30 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUK-SEAL INDUSTKY OF ALASKA. 



This orderly "loading" of every small skin and "unloading" of 

 every large skin, so as to make them weigh all as large skins, is a 

 mere accident, is it? No. 1 (The details of this exposure of that 

 "loading" of the "eyeplaster" 30-34 inch skins, so as to make them 

 weigh into the real weights of the 2 and 3 year old or "prime " skins, 

 are furnished in full by the Exhibit F, which follows :) 



This public measurement and weighing of those salted skins also 

 shows clearly and indisputably that the British and American con- 

 tention that "salting increases the weight of the 'green' or fresh- 

 taken skins' " is right; that it does not send them lighter, when so 

 salted, to London than when "green" and first put into salt; and 

 still further, this record as put out in Exhibit F, posted, fully bears 

 out the following testimony as given in hearing No. 1, page 14, House 

 Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor, May 31, 1911: 



Mr. Elliott. I will go further and submit, as Exhibit J, this paper. I won't read 

 all of this in regard to the British authority on Alaskan fur-seal classification and 

 what he says as compared with our tables, but I will read one word from a chief Brit- 

 ish authority in an official letter written December 21, 1892, by Sir Curtis Lampson's 

 sons to the British commissioners, Sir George Baden-Powell and Dr. George M. Daw- 

 son. Sir Curtis Lampson says: 



We are unable to answer your inquiry as to in what class in the sales catalogue 

 would be placed a skin classified on the islands as, say, a 7-pound skin, as we do not 

 know whether the classification you mention refers to the skins as taken from the 

 animals, or after they have been cured and salted ready for shipment. The process 

 of curing and salting must of necessity add to the weight. (See p. 916; Proceedings 

 of the Tribunal of Arbitration, vol. 8, Paris, 1893.) 



Now, let me tell you that the salt added in curing a 4J-pound "green" yearling skin 

 will increase its weight to 5 pounds, or even to 5£ pounds, according to the amount of 

 salt used. 



Now, you will understand why a "5-pound" skin can not be taken on the islands 

 and honestly, truthfully certified to Mr. Xagel's books as a skin "not under 2 years of 

 age," because a 2-year-old skin weighs, with the same treatment that this skin has 

 received, a minimum of 6 pounds. A small "runt" 2 years old may weigh 5? pounds. 

 I have seen "runts" that would not weigh 5 pounds; but we are not dealing with ex- 

 ceptions. We are dealing with broad, square averages. I am willing to admit that a 

 few exceptions can be found. I am willing to admit that a man might knock down 

 a "long" yearling here and there; but when he deliberately says to Mr. Nagel that a 

 5-pound skin is a 2-year-old seal, I will take him to the seals themselves, and they 

 will confound him; and you gentlemen can easily go with me. I would like to submit 

 this as an exhibit. 



Mr. McGilliclddy. Professor, these classifications here are before they are salted? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; they are "green" skins. 



Mr. McGillicuddy. Just as they are taken from the body? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; and the London classifications are of salted skins. 



i The sworn statements of United States Commissioner of Fisheries Bowers and Chief Special Agent 

 Lembkey, as below, that these "loaded" skins are classified and sold by weight (which are and were made 

 to deceive the committee), to wit: 



Mr. Lembkey. These skins which were sent to London during the years 1909 and 1910 were weighed 

 bv the factors after their arrival in London and the weights found to correspond with those taken on the 

 island. As this factor, Lampson & Co., is essentially a disinterested person, being concerned not the least 

 with the question of weights or regulations, but wholly with the sale of the skins and the payments there- 

 for, their verification of these weights may be taken as conclusive of their accuracy. 



So far, therefore, as concerns compliance" with the regulations and the law in the killing of male seals, no 

 malfeasance can be proven, because not only the records of the department but the weights of the same 

 skins in London, taken by an independent and responsible body of experts, prove that the limits of weight 

 laid down by the instructions of the department have been complied with as closely as it is possible for 

 human agency to do so. The weights of skins taken on the islands show this, and furthermore these 

 weights have been verified in London by an independent and responsible body of men. (Hearing No. 9. 

 pp. S74-S7S, Apr. 13, 191S, House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor.) 



Mr. Patton. You mean it is a report that is sworn to by the people who do the selling in London? 



Mr. Bowers. No, sir; it is the classification of the London merchants who sell the skins for the United 

 States Government. 



Mr. Patton. And thev pay on that weight? 



Mr. Bowers. Thev sell on those weights. Their classification is made on those weights. 



Mr. Elliott. Rigtit there I want to interpose the statement that they do not weigh those skins to classify 

 them. They measure them. (Hearing No. 6, p. £91, July 27, 1911, House Committee on Expenditures in 

 the Department of Commerce and Labor.) 



