776 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OP ALASKA. 



Mr. McGuire. There is a difference of salt on every skin ? 



M/. Elliott. Yes; on every t kin. 



Mr. McGuire. When you were salting those 400 skins you were 

 doing it for a specific purpose, to find out the relative weights; that is, 

 the difference in the weights when they were taken out and when they 

 reached their destination ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; when they left the islands. 



Mr. McGuire. Do you regard that method, the method you used, 

 as a means by which you can accurately tell the difference ? 



Mr. Elliott. Well, it speaks for itself. Of course, it is accurate. 



Mr. McGuire. But you state that there is a positive difference in 

 the quantity of salt on each skin ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. Now then, do you not think that if you had wanted 

 to get the real difference the better plan for you would have been to 

 have weighed the actual quantity of salt put on those skins ? 



M\ Elliott. You could not do it before bundling. 



M '. McGuire. Why do you say you can not do it? 



Mr. Elliott. You can not do it. You have got to put the two 

 together, and then how could you separately weigh the amount of 

 salt on each skin ? 



Mr. McGuire. I say that is one reason why you can not get it 

 accurately. 



Mr. Elliott. But it is accurate when you weigh the two together 

 in the bundle. It shows the weight when they left the islands. 



Mr. McGuire. If you are going to salt them for shipment 



Mr. Elliott (interposing). You have got to use two. 



Mr. McGuire (continuing). If you are going to salt them for ship- 

 ment, the only way fur you to tell accurately anything about it 

 would be to weigh the amount of salt put on those skirs? 



Mr. Elliott. We have weighed it; it is in the bundles and it 

 speaks for itself. 



Mr. McGiire. You have the weight of the salt? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; in each bundle, and accurately recorded. 



The Chairman. Is not this the fact, that the skins were weighed 

 when green '. 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



The Chairman. And weighed after they were salted ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. sir. 



The Chairman. Would not that show? 



Mr. Elliott. That shows the actual difference. 



The Chairman. Would not that determine the weight of the salt? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes: and we have got the skins that will speak for 

 themselves. 



The Chairman. You were asked, in the methods you used, whether 

 the salting was not done under your direction, or under the direction 

 of Mr. Lembkcy \ 



Mr. Elliott. No: the natives did it, just as they have done it for 

 20 years past, without any suggestion or interference by me or Mr. 

 Lembkey. 



The Chairman. I thought Mr. McGuire was under the impression 

 that you did the salting. 



Mr. Elliott. He may have been, but Mr. Lembkey had no more 

 to do with it that I had, and I had nothing to do with it. The natives 



