522 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



The Chairman. I find No. 4658, a 31J-inch skin, weights 8 pounds 

 9^ ounces. How do you reconcile that with No. 4244, 32-inch skin 

 that weighs 4 pounds 3i ounces? 



Mr. Clark. For instance, No. 4658 might be found to have a 

 breadth measurement of 30 inches whereas the other had 22 inches, 

 and that would make all the difference that is necessary. And from 

 my point of view the difference between these skins is one that is due 

 to the larger size of the skin that weighed more heavily, but that fact 

 is obscured by the absence of the breadth measurement of the skin. 



The Chairman. Why did you not take the breadth measurement 

 of the skin ? 



Mr. Clark. I have told you that I was not allowed to do so. 

 I asked the privilege of doing it after asking Mr. Elliott failed to do so. 



The Chairman. Well, you had the privilege of examining them 

 and measurement belonged to the examination of them. 



Mr. Clark. I was told that if I did that, if I insisted upon it — 

 it would mean interference with an experiment that was exclusively 

 his and not mine. I was made to understand that I was there to 

 look on and I had to keep still. 



The Chairman. So you did not get the breadth measurements at all ? 



Mr. Clark. No; you will find that statement made in Mr. Elliott's 

 manifesto. 



Mr. Stephens. I would like to ask who was present at that time. 



The Chairman. All right. 



Mr. Stephens. Give the names of the men. 



Mr. Clark. They are all given in the record. There was Mr. Philip 

 Hatton, the agent and caretaker on St. Paul, and Mr. Whitney, 

 the school teacher on St. Paul, and Messrs. Elliott and Gallagher. 



The Chairman. This is reported at page 101 of the report of 

 Gallagher and Elliott, being page 123 of hearing No. 1 of this session: 



Order of procedure in salt house, village of St. Paul, July 29, 1913, which will be 



followed on the occasion of taking the measurements and salt-cured weights of a 



series of 400 fur-seal skins, secured July 7, 1913, on St. Paul Island. 



Said measurements and weights are to be taken by special agents of House Committee 



on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce, Messrs. Henry W. Elliott and 



A. F. Gallagher, publicly, in the salt house of the Government July 29, 1913. 



First. An interpreter will ask the native sealers to elect four or five of their number 

 to salt and bundle these skins for shipment, as being the men most experienced, 

 and bes„ workers in salting and bundling sealskins, in the community. 



Is that correct i 



Mr. Clark. Yes, sir; the men chosen were competent. 



The Chairman (reading) : 



Second. These men are to "spread" these skins aforesaid (and which are duly 

 tagged and numbered with their "green" weights, as taken July 7 last) upon a Salter's 

 bench for measurement, one by one, as they are asked to do so by the agents above 

 named. 



Is that correct ? 



Mr. Clark. That is correct. Note that it is the agents "above 

 named" that were to do it. 



The Chairman. Yes. (Reading): 



Third. When those agents have measured them for length, one by one, then those 

 native palters shall proceed to salt and "bundle" these skins (in bundles of 2 skins 

 each) precisely as they have done that work in 1889, under the direction of the agents 

 of the A. C. Co., and since that date under the direction of the agents of the N. A. C. 

 Co. up to 1909. This work of salting and bundling to be done by those native salters 



