ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 227 



"pelagic sealing." Tliey uniformly testify tli at the male and female 

 skins are easily distinguisliable; that the "Northwest" skins are in 

 large proportion females, and command consequently a lower price. 

 And the diflerent witnesses state this proportion all the way from sev- 

 enty-live per cent, >a hich is the lowest, to ninety i)er cent. Some of 

 them without giving a percentage in figures, say " mostly " or "mainly " 

 or "almost exclusively" females. 



Several of the London witnesses have been reexamined on the part 

 of (heat Britain, but do not modify their original statement on this 

 l)oint. 



Nor is any other dealer or manufacturer of seal skins produced by 

 Great Britain to testify to the contrary. 



(c) The evidence derived from an examination of all the sealing ves- 

 sels that have been seized, or were otherwise in a situation to have 

 their cargoes examined, after being engaged in pelagic seaUng. This 

 evidence relates to the contents of twenty different vessels examined 

 at different times and places, and a large number of skins taken from 

 other seized sealers, not named, but examined at the Commander 

 Islands by the Eussiau authorities. And the average result of all 

 these examinations was that the slain were eighty-eight per cent 

 females. 



{(l) The testimony of hunters and seamen actually engaged in pelagic 

 sealing. 



Of these witnesses there are one hundred and thirty-six who testify 

 on behalf of the United States, made up as follows: 



Of masters and mates of vessels, twenty-nine — five British and 

 twenty-four American ; officers of the United States Navy or Kevenue 

 Marine, four; officers resident on the islands, two; seamen and hunters 

 able to write, forty-eight — nine British and thirty-nine American; sea- 

 men and hunters illiterate, five British and nine American; Indian 

 hunters, thirty-one. These witnesses state the proportion of females 

 taken in pelagic sealing at various figures from seventy-five to ninety- 

 five per cent. Some of them who give no figures say "nearly all," 

 "mostly," "a large proportion," "the great majority," "principally" 

 females, or use other words of similar import. 



The average of the proportion given by all the evidence of the 

 United States is: Of the British fur dealers, eighty-two per cent; of 

 the American, eighty-five and a half per cent; of the contents of 

 vessels examined, eighty-eight per cent; of the sealers and officials, 

 eighty- three per cent. All the American evidence on this point was 

 printed as a part of the original Case of the United States, and was 

 therefore fully open to reply by British evidence. 



The only testimony offered on the subject on the part of Great 

 Britain was the testimony of men engaged in the business of pelagic 

 sealing, brought forward in the Counter Case, so that no opportunity 

 to reply to it was afforded to the United States. 



The witnesses thus produced number one hundred and twenty-two. 

 Of these fourteen fully supported the contention of the United States, 

 using such expressions as these to indicate the proportion of females in 

 the pelagic catch : "Four-fifths," "two-thirds," "three-fifths," "sixty- 

 five per cent," "eighty per cent," "chietly female." One Matness, Capt. 

 Lavender, states it thus : " Over one-third females ; nearest the islands, 

 mostly females." 



Twenty-two other witnesses, including five captains of Canadian ves- 

 sels, state the percentage of females as "more than half," without say- 

 ing how much more. They were not pressed to be more specific by the 



