INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 613 



The Chairman. I simply wanted to ask you, because I was not 

 certain whether you made that statement. I will ask you more about 

 the skins later on. 



Mr. McGuire. You may proceed with your narration. 



Mr. Lembkey. In my report for the year 1904, as agent seal fish- 

 eries, to the Department of Commerce and Labor, which will be found 

 on page 79 of Appendix A to these hearings, I stated the following, 

 under the subcaption "Experiments in weights of salted skins:" 



In connection with the weighing of individual skins on the killing field, it was 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. Their aggregate weight on the field before wetting was 705 pounds. 

 On July 23 they were taken out of salt and re weighed, when their aggregate weight was 

 759£ pounds, a gain of 54^ pounds in 107 skins, or one-half pound a skin. As the salt 

 was thoroughly shaken off these skins, the accretion of water from dripping them in 

 the lagoon may be represented by the gain in weight. 



Mr. Elliott, in hearing No. 1, dated October 13, 1913, and January 7, 

 1914, at page 134, rests upon this experiment, made as stated July 

 17, 1904, to prove his contention that sealskins gain weight in salt, 

 in addition also to his test of weighing skins in bundles in which there 

 was wrapped up a lot of loose salt to preserve the skin while in 

 transit. 



It is easy to see, however, that the test made on July 17, 1904, is 

 not a proper test of loss in weight of skins in salting, as a general 

 proposition, any more than the one performed by Mr. Elliott of 

 weighing the skins in bundles. In the experiment of July 17, 1904, 

 as detailed in the extract which I have just read, the skins were re- 

 moved from the animals in a practically dry state. They were then 

 weighed on the field while still in this dry condition. Then they were 

 carried down to Salt Lagoon, only a few steps from the killing field, 

 and thrown into the shallow water until they became thoroughly 

 soaked. This was clone, of course, to prevent their putrefaction 

 during the transportation in small boats from the killing field to the 

 salt house. They were then, in this supersaturated condition, loaded 

 into row boats and taken to the salt house where, soaking wet, they 

 were salted. In six days thereafter they were taken out of the salt, 

 still wet, and found to weigh on an average of one-half a pound more 

 than they did before they were so saturated with water. It is noth- 

 ing more than reasonable to suppose that skins, after being wet to the 

 point of saturation, would weigh more than the same skins when 

 weighed dry, and that is all this experiment shows, and all it could 

 show. Mr. Elliott calls this experiment a trick, but I do not believe 

 the committee will conclude it was anything of that character. 



I wish now to make a brief statement on the topic of the measure- 

 ment of sealskins. 



There has also been a great deal of discussion before the committee 

 on the question of the measurements of salted sealskins, an effort 

 having been made in these hearings by means of such measurements 

 to determine the ages of seals from which the catches of the last few 

 years were obtained, in an attempt to question the reliability of the 

 evidence of the agents as to the age of seals as based upon the weights 



