774 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



Mr. McGuire. And you think there would not be any difference 

 in the square inches of that kind of a skin? 



Mr. Elliott. No, not much; I know it; between 34 by 26 length 

 and girth, and 34 by 24 length and girth, there is very little. 



Mr. McGuire. Mr. Elliott, were those skins in the green, as taken 

 from the salt, measured by twos or individually ? 



Mr. Elliott. Mr. Lembkey weighed them individually, and we took 

 his individual weights without question; i. e., his "green" weights. 



Mr. McGuire. He measured them individually ? 



Mr. Elliott. No; wait a minute. He weighed them together in 

 the salt, but we measured them individually July 29, 1913; he weighed 

 them individually when he killed the seals July 7, 1913. 



Mr. McGuire. I see. He weighed those skins individually ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; and we took his weights without question — 

 his green weights. 



Mr. McGuire. You took his green weights ? 



Mr. Elliott. Without question; yes. 



Mr. McGuire. When he weighed them green he salted them? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; afterwards. 



Mr. McGuire. You found them in the salt house ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. And you took them out. Did you shake the salt off ? 



Mr. Elliott. No; the natives handled those skins just as they 

 have always handled them, and had handled them for 20 years. 



Mr. McGuire. State just how they handled them. 



Mr. Elliott. Well, let me give ) t ou a description. You want me 

 to start right in. so I will not have to repeat all of this. 



Mr. McGuire. I want it just as briefly as you can state it, just how 

 you handled them in the salt house. 



Mr. Elliott. They just pulled them out of the salt, when we got 

 ready to go to woik. 



Mr. McGuire. Did they raise them up ? 



Mr. Elliott. Oh, yes. 



Mr. McGuire. One at a time '. 



Mr. Elliott. You know they would pull a skin out and throw it 

 in a pile of loose, salted skins like it, at the head of the Salter's bench 

 on the salthouse floor, keeping 50 or 60 such skins in that pile all the 

 time we worked. 



Mr. McGuire. And some of the salt would naturally fall off? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; quite a bit. 



Mr. McGuire. They laid the larger skins down, did they not? 



Mr. Elliott. When we began there, a native stood at the head of 

 thi 1 table who would pick one of these skins up and out ofthe pile; he 

 wovdd first select a large skin; he would lay that upon the table (a 

 bench table about the size of this committee table), flesh side up to 

 us; spread it out for us: Mr. Hatton and I then made the measure- 

 ment of this skin from head to tail: we call its tagged number out, 

 and its length, and it would be recorded by Mr. Gallagher and Mr. 

 Clark, as well as by Mr. Whitney, who kept the official green weight, 

 or Lembkey tag list, of this lot of 400 skins. 



Mr. McGuire. And then they threw the salt on? 



Mr. Elliott. No. Then that skin, after being measured and the 

 green weights of Mr. Lembkev's tallied with the number on it, was 

 passed by this native who had picked it up to another native; he 



