INVESTIGATION OF THE PUR-SEAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 807 



It is, furthermore, plainly so falsified by those dealers to meet the 

 demands of certain parties who have been busy since 1896 in falsify- 

 ing the real facts as to grades or sizes of seals killed since 1896, up 

 to date, in violation of law and regulations; and it also is apparent 

 that this dealer's telegram has been inspired by those parties, and 

 has been improperly, though innocently, placed before this commit- 

 tee as a reputable statement of facts. 



For the information of this committee I wish to state that: 



First, a "cut" skin is one which the knife of the native skinner has 

 cut into when flensing the blubber from it as he takes it from the 

 carcass. 



When a skin is " clean skinned" and not "loaded" with blubber, 

 the native must use greater care and skill when removing it from the 

 body of the seal. If he is inattentive or unskilled, then often the 

 keen, razor edge of his knife will slice off a paring or "welt" of the 

 true skin. This welt, or "cut," if it does not go through the cutis 

 vera and the epidermis, will, at least, make the work of the dresser 

 who unhairs this skin when given to him, more difficult ; for he has to 

 guard against losing the fur over that cut (shave, or welt) in the skin 

 when he prepares the same for unhairing and dyeing. That adds to 

 the cost of dressing which otherwise would not be done. I have 

 found that this added cost for dressing when cut is rated at about 

 10 per cent of the first cost of a good skin. For instance, if a prime 

 skin is worth $40 at the sales without any blemish, then, if that same 

 skin were "cut," it would be rated as such, and bring only $35, or, in 

 other words, it has depreciated $5 in value. 



The term "low" is used in two senses. First, a "low" skin is one 

 which, although properly classed as to size — that is, length and girth — ■ 

 has signs of pink "lips," or raw edges and spots on the same; not 

 only on its outer edges, but on the edges of the two fore flipper holes 

 in the skin, and other defects, perhaps. Such a skin is much harder 

 to dress properly and evenly, than a "cut" skin, since every raw or 

 "pink lip" edge, has made that portion of the skin very difficult to 

 unhair without taking all the fur with it. That calls for a greater 

 length of time in which the most skillful dresser can properly dress it. 

 So when, for instance, a prime, or "small," or three-year-old skin is 

 rated at, say, $55 or $60, without any blemish, if it is found "low," 

 and so tagged, it will suffer a loss of nearly 50 per cent from its prime 

 value, or will bring but $30 or $35. 



The next use of the word "low" comes in this way: A "low 

 grade" for the entire catch as sold at the time, and so reported, and 

 published to the trade by the agents of that trade, means that the 

 proportion of little skins for the whole catch is much larger than it 

 ought to be; and that that excess of little skins in the sum total of 

 skins sold has reduced the average price per skins for the whole 

 catch to the figures quoted. 



The relative amount of blubber which is upon the skins has never 

 been of the least concern to the buyers. They do not and never have 

 asked for more or less blubber on the skins. It is not necessary to 

 have any if the skin is properly salted. It is, however, generally 

 agreed that a skin with a coating of blubber is easier to remove 

 rapidly from the seal's body without danger of cutting than one which 

 is clean skinned, even by the most expert of skinners. Therefore it 



