SEALSKIN INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 581 



quite as important as the shape is that the far upon Copper Island 

 skins is considerably shorter on the flanks and towards the tail than is 

 the far of the Alaska skins. All of these differences are so marked, as 

 I have before stated, as to enable any expert, or one familiar with the 

 handling of skins, to readily distinguish Copper from Alaska skins, or 

 vice versa, but it is true in the case of very young animals the differ- 

 ences are much less marked than in the case of the adult animal. We 

 receive practically no skins of very young animals from Alaska, but we 

 do receive at times a certain number of the skins of the young animals 

 from Copper. All the skins of both the Copper and Alaska catches 

 aie the skins of the male animals. 



Seventh. The skins of the Northwest catch are in turn readily dis- 

 tinguishable from the skins of the Alaska as well as 

 the Copper catch. The differences which 1 have enu- ^"'•''^^^^* «^'°'- 

 merated between the Copper and Alaska skins are accentuated in dis- 

 tinguishing the skins of the Northwest catch from the skins of the 

 Copper catches, and we use a separate set of frames or patt(ums in our 

 business for the Northwest skins from what we use for the Copper or 

 Alaska skins. Among what are classed by us as Northwest skins are 

 included what are sometimes called Japanese skins, which are the 

 skins of seals killed on the northern Asiatic coasts. These skins come 

 u]ion the market generally by way of Japan, but sometimes by way 

 of San Francisco or Victoria. 



The number of Japanese skins averages, deponent should say, about 

 5,000 a year, although there is a good deal of fluctua- 



. / • "ii ' x-j_ /• J T T j_ Japanese skms. 



tion m the quantity from year to year, and deponent 

 says that, like the other skins included in the Northwest catch, they 

 are principally the skins of ll^niale seals, not easily distinguishable 

 from the skins taken from the herds frequenting the eastern jiart of 

 tiie Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, except by reason of their being prin- 

 cipally speared instead of shot. 



The most essential difference between the Northwest skins, and the 

 Alaska and Cojjper catches is that the Northwest Northwest skins 

 skins, so far as they are skins of adult seals, are almost females, and riddled 

 exclusively the skins of female seals, and are nearly ^'^^^ ^''''*- 

 always pierced with shot, bullet, or sjiear holes. 



The skins of the adult female seal may be as readily distinguish- 

 able from the skins of the adult male as the skins of the different sexes 

 of other animals, that practically the whole of the adult Northwest 

 catch seals were the skins of female seals, but the skins of the younger 

 animals included within this Northwest catch, of which w^e have at 

 times a considerable number, are much more difificult to separate into 

 male and female skins, and I am not prepared to say that I could dis- 

 tinguish the male from the female skins of young animals. 



A certain percentage of young animals is found among the consign- 

 ments received by us at the beginning of each season, which we under- 

 struid and are informed are the skins of seals caught in the Pacific 

 Ocean off" the west coast of America, but a much smaller percentage of 

 such small skins is found among the consignments later in the sea- 

 son, which we are informed are of seals caught in the Bering Sea. 



I liave been told that it is easier to catch the female seal at sea than 

 it is to catch the male seal, but I have no personal knowledge of that 

 l)oint. I suppose, however, that there must be some foundation for the 

 statement by reason of the fact that so small a proportion of male adult 

 seals are included in what is called the Northwest catch. 



