630 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



tion that the size of these skins did not change in salting after removal 

 from the animal. 



I have already referred to careful tests of this matter made by 

 the Bureau of Fisheries last summer, which I have furnished to the 

 committee and which show that actually a remarkable change in the 

 size of the skin occurred after it was removed from the body; that 

 this change though irregular, almost invariably was a lessening of 

 the dimensions of the skin when on the body and that in fact the 

 skin of a seal confessedly a 2-year-old became so small after salting 

 as to bring it within the size claimed by Mr. Elliott to be that of a 

 yearling seal only. It thus appears that Mr. Elliott's charge that year- 

 lings had been killed was not substantiated by the result of careful 

 actual tests. 



There were additional facts developed in Mr. Elliott's investiga- 

 tions on the islands last summer, which also demonstrated the fallacy 

 of his argument. The testimony of the natives in answer to ques- 

 tions by Mr. Elliott is that the skins, after removal shrunk inches 

 from their natural size. 



Mr. McGuire. Is that in his report? 



Mr. Lembkey. That is to be found in the report cf Elliott and 

 Gallagher. Hearing No. 1, page 117. 



Mr. McGuire. That reference will be sufficient. 



Mr. Lembkey. There is important corroborative evidence on this 

 point appealing in the previous hearings, which controverts Mr. 

 Elliott's claim that a 33-inch salted skin, called by the Lampson 

 classification a small pup skin, is that of a yearling. Mr. Elliott has 

 published r< p< atedly in his reports and stated in these hearings that 

 the average w< ight of the skin of a 2-year-old is 5\ pounds. In the 

 same list of Lampson & Co. cited by Mr. Elliott containing the state- 

 ment that a salt d skin 33 inches long is called by the trade a small 

 pup skin, which may be found in the original hearing No. 1, page 30, 

 it is stated that the weight of such a small pup skin is 6 pounds and 

 2 ounces, <>i much in excess of the average weight of 51- pounds which 

 Mr. Elliott lavs down as the weight of 2-year-old skins. So that 

 while Mr. Elli tt has relied mainly on Lampson's statement that a 

 small pup skin measures 33 inches in length to show that such a 

 skin is the skin of a yearling, he is met by the fact that in the same 

 statement Lampson's wholly controvert this conclusion by stating 

 that this 33-inch supposedly yearling skin weighs over a half pound 

 more than the -H pound weight which Mr. Elliott claims is that of a 

 2-vear-old skin. 



Mr. Elliott endeavors to escape this predicament by claiming that 

 Lampson's list referred to salted skins and that Elliott referred to 

 green or unsalti d skins and claims that skins gain in weight by 

 salting. Ex! austive experiments by the Bureau of Fisheries, however, 

 a record of v.". ich I have furnished you, show that skins, instead of 

 gaining weigl t by salting, actually lose weight thereby and that 

 salted skins r< ally weigh less than before sailing. 



The committ e can thus see from the evidence that Mr. Elliott's 

 charge that yea: hugs have been killed and falsely certified is based 

 upon an hypothesis which the facts not only do not support but 

 which bhey actually overthrow. 



The third main charge made by Mr. Elliott against those engaged 

 in taking seal skins is that the killing of young and immature male 



