INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 131 



his scientific associates have been familiar with since 1896), properly 

 deny the charge that yearlings were so killed. 



This exhibition of those "loaded" skins — those blubbered 30-34 

 inch skins (7,733 of them), taken in 1910, Clark unwittingly makes 

 in Science, issue of February 28, 1913, pages 325-327. He goes far- 

 ther: With the cooperation of Dr. D. S. Jordan he has a reprint of 

 these pages from Science made, and sends a copy to every Senator 

 and Member of Congress, in which he uses these bogus "loaded" 

 skin weights to deny- the killing of those small seals, which have as 

 above been admitted so killed by 'his own associate and confederate, 

 W. I. Lembkey. 



He says : 



On the other hand, the testimony clearly shows that of the 13,500 skins taken in 

 1910 (of which 12,920 were sold in London in December of that year), the season 

 under particular consideration, only 90 were under the standard weight of the 

 2-year-old, as shown by the green weights taken by the agents on the islands, and 

 only 92 by the salted weights of the London fur dealers. 



Turn from this statement, as quoted from Clark, to that exhibit 

 of 400 skins which were taken July 7, last, just as these skins of 1910 

 were taken, and by the same men, under- the same director, W. I. 

 Lembkey. 



According to the green weights which those 400 blubbered skins 

 show, there are only 18 skins under Clark's "standard weight of the 

 2-year-old" — only 18 yearlings. 



Yet the fact is that there are in this small list of 400 sealskins, 

 taken in the very best season of the year, and when the largest seals 

 are most plentiful at any one time of the year, there are actually 

 139 yearling skins, every one of them less than 34-J inches long. Yet 

 every one of these little skins has been so "loaded" with blubber 

 that they weigh into the classes of 2 and 3 year old skins. 



Why does Dr. Jordan (and Mr. Clark also) ignore the measure- 

 ments of those skins ? Those measurements of that 12,920 skins 

 show beyond a shadow of dispute that 7,733 of them were each less 

 than 34 inches long— show that they were yearling seals' skins. 



Xo one of the scientists of the advisory board on fur seal service, 

 of which Dr. Jordan is the president, has dared to publicly deny the 

 admission made by their own confederate, W. I. Lembkey, that the 

 skin of a yearling seal is 36^ inches long, just as has been said by 

 Mr. Elliott, who has testified as follows: 



Mr. Lembkey thus testifies that his own summary and official record of the measure- 

 ments of "7,733 fur sealskins," which he took during the season of 1910 on the Pribilof 

 Islands, declares the fact that no one of them exceeds in length 34 inches. That fact 

 determines them— all of them- — to have been the skins taken from yearling seals— — 



Mr. Madden. Let me ask you a question. According to Mr. Lembkey's testimony 

 read by you, he testified that the length of a yearling would be 39£ inches, and when it 

 was skinned the skin itself would be 36 J inches. Does it always follow that a yearling 

 seal measures just the same or within an inch or two of the same length? 



Mr. Elliott. I think the range is about 3 to 4 inches; a small yearling skin goes 

 30 inches, a good average yearling skin 34 inches, and a "long" yearling 36 inches. 

 There are three grades. 



Mr. Madden. All seals are not of the same size? 



Mr. Elliott. No; but there is the general average, and you can very easily keep 

 within the limit. 



Mr. Madden. As a matter of fact, you might possibly find a seal that was returned 

 a year old, and after it had come back from its trip to the ocean on the 25th of July 

 it would be a year or a few days over, and it might not be over 30 inches in length? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir. 



