APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 871 



naturally greater facilities exist for flaying and curing tlian upon the 

 small vessels engaged in catching the north-west seals. 



In the ordinary course of his business it is not necessary for him to 

 distinguish the sexes of the skins, and that, in his judgment, it would 

 be difficult so to do until after the skins come from the hands of the 

 dressers. 



That last year nearly the whole of the skins of the north-west catch 

 were sold through deponent's firm, being consigned to his said firm 

 directly by the owners of the schooners engaged in the business from 

 Victoria. The total number of skins of the last year's catch so con- 

 signed to deponent's firm, and sold through itj is about 50,000. 

 235 Last year was the largest collection of skins which passed 

 through the hands of deponent's firm, but prior to last year a 

 smaller number of the north-west skins had been sold through his 

 firm. 



That the business of dealing in fur seal-skin has become an impor- 

 tant and well-established industry in the City of London. That the 

 manner in which the business is done is, briefly, as follows: 



The skins are consigned to deponent's firm and others, the principal 

 of which is the firm of C. M. Larapson and Co., and are catalogued and 

 sold at two principal sales in each year in the months of January and 

 October, and practically all these sales are attended either by depo- 

 nent's firm or by the firm of Goades, Eigg, and Co. 



That the last-mentioned firm sell all the skins consigned to 0. M. 

 Lamjison and Co. At the sale the principal firms and dealers from all 

 the markets of the world are i)resent, either in person or by their 

 agents; sales are made to them, and being thus purchased the skins 

 are then transferred to dressers and dyers, the principal of whom are 

 the firms of 0. W". Martin and Sons, George Rice, and George Smith. 



That after being dressed and dyed, the skins pass into the hands of 

 manufacturers of garments made from skins, and from them again into 

 the hands of, for the most part, dressers and retail merchants. 



(Signed) H. Moxon. 



This is the Exhibit marked (A), referred to in the declaration of 

 Henry Moxon, declared before me, this 30th day of November, 1892. 



(Signed) Henry B. Priest, 



A Commissioner for Oaths, 



No. 7 

 Declaration of Mr. Thomas Henry Ince. 



I, Thomas Henry Ince, of No. 150, Oxford Street, in the county of 

 London, furrier, solemnly and sincerely declare as follows: 



1. I carry on business under the name of James Ince. My business, 

 which I inherited from my father, James Ince, has been established 

 upwards of eighty years. I have been myself in the business for forty 

 years. I am a wholesale and retail furrier. I am my own merchant, 

 and I do quite as much wholesale business as retail. 



2. In the course of my business I have annually to i)urchase a con- 

 siderable number of seal-skins, amounting on an average about 2,000 

 a-year, and I am therefore familiar with the London seal-skin market. 

 I buy the skins in their wet or salted state. I then have them dressed, 

 dyed, and finished, and eventually have them worked up in my own 

 workshops, and dispose of them to the public and trade. 



