ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 239 



Dr. Akerly Avas a resident j^liysician on St. Paul in 1891, and at page 

 95 will be found his testimony. It is so long bearing on this point, 

 although it is interesting and very much to the point, that 1 will only 

 read a line or two here and there. But it is just touching this par- 

 ticular point, without going over his evidence in support of the general 

 fact that is not denied. He says : 



During my stay on the island I made frequent visits to the different seal rookeries. 



That is on St. Paul. Then he says : 



One thinjij Avhich attracted my attention was the immense number of dead young 

 seals; another was the presence of quite a number of young seals on all the rookeries 

 in an emaciated and apparently very weak condition. I was requested by the Gov- 

 ernment Agent to examine some of the carcasses for the i)ur))ose of determining the 

 cause or causes of tlieir death. / risifed and walked over all the rookeries. On all 

 dead seals were to be found in immense numbers. Their number was more apparent 

 on those rookeries, the water sides of which were on smooth ground, and the eye 

 could glance over patches of ground, hundreds of feet in extent, which were thickly 

 strewn with carcasses. Where the water side of the rookeries, as at Northeast 

 Point and the Reef (south of the village) were on rocky ground, the immense number 

 of dead was not so apparent, but a closer examination showed that the dead were 

 there in equally great numbers, scattered among tlie rocks. In some localities, the 

 ground was so thickly strewn with the dead tha,t one had to pick his way carefully 

 in order to avoid stepping on the carcasses. The great mass of dead in all cases was 

 within a short distance of the Avater's edge. The patches of dead would commence 

 at the water's edge, and stretch in a wide swarth up into the rookery. Amongst 

 the immense masses of dead were seldom to be found the carcasses of full grown 

 seals, but the carcasses were those of pups or young seals born that year. I can 

 give no idea of the exact number of dead, but I believe that they could only be 

 numbered by the thousands on each rookery. Along the water's edge, and scattered 

 amongst the dead, were quite a number of live pups Avhich were in an emaciated 

 condition. 



and so forth. His whole testimony should be read. 



The last Witness I shall refer to from page 152, is Mr. J.-O. Eedpath, 

 who says : 



Excepting a few pups killed by the surf occasionally, it has been demonstrated 

 that all the pups found dead are poor and starved, and when examined, their 

 stomachs are found to be without a sign of food of any sort. In 1891, the rookeries 

 on St. Paul Island were covered, in places, with dead pups, all of which had every 

 symptom of having died of hunger, and on opening several of them, the stomachs 

 were found to be empty. 



The British Commissioners themselves have not denied that there 

 were pups on other rookeries than Tolstoi and Polavina, because in 

 section 355 of their Keport they say: 



The mortality was at first entirely local, and though later a certain number of 

 dead pups were found on various rookeries examined, uothiug of a character com- 

 parable with fiiat on Tolstoi rookery was discovered. 



They were there for 12 days, and Di" Akerly has explained the dif- 

 ference. 



Now, Sir, that is my answer to this proposition. What is the war- 

 rant for the claim that the mortality of these i)ups was confined to 

 special rookeries on one Island ? 



Then it is said by my learned friend that the mortality appeared 

 again in 1892 on the same rookeries when ])elagic sealing was repressed 

 by the modus vivendi in Behring Sea? How far it was repressed is a 

 matter of conjecture; but that it was intended to be repressed is 

 undoubted. Of course, of sealing that evaded the modus, we have no 

 account here. 



The President. — Have you any reason to suppose that Behring Sea 

 was not quite closed to sealing'^ 



