INVESTIGATION OF THE FUK-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 17 



Mr. Elliott. You are entirely correct, Mr. Chairman, in your 

 conclusions. It has been their regular practice; and, I give all the 

 details of it in this report. 



Mr. McGuire. Have you any authority for that except this docu- 

 ment ? Is there any evidence or testimony given by anybody under 

 oath as to that ? 



The Chairman. I only meant to state in a general way what I had 

 investigated and what was the result of my looking into the matter. 

 It appears that these skins were reported by weight, but when, for 

 instance, two skins were received in London, each weighing, say, 

 6 pounds and 8 ounces, according to the reports made to the bureau, 

 yet, when the blubber was scraped off of them in London 



Mr. Elliott (interposing). When they put the measurements on, 

 Mr. Chairman. They put the measurements right on. 



The Chairman. When they get rid of the blubber, they will find 

 that one is a small skin and the other is a large skin, notwithstanding 

 the fact that their weights were reported as the same. 



Mr. McGuire. The reason I asked the question was that my recol- 

 lection of the testimony of the witnesses is different. Cf course I 

 have made no investigation such as you have. The testimony was 

 to the effect that they reported to the department by weight and that 

 the parties to whom the Government sold the skins in England bought 

 them by measurement ? 



The Chairman. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. And the tables of the measurements are on file here. 



The Chairman. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. And the dispute has been as to the measurements; 

 that is, the contention has been made that a skin might vary from 

 two-eighths to five-eighths of an inch in size, depending upon where 

 the skin was cut from behind or from the head and tail. I think they 

 said there was a variation of from two-eighths to five-eighths of an 

 inch, which showed that it was unsafe to go by measurement. As I 

 understood the testimony here, that is where all of this difficulty 

 came from. Witnesses have differed, and I think they differed from 

 you on the question of the effect produced on the skins after they 

 had been salted, some contending that salt would take out the juices 

 and make the skins fighter and others contending that the effect of 

 salt was to make the skins heavier; that is, that they could not 

 extract it 



Mr. Watkins (interposing). Would not the application of salt add 

 to the weight of a skin ? 



Mr. McGuire. Yes, sir; but the question was whether, after 

 shaking and extracting the salt from the skins, it did not eliminate 

 juices from the blubber, and thus make the skin lighter. All that 

 is in the evidence, and there was a contention about it, the doctor 

 here contending that the salt could not be extracted and that you 

 could not take it out, while others, testifying from actual experience 

 in the matter, contended that the salt causes the juices to exude 

 from the skins, thus making them lighter. You will find that all 

 through the evidence. Is that your recollection, Mr. Chairman ? 



The Chairman. My recollection of the evidence is that salting 

 makes very little difference one way or the other. 



Mr. McGuire. Makes very little difference? 



53490—14 2 



