252 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. McGillicuddy. There seems to have been two ways of determining the age of 

 a seal, one is by the measurement of the skin and the other by the weight. You are 

 familiar, I suppose, with both methods? 



Dr. Townsend. Only from hearsay. I do not know that I ever measured one or 

 ever weighed one. 



Mr. McGillicuddy. You have no practical information on that subject? 



Dr. Townsend. I have no practical information on that subject. I do not remem- 

 ber that that matter was ever in my instructions at any time. I do not remember 

 that I ever went into it. 



Mr. McGillicuddy. So far as your information goes, which do you regard as the 

 more reliable way of determining the age of a seal, by measurement or by weight? 



Dr. Townsend. I can not say. I have not gone into that subject. 



On page 801, Hearing No. 13: 



******* 



The Chairman. It has been suggested that I ask a few questions as to your bio- 

 logical knowledge, and, therefore, I proceed along that line. What have you pub- 

 lished officially as to the size and weight of fur-seal skins as taken on the seal islands 

 of Alaska? 



Dr. Townsend. I do not remember to have published anything on that point. 



The Chairman. What do you know of the composition of the catch of 12,920 fur- 

 seal skins taken by orders of Hon. Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 

 and Mr. George M. Bowers, United States Fish Commissioner, during the season of 

 1910 on the Pribilof Islands? 



Dr. Townsend. I am not posted on the composition of that catch. 



Hearing No. 14, pages 914-919, as summed up below: 



IV. Dr. David Starr Jordan, president Advisory Board Fur-Seal Service, etc., 

 Department of Commerce and Labor (p. 580, Hearing No. 10): 



Mr. Elliott. Are you quoting Dr. Jordan? 



Dr. Evermann. I am quoting some things that Dr. Jordan has said. 



Mr. Elliott. Is Dr. Jordan a man of truth? 



The Chairman. You are quoting from Dr. Jordan? 



Mr. Elliott. I want to find if Dr. Jordan is a man of truth? 



The Chairman. That is not for the witness to determine. 



Mr. Elliott. He is assailing me in that matter and quoting Dr. Jordan. 



The Chairman. The witness can not say whether he is telling the truth or whether 

 he is not. 



Mr. Elliott. I would like to have it go in the record whether he considers Dr. Jordan 

 a man of truth. 



The Chairman. The witness will proceed. 



(And Dr. Evermann proceeds without being able to answer Elliott.) 



VI. Dr. Frederic Augustus Lucas, member Advisory Board Fur-Seal Service, 

 Department of Commerce and Labor (p. 726, Hearing No. 12): 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; I find no fault with that record, either. It is exactly as I 

 published it nearly 40 years before. Now, Dr. Lucas, when you take the skin off that 

 yearling seal and salt it down, how long is it? 



Dr. Lucas. I do not know. I have never measured a skin after salting. 



Mr. "Elliott. You never measured it before salting, did you? 



Dr. Lucas. I never measured the skin before salting. 



Mr. Elliott. Neither before nor after? Then how do you know that in the killing 

 up there they are not killing yearling seals? 



Dr. Lucas. By the weight of the skins. 



Mr. Elliott. Are you acquainted with the tables of salted weights published by one 

 of your associates, of 275 skins, which give a complete denial to your statement? 



Dr. Lucas. I am not. 



Mr. Elliott. You have never seen the table of Mr. Judge? 



Dr. Lucas. I presume I have seen the table, but I never noticed it. 



Mr. Elliott. Two hundred and seventy-five salted skins which he weighed shows 

 that a salted skin 33 inches long will weigh as much as a green skin 37£ inches long. 

 Does that agree with your statement? 



Mr. McGuike. Doctor, right there, you say sometimes 



Dr. Lucas. That is equivalent 



Mr. Elliott. The table states it; he (Mr. Judge) says these sizes of those skins are 

 not fixed by weight. 



Dr. Lucas. May I make a statement? In all these sales of skins the skins are ad- 

 vertised by weight and not by size. 



Mr. Elliott. Are they advertised by weight? Find an advertisement by weight in 

 the Lampson catalogues and you will find something I have never been able to find. 



