Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-28

of the statutes the commissioners might per
haps be deemed to have stretched their
power But the Court of Appeals construed
cided that the commissioners, in all the
essential principles involved, did not go out
of their province.
The forthcoming electrical exhibition at
Paris will be well worth seeing. There will
be several electric railways. including line
starting from the Place de Ia Concorde and
traversing the Champs Elysees on viaduct !;
then entering the Palais de PIndustrie, and
terminating at the grand staircase in the
western extremity of the nave. During part
of its course it will also run through an arti-
fetal tunnel lighted by electric lamps.
Messrs Siemens Brothers will probably con-
struct it, and the cost is expected to be be-
tween 200, 900 and 2SO, 900 francs. The
basement of the palace viii be reserved for
large machinery, such as dynamo-eiectrlc
machines, and prime movers: while the gal
leries of the first floor will be devoted to the
innumerabIe applications of electricity which
have been made in recent years to polite and
common life. Apartments will be fitted up
with call-bells, telephones, fre-alarms, etc.,
and illuminated by electric lamps, In such q
manner as to display to best advantage the
merits of these contrivances. For the electric
light provision has been made to supply 800
horsepower of energy, and it Is estimated
that this will enable no fewer than 600
lamps to be lighted simultaneously.
The Boston correspondent of the Hartford
Times reports an interesting interview with
the superintendent of the United States seal
fisheries at Alaska. From three to five mil
lions of fur seals annually visit the great
breeding grounds of the islands and coasts! OF
the Behring Sea. The company is allowed
by an exclusive contract with our government
to secure 800, 900 perfect seal skins. 1t is
also permitted by contract with Russia to
take Is. 900 skins from the Siberian coast
This total of 375, 900 skins makes up the fur
seal market of the world, and, Of course, con-
trolls and fixes its prices. When shipped TO
Europe for curing the skins average about
$15 each, but when returned here prepared
for making up into garments, etc., they nave
increased in value to from $40 to $50. There
has been no successful treatment of the skins
in this country, although concern in New
York is experimenting with fair probabil1-
ty of final success. The heavy costs OF dn-
ties and transhipments are what force up the
prices of this comfortable article of luxury
It is estimated that there are over O,OOo,-
600 invested in this country in seal skin gar
ments of various kinds. The natural color
of the fur seal is a light silver grey. Inc
short thick fur is hidden by long hair. This
hair penetrates more deeply into the skin
than the fur. and by an ingeniou ous and dell
cate operation the skin is so shaved or spht
as to cut off the ends of the long hairs, which
are then easily plucked out, leaving the soft
fur uninjured The final and most difficult
operation in the dressing of the fur seal SKIN
is in dyeing it the rich dark brown SO much
admired. and which we have not been able
to successfully match on this side OF
the water. Our representative at Ala ska
does not appear to have an exalted loea
of the resources of that country, mlnerai
or otherwise All the gold-bearing quartz is
of low grade-from three to five dollars the
ton-and the silver and the otner
metals are no better proportionately. The
minerals amount to nothing virtually The
mines prove difficult to work and expensive
withal. The fisheries may later have some
value. Few persons have an idea of the
enormous extent of this most northerly pos
session of Uncle Sans, which is nearly sew
enty times larger than the State of Massa-
chusetts alone. But it is a barren, noun
famous, inhospitable country, with no in
ducement for the settler.