614 INVESTIGATION OP THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



of the skins, and to prove that the agents of the Government had 

 taken seals of different ages than those which they actually certified 

 to the department, and to show that they had, kiiowingly or other- 

 wise, killed seals different from those allowed by the regulations to 

 be killed. In other words, it was contended as a general proposition 

 that tests by weight were not reliable, because as claimed, the weights 

 could be manipulated at will; that the only correct test of the age was 

 by means of measuring the salted skin, because, as claimed, those 

 measurements could not be manipulated. 



Mr. Stephens. That is your statement? 



Mr. Lembkey. I am now making my own statement; yes. 



In using a salted sealskin as a means of determining the age of the 

 animal from which it was taken, the important point upon which the 

 whole question would hinge is whether or not the sealskin, after 

 being salted, would retain the same size as when on the animal; in 

 other words, does or does not a sealskin change shape as the result of 

 being removed from the carcass, and being salted; and if it shrinks, 

 does it do so evenly or unevenly? To determine this question, the 

 following data must be obtained, namely: First, the entire length of 

 the animal before skinning. Second, the length of the amount of 

 fur left upon the carcass after the pelt has been removed from the 

 animal in the ordinary manner. 



Mr. McGuire. That would be on the head ? 



Mr. Lembkey. As stated in the previous hearings, a small portion 

 of the fur of the animal, in the process of skinning, was allowed to 

 adhere to the head of the animal around the jaws and to a point 

 immediately back of the eyes. All the remainder of the fur, however, 

 was removed. 



Only by obtaining all these data and by their correlation can the 

 question at issue be decided definitely. 



No actual experiments in measuring the same sealskins before 

 and after salting had been made at the time of the previous hearings, 

 either by the department or by Mr. Elliott. Mr. Elliott, however, 

 years ago had taken measurements of the carcasses of the seals of 

 various ages, consisting of the length and girth of the animal. In 

 addition, a list of measurements of salted sealskins had been made 

 some years ago by Lampson & Co., the auctioneers in London, and 

 an estimate made bv Lampsons of the ages of animals producing 

 skins which, when salted, were of a certain size. By endeavoring to 

 correlate these measurements of seals' bodies made by himself and 

 those of salted skins made by Lampson, Mr. Elliott attempted to 

 classify the skins which had come from the islands recently, and to 

 prove by this correlation that many, if not all of such skins were not 

 the skins of animals at least 2 years old, but were in fact animals only 

 1 year old or less, the killing of which was prohibited by the depart- 

 ment. For example, Mr. Elliott claims that the total length of a 

 yearling seal body from tip of nose to root of tail was 38 inches, and 

 its girth 25 inches; of a 2-} T ear-old, length 45 inches, and girth 30 

 inches. He assumed that in skinning, about 3+ inches of skin was 

 left on the carcass at the jaws. From this he reached the conclusion 

 that the salted skin should equal in length the total length of the body 

 of the animal less the amount of skin which was allowed to remain 

 on the carcass after skinning. If, then, a salted skin was found 

 with a length of 35 inches, for example, it must, so he claims, have 



