INVESTIGATION OF THE FUB-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 129 



There are 134 skins thus listed above, every one of which is not 

 to exceed 34 J inches in length. If those small skins had all been 

 properly skinned no one of them would weigh more than 5 pounds, 

 green, and three-fourths of them would not exceed 4| pounds. Yet, 

 we find that they all have been so loaded with blubber, when fresh 

 skinned, that with exception of 18 skins they are weighing as much 

 and even more than properly skinned 2-year-old seal's pelts do, and 

 many of them weigh into the 3-year-old class. 



As an instance of that falsification in those weights, above listed, 

 No. 4612 is 32 inches long, and is so blubbered that it weighs 8 

 pounds 4| ounces, and No. 4244 is also only 32 inches long, yet, not 

 blubbered, weighs but 4 pounds 3| ounces. 



These two yearling skins show beyond dispute that no classifica- 

 tion of these skins by weight can be sensibly or honestly made. 



The following letter show's the use made of these "loaded" skin 

 weights to deceive. Here they are quoted by the Secretary of Com- 

 merce and Labor as proof conclusive that no small seals or yearlings 

 have been taken by his agents: 



Department of Commerce and Labor, 



Washington, February 23, 1911. 

 Hon. Wesley L. Jones, 



United States Senate, Washington, D. C. 

 Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, 

 inclosing a communication to you from Henry W. Elliott relative to the sealskins 

 taken on the Pribilof Islands during the season of 1910. Mr. Elliott sends you a 

 memorandum giving certain data which he wishes you to believe were taken from the 

 Fur Trade Review for February, 1911, showing that 8,000 skins out of the 12,920 sold 

 in London in December last were taken in violation of the regulations of the 



department. 



******* 



For your information, there is appended hereto a statement received from Messrs.. 

 Lampson & Co., of London, dated November 9, 1910, by which firm these skins were 

 sold, showing the number, weights, and classification as to size of the skins to which 

 Elliott refers. These weights correspond with those taken on the islands before ship- 

 ment. The smallest weights reported by Lampson are 4 pounds 10 ounces, of which 

 weight there were only 11 skins. The next smallest weight thus reported was 4 pounds 

 15 ounces, or within 1 ounce of the size prescribed by the departmental regulations, 

 and these embrace only 81 skins; this immaterial underweight was due to the excessive 

 care of the natives in removing from the skins every vestige of fatty tissue for food. 

 There were thus only 92 skins which, while taken in conformity with law, were under 

 the limit of 5 pounds prescribed by the department, and of these between 70 and 75 

 per cent were taken for food purposes by the natives after the close of the regular 

 killing season. 



When the possibilities of error in judgment as to weight of pelts not yet removed from 

 the seals and of unavoidable accidents incident to the killing of thousands of animals 

 are considered, the wonder is that there are so few undersized animals killed. The 

 results indicate careful supervision by the agents and also accuracy on the part of the 

 clubbers. 



The law forbids the killing of seals less than 1 year old except when necessary to 

 secure food for the natives. This necessity did not arise in 1910, and, consequently, 

 no seals under 1 year old were killed in that year. 



Respectfully, Charles Nagel, Secretary. 



Contrast the foregoing weight of 139 skins, 30-34£ inches long, 

 with the following exhibit made to the House Committee, June 28, 

 1911, and the folly and error of this attempt of the United States 

 Commissioner of Fisheries to deceive the committee will be at once 

 apparent. 



The Bureau of Fisheries improperly classifies the skins by weight, 

 and the following sworn statement proves it — that a yearling skin 



53490—14 9 



