136 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



The careful identification of every skin 

 and the care given to every detail of the 

 weighing make it quite certain that the 

 salting of sealskins as practiced on St. 

 Paul Island subtracts materially from its 

 original weight when freshly skinned. 

 Presumably, though not necessarily, the 

 London weights reported are less than 

 the actual weights of the skins at the 

 island killings. If any change takes place 

 during transportation to London, it is 

 likely to be a further loss. (Hearing No. 

 14, pp. 974, 975, July 29, 1912.) 



to Paris. ft was never disputed by either 

 side at those sessions of the Bering Sea 

 Tribunal, held there from April to August, 

 1893. 



Dr. Evermann. I would like the 

 chairman to ask Mr. Elliott to tell the 

 committee on what skins the statement 

 he just read was based. 



Mr. Elliott. It is in the report of 

 Lieut. Maynard. It is there, and is cited 

 in the communication of the commission- 

 ers 



The Chairman. That is your answer 



Mr. Elliott. And the report of Lieut. 

 Maynard is in my monograph, and I will 

 go right to the page if you want it (pp. 106- 

 107, Elliott's Monograph Seal Islands, 

 Tenth Census, United States of America, 

 Washington, 1884). (Hearing No. 14, 

 p. 995, July 29, 1912.) 



In the foregoing statements we have made an exhibition of 400 

 skins which were taken (as they have been loaded by the lessees since 

 1890), July 7, 1913, on St. Paul Island; they are all now tagged, 

 numbered, and recorded as to salt and green weights and measure- 

 ments. 



In the light of the expose which they give it is interesting to regard 

 the following testimony, at the outset, to wit: 



[Hearing No. 10, p. 566, Apr. 24, 1912, House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce 



and Labor.] 



Dr. Evermann. On page 222 of these hearings Mr. Elliott says that, in arriving at 

 his estimates of the numbers cf yearling seals taken as set forth in the table submitted 

 by him, and printed on page 220, he was guided "solely by measurements. The 

 weights do not amount to anything, " he says. The London people would be the biggest 

 fools in the world, he says, to go by weights. And he shows how foolish it would be 

 for the killers on the islands to leave an extra amount of blubber on the skin. He 

 ■says that when he pointed out to the people on the islands that the skins in London 

 ivere classified by measurement rather than by weight they quit blubbering them. 

 (P. 222.) 



Mr. Elliott. They didn't quit blubbering them; they kept on. 



Dr. Evermann. Then that statement is not true? 



Mr. Elliott. I said they might quit it; but they did not; they kept right on, and 

 they are still at it, very clearly. 



Dr. Evermann. On page 223 Mr. Elliott states specifically that the skins are 

 classified in London entirely by measurements not by weights. 



Mr. Elliott. I do now. 



[Hearing No. 9, p. 406, Feb. 29, 1912.] 



Mr. Lembkey. There are five different weights given by Mr. Elliott, and I have 

 compared them in this statement. 



Mr. Madden. Let us clear it up right here, if we can, without any prejudice. I 

 would like to ask Mr. Elliott a question if I may be allowed to, Mr. Chairman, just 

 to clear up this. I understood Mr. Lembkey to testify that Mr. Elliott claimed that 

 a seal of a certain age, a sealskin of a certain weight, would indicate the seal's age. 

 For example, in his official reports, he said a certain aged seal would have a skin 

 weighing 4£ pounds, and that a certain other aged seal would have a skin weighing 

 5i pounds, and that later on Mr. Elliott had stated that these skins varied from 6 to 7 

 pounds. Now, I understood Mr. Elliott to say, and I want to get it correct in the 

 record so as to do justice to Mr. Elliott, as well as to Mr. Lembkey, that when he makes 

 the statement of 6 to 7 pounds that he means the salted skins. 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, with more or less blubber and salt per skin. 



Mr. Madden. And in the case where he makes the flat statement of A\ to 5 pounds, 

 it is a green skin. 



Mr. Elliott. A "green skin," and that creates all these differences. 



