192 INVESTIGATION" OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



III. On page 150 of this publication is the following table of the 

 measurements and weights 01 fur seals, one, two, three, four, five, and 

 six years old, and of their skins when removed from their bodies : 



Table showing the weight, size, and growth of the fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), from the 



pup to the adult, male and female. 



Age. 



Length. 



Girth. 



Gross 



weight of 



body. 



Weight 

 of skin. 



Remarks. 



1 week 



Inches. 

 12-14 



24 



38 



45 

 52 

 58 

 65 

 72 

 75-80 



Inches. 

 10-10J 



25 



25 



30 

 36 

 42 

 52 

 64 

 70-75 



Pounds. 

 6-7J 



39 



39 



58 



87 



135 



200 



280 



400-500 



Pounds. 

 li 



3 



% 



5$ 



7 



12 



16 



25 



45-50 



A male and female, being the only ones of the 



class handled, June 20, 1873. 

 A mean of 10 examples, males and females, 



alike in size, Nov. 28, 1872. 

 A mean of 6 examples, males and females, 



alike in size, July 14, 1873. 

 A mean of 30 examples, all males, July 24,1873 . 

 A mean of 32 examples,all males, July 24, 1873. 

 A mean of 10 examples,all males, July 24, 1873. 

 A mean of 5 examples, all males, July 24, 1S73. 

 A mean of 3 examples, all males, July 24, 1873. 

 An estimate only, calculating on their weight 



when fat, and early in the season. 



6 months 



1 year 



2 years 



3 years 



4 years 



5 years 



6 years 



8 to 20 years 



On May 31, 1911, Mr. Henry W. Elliott made the folio whig sworn 

 statement to the House Committee on Expenditures in the Department 

 of Commerce and Labor (Hearing No. 1, pp. 12, 13, House Com. Exp. 

 Dept. Com. & Labor), to wit (Secretary Nagel was present) : 



Mr. Elliott. I want the committee to understand the part which was taken by 

 the lessees in 1872, with the Treasury agents, of whom I was one, in fixing an official 

 standard whereby we could recognize every seal officially reported to the Treasury 

 Department as it was sold in London, because the London classifications were dif- 

 ferent, from ours as to phraseology. 



The London people knew nothing and still know nothing about the a<re of seals, 

 and they cared nothing about it. They were interested in the size and the quality. 

 They ascertained and formed their idea o? the skin's value primarily by its measure- 

 ment, and. secondly, by its weight. The weight would vary. Sometimes more 

 salt and blubber are used, and sometimes less. But the measurements were reason- 

 ably steady and constant. Tliev measure their sealskins. We weighed ours on the 

 islands. To reconcile those differences, it became very important in 1872 to know 

 exactly what we were doing on the islands. s:> that we would understand exactly what 

 they were doing in London when the\ sold them. I want the committee to fix this 

 in their minds, because the whole thing turns on this proposition. I said to the 

 superintendent, 'Why do you kill all those big seals? Do they ask you to kill all 

 the big seals and let all these smaller seals go? Why don't you take them all? " He 

 said, "They do not want them. Thev want those large seals. They call them 'mid- 

 dlings' and 'smalls/ etc." Then I said, "Can we not have sjme arrangement made 

 whereby we can avoid this culling of the herd? Don'tyou see. Dr. Mclntyre, in a short 

 time if this is kept up. that no good male seal will ever get past your firing line to 

 go onto the breeding rookeries?" He said. ''Oh, yes, Brother Elliott, but just look 

 at them out there — millions of them. You do not need to wo r ry about that." 



Well. I admitted that there was no need to worry then, but I said to mv associ- 

 ates: "Gentlemen, we have got to have some understand ins when we officially report 

 to our Government what the grades of these seals are which the lessees are killing, 

 so we can trace the record of their work from the islands to London and back again. 

 Let us get together now and form a complete agreement as to what constitutes the 

 skin of a 'yearling' seal, the skin or" a '2-year-old.' and a "6-y ear-old.' and a '4-year- 

 old, a '5-year-old.' and so on." We worked over that thing through the whole sea- 

 son of 1872. That was something that these men took hold of with a great deal of 

 pleasure. We renewed this discussion, comparison, and study on the skin weights, 

 ages, etc.. of the seals in 1873. Mr. Mclntyre went to London and got the weights 

 and measurements of a set of skins, which he took over as samples, of 1. 2. 3, 4, and 

 5 year olds. Be brought them back to us with the stamp on them as "small pups," 

 and so on. So there was no doubt of what we were doing. Officially, we had no 



