INVESTIGATION OP THE PUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 247 



The fact that the "Carlisle rules" prohibiting the killing of year- 

 lings hi distinct terms, were issued May 14, 1896, and duly pub- 

 lished and recorded on the Seal Islands is here vainly denied, and 

 concealed from the committee in a carefully written statement pre- 

 pared by the. Bureau of Fisheries, and given to it under oath; and, 

 the fact that those orders of Secretary Carlisle have never been 

 amended or revised until the "Hitchcock rules" of 1904 were ordered, 

 is also concealed from the committee by that false statement. 



2. With regard to the classification of these fur-seal skins when 

 taken on the islands, and then shipped to London for sale) there, 

 the Bureau of Fisheries made a series of statements when first before 

 the committee which were found later to be entirely false, and which 

 said Fisheries Bureau had to admit were such. 



When the question was first directly put to George M. Bowers, 

 United States Commissioner of Fisheries, as to how these skins taken 

 under his orders on the Seal Islands, were classified, so as to show 

 their sizes and ages in London, he said (Hearing No. 3, p. 128, June 

 28, 1911, Ho. Com. Exp. Dept. Com. and Labor): 



Mr. Towxsend. I will examine you now as to the killing of seals after the expira- 

 tion of this lease and when the killing was made, as it has been called here by the 

 Government. The report shows that in the year 1910, 12,920 seals were killed, and 

 the evidence before the committee is that of those 8,000 were yearlings. 



Mr. Bowers. Well, that evidence is false. 



Mr. Towxsend. That is your answer to that, is it? 



Mr. Bowers. Yes, sir. Here are the weights on the basis, you understand, that a 

 4i-pound skin is a yearling. There are the weights for 1909 — -the island weights and 

 the London weights. I think probably you will find one skin weighing less than 4$ 

 pounds. 



C. M. Lampson & Co., London, 19th Nov., 1910. 



Assortment of Alaska salted fur sealskins for account of United States Government^ 



Department of Commerce and Labor. 



[New York, Ck. 1/228.] 



Lbs. Ozs. 



78 smalls ,. 7 15 



713 large pups .*. 7 2 



3,032 middling pups 6 7 



4,899 small pups 5 12 



1,266 ex. small pups u 5 5 



11 ex. ex. small pups 4 10 



33 smalls, low 7 11 



135 large pups, low 6 9 



498 middling pups, low 6 1 



501 small pups, low 5 9 



88 ex. small pups, low 5 



10 small, cut 7 2 



71 large pups, cut 6 13 



238 middling pups, cut 6 2 



421 small pups, cut 5 6 



81 ex. small pups, cut 4 15 



6 small, rubbed : , 7 



55 large pups, rubbed 6 14 



195 middling pups, rubbed 6 6 



290 small pups, rubbed 5 11 



75 ex. small pups, rubbed 5 3 



36 faulty. 



12,732 average based on December, 1909, prices 144/. 



