ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 233 



it from the lowest "75" np to several witnesses wlio say "all," wliicli 

 is probably ratlier a strong, tliougli perbaj)s natural statement of wit- 

 nesses who do not atteni]>t to be particularly critical. 



Then we have examined hunters and seamen, not officers of vessels, 

 t)2:21 of them are British subjects, and 41 American subjects, and the 

 languageof those witnesses is just the same. It would be a repetition for 

 me to read down these two or three columns. The lowest that is stated, 

 I believe — I think some few of these witnesses say — is 60 per cent. 

 They are very few. Most of them use these expressions that I have 

 read: "IMost"; "a large majoiity": "mostly all"; "two-thirds"; 

 •'nearly all"; "almost exclusively"; "most of the females"; "the 

 majority " ; and to the same effect. I think there is not a witness, except 

 two or three that speak of 75 per cent, who ftills short of that. That, 

 you see, shows how it came to pass that Mr. Lampson in keeping his 

 books classitled these as female skins, because the exceptions were too 

 small to take account of. Then we have examined Indian hunters and 

 Indians, but not the less trutliful on that account. They have not 

 accpiired yet all the virtues of civilization, and their testimony is to the 

 same effect. There are of these witnesses 74, and I have given here 

 the names and pages on which their testimony is found, and the point 

 or substance of their testimony. It is an exact repetition of what I 

 have already said. There are a few of these witnesses that say "about 

 a half", and they do not go as far as the others. "About a half"; " fully 

 a half"; "one half". There are a small number who say that, and the 

 great majority nse the stronger language that I have given. I find a 

 more specific reca|)itulation than that. 28 of these witnesses say " one 

 half"; " about a half"; " nearly a half"; " a little over a half". Two 

 say "less than half"; and one of them says "a third"; and one says 

 "three out of ten"; which, of course, would be less than a third. All 

 the others say what they do say in the language I have referred to. 



Now what is the British evidence on this point? They have exam- 

 ined apparently a large body of men — I should say really a large body 

 of men. There are 25 of their witnesses who sustain the United States 

 Case, Avho use the same language that our v.itnessesdo; — "the greater 

 number", "most of the females", "about two-thirds", "most of the 

 females", "three out of five", "about two thirds", "females for the 

 most part ", " cows for the most part ". Then one says : " 75 per cent", 

 "four out of six", "two out of three". One says he did not get any 

 this year that had no pups. "I do not remember having got an old 

 cow that had no milk: one hunter says, 1 never saw an old cow along 

 ooast without i)ups ", and so on. I do not read it all. There are thus 

 25 British witnesses that cannot be distinguislied in their testimony 

 from ours. Then there is another class of 14 of their witnesses who 

 are called to contradict our evidence, and they do not contradict it. 

 They do not specifically sustain it, but they do not contradict it. 

 'They say, the proportion of pregnant females is " about half", " fully 

 half", "or not more than half". There are three more who use these 

 ■expressions — "many of the cows", "a good many", "quite a number". 

 Then here are six witnesses in all of this array of evidence on the 

 British side who testify affirmatively, that the number and pro])ortion 

 of pregnant cows in this catch was small — and they say " about 25 per 

 cent", " about a quarter ", " in a total catch of 119 only ."')() ", in a catch 

 of 202 only 05". These refer to particular catches. "Half I got this 

 year females, mostly young cows, only four or five". Then another 

 witness says, "out of 300 not more than 100". That was in one catch. 

 Then one witness — an Indian, I judge, says "lots of them are old cows 



