INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 277 



THE ''SALT WEIGHT" DECEPTION BY LEMBKEY, IN 1904; REPEATED BY 

 MARSH, 1911; AND SWORN TO, BY EVERMANN, JULY 30, 1912, IN 

 ORDER TO DECEIVE AND FALSIFY THE RECORD OF KILLING YEARLING 

 SEALS. 



The trick. — He "shakes all the salt off," then weighs them after six 

 days' curing. 



[P. 79.— Appendix A; Lembkey, Sept. 7, 1904.] 

 EXPERIMENTS IN WEIGHTS OF SALTED SKINS. 



In connection with the weighing of individual skins on the killing field, it waa 

 thought wise to determine whether or not skins gained or lost weight after being salted. 

 Should any discrepancy of this kind occur, the weights of these skins in London 

 would not coincide with those taken on the islands. 



On July 17, 107 skins taken at Tolstoi were weighed individually, and, after being 

 immersed in salt water to keep them moist during the journey from the field to the 

 salt house, were salted. Then- aggregate weight on the field before wetting was 705 

 pounds. On July 23 they were taken out of salt and reweighed, when their aggregate 

 weight was 759 J pounds, a gain of 54 J pounds on 107 skins, or one-half pound a skin. 

 As the salt was thoroughly shaken off these skins, the accretion of water from dipping 

 them in the lagoon may be represented by the gain in weight. 



On July 26 I weighed 100 skins, nearly dry, on a platform scales at the salt house, 

 finding them to weigh 644} pounds. They were then salted. On July 30 they were 

 hauled out of salt and reweighed, when their combined weight was 6434; pounds, a 

 loss of 1 pound on 100 skins. These may be taken as typical to show the effect of 

 salt and water upon skins. I was not able to experiment with perfectly dry skina 

 after the date mentioned, but I believe the latter will show a slight loss of weight 

 after being in salt for a period. 



Very truly, yours, W. I. Lembkey, 



Agent in Charge Seal Fisheries. 

 Mr. F. H. Hitchcock, 



Chief Clerk, Department of Commerce and Labor. ° 



Lembkey has not truthfully stated this experiment: He made the 

 following entry himself in the official journal of his office on St. Paul 

 Island and did not water those skins, then (that was an afterthought) 

 he does not shake off all the salt, either. (P. 149.) 



SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1904. 



On July 18, 107 skins taken on Tolstoi were weighed and salted. To-day they 

 were hauled out of the kench and reweighed. At the time of killing they weighed 

 705 pounds, and on being taken out they weighed 759J pounds, a gain in salting of 

 54£ pounds, or one-half pound per skin. 



Then, Lembkey swears, April 13, 1912, that he has never weighed 

 these skins after salting. — (p. 446 Hearing No. 9, H. Com. Exp. Dept. 

 Com. & Labor.) 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey, you say you have never weighed 

 these skins after you have salted them? You have never weighed 

 them? 



Mr. Lembkey. I have never weighed them after the salting on the 

 islands; no, sir. 



Lembkey's trick is repeated by Marsh and Evermann, 8 years 

 later. (Hearing Xo. 14; pp. 974, 975; July 29, 1912.) 



Dr. Evermann. Last year, when Mr. M. C. Marsh, naturalist, fur-seal service, went 

 to the Pribilof Islands, he was instructed to make certain investigations, one of which 

 was to determine by actual experiment the effect that salting has upon the weight of 

 fur-seal skins. He made a very careful investigation of the matter, and his report 



