620 INVESTIGATION OF THE EUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OE ALASKA. 



Mr. McGuire. You may proceed. 



Mr. Lembkey. In the drives from which these 400 skins were taken 

 the clubbers had instructions to kill nothing but 2-year-olds, as it 

 was desired at the time that those seals were killed to preserve all 

 of the 3-year-olds and allow them to mature as breeders. The killing 

 of yearlings is never permitted, as the committee has been informed. 



In 1912, in order to ascertain exactly just when yearling seals did 

 arrive on the islands, over 5,000 of the pups of that year were branded 

 OH the head with hot irons, making a permanent mark. When these 

 seals so branded would return to the islands the following year, 1913, 

 they would be yearlings, and the presence of the mark on the head 

 made the year previous would prove the fact that they were yearlings 

 beyond all doubt. In 1913, when those branded seals were to arrive 

 as yearlings, a careful watch was kept for their presence to fix the 

 first date on which they would be observed. By the most careful 

 search, by myself and others, the presence of none of those yearling 

 seals was discovered in the drives previous to Mr. Elliott's arrival 

 and none in the drive from which these 400 skins were taken which 

 were measured by Mr. Elliott, and none until some time after Mr. 

 Elliott had arrived there. While there he was requested by Mr. 

 Clark and myself to visit the hauling grounds, in company with our- 

 selves and the natives, where the seals could be carefully examined 

 for the presence of these little marked seals, but he declined to make 

 such a search or to visit the hauling grounds of the seals to ascertain 

 whether any of those unmistakably marked yearling seals were 

 present. 



Mr. Elliott asks the committee to believe that any salted skins 

 measuring from 30 to 35 inches in length, of which he alleges in his 

 report (Hearing No. 1, p. 132) 139 were found and falsely certified in 

 the 400 skins measured by him, were yearling skins. To do this he 

 asks you to assume that any salted skin 35 inches in length or less 

 must have been taken from a seal 40 inches in length or less and that 

 no shrinkage in the skin occurred after it was taken from the body. 

 Such a claim can not be supported, because the experiments I have 

 mentioned to-day in the measurements of the skins before and after 

 salting show that a decided shrinkage occurs in the skin in salting, 

 depending upon how much the skin was stretched when salted 

 although the shrinkage is uneven. In the list of measurements of 

 skins which I have submitted already many skins would be found of 

 a length of 35 inches taken from a seal measuring approximately 45 

 inches in length. 



I desire to refer to a list of some of these, extracted from page 93 of 

 Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 780, an extract from which I have 

 already furnished the committee. While I do not wish to read this 

 list of skins which I have made, I will point out to the committee 

 that there are many of them here which show a 35-inch salted skin, 

 having been taken from an animal measuring 45 inches in length or 

 Over. For the purpose of brevity I will ask that this be inserted at 

 this place as a part of my testimony and I will not read it. 



(The paper referred to is as follows:) 



