534 INVESTIGATION OP THE EUK-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. Clark. In part, it does. My information on that subject 

 grows out of that, but I also base my views on the fact that pups are 

 born as early as the 12th of June and as late as the last week 01 July 

 or the first week of August. The pups born early have a heavy 

 advantage over the pups born late. That is, a pup born in June has 

 the advantage of his mother's milk for four months. The pup born 

 in the latter part of July may have it for two or three months only. 

 One goes away from the islands fat and strong and the other goes 

 away from the island rather weak. In the sea those two animals will 

 just about keep that same distance. If the late-born pup comes 

 back at all he will be less developed than his brother. In the course 

 of three years that difference will probably be obliterated. That 

 holds good for the yearlings, and also for the 2-year-olds. 



Thereupon, at 12 o'clock m., by unanimous consent, the committee 

 took a recess until 1.30 p. m. 



AFTER RECESS. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE ARCHIBALD CLARK— Continued. 



Mr. McGuire. Mr. Clark, you were speaking about the impossibil- 

 ity of getting accurate measurements by taking only the length and 

 not the width, and I refer particularly to those measurements and 

 weights which were taken oi 400 skins or more in 1913. How were 

 those skins weighed there ? Tell all you know about it. 



Mr. Clark. Of course, the ostensible purpose of this experiment, 

 as it was undertaken by us in the salt house on St. Paul, was to 

 determine whether skins increase or diminish in weight in salt. The 

 skins were taken out of the salt. They had been in salt for 8 or 10 

 days. They were shaken out and laid out on the measuring table and 

 measured, as we have already discussed. In order to determine the 

 action of salting, they should have been weighed individually at that 



Eoint. They were taken out of the salt, shaken, and if each skin had 

 een individually weighed then, this experiment would have laid the 

 basis for settling the question of the action of salt on the skins. But 

 the measurements were taken and the skins were thrown into the 

 kench 



Mr. McGuire. What do you mean by the "kench" ? 



Mr. Clark. The kench is the bin where the skin is thrown with the 

 fur side down and the flesh side up, and then a shovel full of rock salt 

 is put on it and the bundler spreads that carefully over the flesh side 

 of the skin. Then he takes a slightly smaller skin and puts that flesh 

 side down upon the layer of salt. Then he curls up the edges all 

 around, and brings the tail end down and the head end back to the 

 middle, wrapping the skins in a bundle and tying it up with 10 feet 

 of h alin g twine. 



Mr. McGuire. Two skins together? 



Mr. Clark. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. "With that rock salt in there ? 



Mr. Clark. With the rock salt in there, yes, and 10 feet of baling 

 twine t<> tie the bundle. At the time this process of bundling was 

 begun, of course, I protested that there was the time to get the indi- 

 vidual weights, and I wanted Mr. Elliott to have the individual 

 weights of these skins taken before they were put into that bundle; 



