96 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



going on to the Falkland Islands and killing the seals. That is all 

 there is of it. What he says on tlie general subject is not of one tenth 

 part the consequence of what either of my learned friends say, because 

 they are so much more competent to discuss it than he is. 



The deposition of Captain Budington is to be found in the 2iid volume 

 of the United States Appendix at page 593, and throws a little light 

 upon this vexed question of how far these Statutes and liegulations 

 and provisions are actually in force. He was a master mariner, and a 

 sealer in the Antarctic, who had made, as he says, several voyages to 

 the Southern hemisphere for the purpose of seal hunting, and was 

 thoroughly acquainted with the islands and coasts. He speaks of vari- 

 ous localities in which the Seals had been found, which he had visited 

 and helped to exterminate them. One is Patagonia. There, he says. 



Great quantities have been taken from the Eastern Coast, hiat at present there are 

 no seals there. 



Then. 



Terra del Fuego and the islands in the vicinity. These islands were at one time 

 very abundant in seals and were considered among the best rookeries. I vis^ited 

 them in 1879-1880 and took 5,000 skins. On my last voyage in 1891-1892 I took only 

 900 and the majority of these came from auother portion of the coast which had not 

 been worked for twelve or fifteen years. Thousands of skins had formerly been 

 taken from these islands but the animals are practically extinct there today. 



But what I was coming at is this: 



Falkland Islands. At one time these islands were very abundant in seal life, but 

 excessive and indiscrimiuate killing has nearly annihilated them; this fact was rec- 

 ognized by the government of the Islands, which passed an ordinance in 1881 estab- 

 lishing a close season from October to April. It will be recollected, being in the 

 Antarctic, this is the opposite period of the year, for the islands and the seas adjacent 

 thereto. My understanding of this ordinance was that the Government would seize 

 any vessel taking seals close to or within 15 or 20 miles of the islands. It certainly 

 would not have been allowed to take seals between the Falklands and Beauchene 

 Island 28 miles distant, which is considered part of the group. I understood this 

 ordinance was passed on the ground that the seal resorting to these islands was the 

 property of the Government," and therefore it had a right to protect them every- 

 where. The Government, however, gave licenses ,to certain parties at from I. 80 

 to I. 100 a year to take seals during the close season. On account of these licenses I 

 think the effect of the ordinance is nullified, although the islands are well guarded, 

 and seals have increased very little if at all, because of allowing hunting to take 

 place under these licenses. 



^ow it is said by my learned friends, and said truly, this is the under- 

 standing of that man. Who is he? A sealer whose business has been 

 going through that part of the world and capturing the seals indis- 

 criminately, who had visited the Falkland Islands, who while there 

 were seals enough there to make it an object to have pursued them 

 refrains, because he understood as the fact undoubtedly was, that if he 

 meddled with them in defiance of the existing regulations, his vessel 

 would have been seized. It is the best evidence we can get in such a 

 case, unless indeed some one had been hardy enough to attack the seals 

 and had been seized in point of fact. The next best evidence is that of 

 persons who had been engaged in that destruction, and had such an 

 understanding in respect of the manner in which these statutes were 

 enforced, that they were induced to refrain and did refrain, and it is 

 most likely that their understanding was correct. 



In Newfoundland there is protection extended to a different variety 

 of the seals, but still seals. They are hair seals. The Act of 1879 and 

 the Act of March 1883, and the Act of 1882 are three Acts that are 

 quoted in the 1st vo. of the United States Appendix at pages 442 and 

 following, and were enacted and very properly enacted for the protection 



