ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 61 



the winter, gives tliem the mildness which they come away to obtain, 

 on account of the cold and the ice that surrounds these islands in the 

 winter. 



The President. — Does that drift current run all the year round, or 

 only in certain seasons? 



Senator Morgan.— It runs all the year. 



Mr. Phelps. — I think, Sir, it runs all the year round. 



Senator Morgan. — It is like the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. 



Mr. Carter. — It is as constant as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. 



Mr. Phelps. — Yes; T suppose it is. 



Now then, the suggestion is that under those circumstances, at some 

 time, — and I believe their evidence, so far as you may dignify it with 

 the name of evidence tends to show that it is in the fall when they 

 come away from here (indicating) — some of these seals find their way 

 over here (indicating), where they would encounter the migration of 

 the Commander seals south. It is not contended that the Commander 

 Island migration is any later in the year than the migration from 

 the Pribilof Islands. One would suppose it is about the same time. 

 Whether the evidence states I do not remember. But under those 

 circumstances, after this migration has begun in the fall, the sugges- 

 tion is that they find their way over into this space here (indicating), 

 so that they can be seen to some extent to have been mingled with the 

 seals on the Commander Islands. 



The President. — Perhaps the commingling would come from the 

 other side, from the Commander Islands seals coming into this curreut? 



Mr. Phelps. — Yes; I was about to say that upon any evidence or 

 pretence of evidence, it might as well come from the Commander seals 

 as from these. That is left altogether in doubt. Now, that is the 

 theory suggested. 



Senator Morgan. — If you will allow me to inquire, does not the evi- 

 dence in this case show that this great ocean current of warm water 

 that you speak of divides out to the southwest of the Aleutian group, 

 one branch of it going up into the Pichring Sea, and keeping that sea 

 open, and the other passing around upon the coast of British Columbia 

 and the United States'? 



Mr. Phelps. — That suggestion, Sir, is true, and the maps show it; 

 but the evidence in this case does not show it. Tlierefore I desire that 

 it should not be put down upon this map, because it is not proved by 

 the evidence. But it is laid down on the public maps, and I have no 

 doubt that the division of the current that you suggest is true. 



Senator Morgan. — Are not the public maps evidence? 



Mr. Phelps. — I do not know but they are. 



Lord Hannen. — The whole course of the movements of the ocean 

 have been laid down upon charts, and it would be very easy to find one 

 which would show the whole course. 



Mr, Phelps. — There is an atlas that we will bring into court that 

 does show it. 



Senator Morgan: — If you will allow me to suggest in that connec- 

 tion, I think it is stated in this evidence, perhaps without any dissent, 

 that the latest arrivals at the Pribilof Islands are the pup seals. 



Mr. Phelps. — Yes. 



Senator Morgan. — Is not that accounted for by the fact that having 

 very imperfect or short coats of hair or fur, they naturally take a longer 

 route to the south, in order to get to a warmer climate, aiul therefore 

 they cannot arrive at the seal islands at the same time that the old 

 males, the holluschickie, or the females would : that they have a longer 

 detour necessarily because of the demands of their nature? 



