n 



796 INVESTIGATION OF THE FUE-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 



the bottom of the page. Mr. Townsend is speaking of the length of 



50 skins (reading) : 



Mr. Townsend. That was the average of 50? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir; yearling skins. And we killed them that day because there 

 was a demand made for some "blanket" skins. (In those days there was no such 

 close restriction on killing seals as now. They were not enforced. There were so 

 many of them that the matter of killing 50 yearling skins just for the sake of getting 

 the measurements, and that sort of thing, was nothing. Nobody cared anything 

 about it. Some one wanted the "backs" of them to sew up into blankets, and so 

 it was done cheerfully for that purpose. I remember it distinctly.) Then, that 

 yearling skin was taken into the salt house and from half a pound to a pound of coarse 

 rock salt, according to the care or carelessness of the native, was thrown upon the 

 fleshy side. That salt is slowly dissolved in 7 days or 10 days, or 2 weeks, as the 

 case may be. It does not run off. It "strikes in" and goes into the hide and cures 

 it and stiffens it and makes a kind of crust, which adds all the way from half a pound 

 in such a small skin to a pound in a larger skin, or a pound and a half, of increased 

 weight when it goes over to London from its "green" condition. 



Now, that is your position now, is it ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes; that is my position. 



Mr. McGuiee. And the salted skins there in Alaska will weigh 

 more in London after they have been salted a sufficient length of 

 time — a reasonable time for transportation — than they weighed 

 when they were taken from the seals ? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes. 



Mr. McGuire. Now, you may make your explanation or whatever 

 you have to say. 



Mr. Elliott. On page 134, hearing No. 1, of this session — your 

 name appears in there, Mr. McGuire, and I want to show you that 

 you are mistaken — there occurred this extract from hearing No. 9, 

 pages 444, 445, and 446. 



Mr. Lembkey. No, sir. I speak of the weights on the islands, and have brought in 

 the London weights to show there is not really very much variation. 



Mr. McGtjire. That i? what 1 am speaking about. The weights you speak about 

 after salting are the London weights? 



Mr. Lembkey. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. That is what I was trying to get at. Now, then, Mr. Elliott, what 

 weights do you speak about? 



Mr. Elliott. I speak of the London "salt weights" increasing the "green weights" 

 on the islands one-half pound and more, as the skins vary in size. 



Mr. McGuire. You speak of the green weights in London after they have been 

 salted? 



Mr. Elliott. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McGuire. And Mr. Lembkey spoke of the weights in London after they have 

 been salted. 



Mr. Elliott. We are both speaking of the same thing. 



Mr. McGuire. You say there is a slight decrease — no — you say, Mr. Elliott, there 

 is an increase from a fraction of a pound to a pound, even in London? 



Mr. Elliott. Even in London. I wish to quote as my authority the man who 

 does the classifications in London, Sir George Baden-Powell, and Dr. George M. 

 Dawson, the British commissioner, addressed a letter to Sir Curtis Lampson. 



The Chairman. What do they say? 



Mr. Elliott. They say: 



"We are unable to answer your inquiry as to what class the sales catalogue would 

 place a skin classified on the island as, say, a 7-pound skin, as we do not know whether 



the classification you mention with reference to the skins is taken after or after 



they have been cured and salted ready for shipping. The process of curing and 

 salting: must of necessity add to the weight. 



Mr. Lembkey. "Must of necessity." I submit that was merely his inference that 

 they must of necessity be increased in weight. 



The Chairman. Is that not true? 



Mr. Lembkey. No; I stated it was not. 



