FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 41 



but will Dot pull out. They will not haul out on the shore 5 they travel 

 600 or 800 miles aloug the British coast also and uever go ashore. 



By Mr. Jeffries : 



Q. Where do you live now ? — A. Pittsburgh. 



Q. What is your i)rofession? — A. I am editor of the Pittsburgh 

 Press. 



Q. You have written a book on Alaska ? — A. Yes, sir. 



Q. You were speakiug just now about the fashion in furs. I will ask 

 you whether seal skins are not exposed to the same mutation of fash- 

 ion ? — A. I think beaver sets at one time drove them out temporarily. 



Q. I ask you in reference to the Government managing this business, 

 and if the Government should undertake to keep up the fashion in seal 

 skin, what kind of business it would be for the Government "? — A. It 

 would have to subsidize a good female lobbyist. 1 suppose it would 

 have to put them on the best-looking female lobbyists they could get, 

 and let them prance around with them. 



Q. If nothing was done to stimulate the fashion v/ould not the prices 

 go down for seal skins? — A. I should suppose so. 



EiDLEY Park, Pa., August 15, 1888. 

 Dear Sir: At the next session of the committee I desire to place Mr. 

 C. F. Williams, of New London, Conn,, on the stand as a witness on be- 

 half of the Alaska Commercial Company, now under investigation by 

 your committee; also Mr. Thomas F. Morgan, of Groton, New London 

 County, Conn., and respectfully request that subpoenas may issue there- 

 for. 

 Respectfully submitted. 



N. S. Jeffries, 

 Attorney for Alaska Commercial Company. 

 Hon. Poindexter Dunn, 



Chairman, etc. 



TESTIMONY OF W. B. TAYLOR. 



Wednesday, August 28, 1888. 



W. B. Taylor, sworn and examined. 

 By the Chairman : 



Q. Mr. Taylor, were you an agent of the Treasury Department in 

 Alaska at any time ? And, if so, state when and where. — A. Yes, sir, I 

 was, in 1881. I went up in April and returned the latter \)aTt of Au- 

 gust of that year. 



Q. Well, sir, state as near as you can the location and condition of 

 the seal rookeries in the Bering Sea; what islands form it. — A. Well, 

 sir, there are four islands known as seal islands in Bering Sea: St. 

 George and St. Paul, located 200 miles or thereabouts, north, and Cop- 

 per and Bering Islands to the westward. 



Q. I mean the Bering Sea, in Alaska. — A. Well, then, St. George 

 and St. Paul, 200 miles north of Oonalaska, and about the same dis- 

 tance from the shore of the main-land. They are 40 miles apart. 



Q. Now, will you just make a general statement of your visit and 



