co., in London, in pursuance, as deponent is informed, 

 of suggestions theretofore sent out by Messrs. Oppenheim that an at- 

 tempt should be made to salt the skins, but owing to the defective curing 

 this shipment was a failure. By degrees, however, the curing by means 

 of salting was improved, and in 1858 a contract was made by tlie Eus- 

 sian American Company to ship to Messrs. J. M. Oppenheim «& Co. an 

 annual supi)ly of from 10,000 to 12,000 skins delivered in London at 

 10s. 10(7. a skin. The quantity was increased in 1864 to 20,000 skins. 

 This contract remained in force until the Alaska Territory became the 

 property of the United States. In addition to the salted skins covered 

 by the contract last referred to, Messrs. Oppenheim & Co. also received 

 during these years about 10,000 skins from the Eussian American Com- 

 ])any x^er annum, which were dried in the old-fashioned way and not 

 salted. 



Deponent was connected with the firm of Messrs. J. M. Oppenheim 

 & Co., at New York and London, from the years 1860 to 1872 inclusive, 

 and his late partner, Mr. Martin, and himself ultimately succeeded to 

 the business of Messrs. J. M. Oppenheim, so far as it related to the 

 dressing and dyeing of seal skins. 



Upon the cession of Alaska to the United States there was indiscrim- 

 inate seal-killing upon the Pribilof Islands for the season of 1869-'70. 

 About the end of that season the Alaska Commercial 

 Company was formed at San Francisco, as deponent is Qo^^'''an'' commercial 

 informed, by citizens of the United States for the jiur- °^^^^'^- 

 pose of obtaining a lease from the United States of the right to kill 

 seals on the Pribilof Islands. 



This company did obtain from the United States an exclusive license 

 to kill seals on the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea for a period of 

 twenty years, under certain restrictions and regulations, which were, as 

 deponent is informed, set forth in the contract between that company 

 and the United States and in extracts of Congress in relation thereto, 

 and in regulations of the Treasury Department of the United States 

 made in pursuance of such extracts of Congress, 



