ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 245 



And lie refers to that where there is a similar ordinance or provision. 

 He says: 



The system of extprmination was practised, however, at the South Shetlands; for 

 wlieiiover a seal reached the beach, of whatever deiioiuiiiatioii, he Avas immetliately 

 killed and his skill taken, and by this means at tlio end of the second year the 

 animals became nearlj^ extinct. The young, havino- lost tlieir mothers wlien only 

 three or four days old, of course died, \yhich at the lowest calculation exceeded 

 100,000. 



Mr. Williams, in a Report to a Committee of the Congress of the 

 United States, speaking of the Shetland Islands says: 



In 1872, fifty years after the slaughter at the Shetland Islands, the localities before 

 mentioned were all revisited by another generation of hunters, and in the sixteen 

 years that have elapsed they have searched every beach and gleaned every rock 

 known to their predecessors and found a few secluded and inh(js]ntable places before 

 unknown; and tiie nett result of all their toil and daring for these years scarcely 

 am.onnted to 45,000 skins; and now not e\'en a remnant remains save on the rocks off 

 the pitch of Cape Horn. The Inst vessel at South Shetland this yeur of 1888, after 

 hunting all the group, found only 35 skins, and the last, at Kerguelan Land, only 61, 

 including jmps. 



The Island of Tristan d'Aciinha and Gongh Islands, midway betwisen 

 Capes Horn and Good Hope, were formerly abnndaiitly occupied, and 

 in 1887 Captain Comer, on a sealing voyage, left six men on Gongh 

 Island, where they remained nine months, taking only about 50 skins. 



On the west coast of South Africa, the same history is true. The 

 immense number of seals in this locality, on the islands and along the 

 coast, were vigorously hunted, beginning about 1790, and large quanti- 

 ties were taken by sealing vessels at intervals up to 1830, when, owing 

 to the diminished number, sealing became unprofitable. 



The Islands southeast of the Cape of Good Hope was another place 

 once covered with a multitude of seals; so that Captain Cox, who visited 

 there in 1789, says : 



On first landing, we found the shore covered with such multitude of seals, that we 

 were obliged to disperse them before we got out of the boat. 



But, on all these Islands, only a few straggling seals are found, in 

 numbers so small as to make their pursuit unprolitable. 



In Australia and New Zealand at the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury, fur-seals in considerable numbers were found along the south- 

 west coast of Australia and in the vicinity of Tasmania. Stimulated 

 by these reports, the adventurous sealers discovered an apparently 

 inexhaustible supply of these animals on the numerous small islands 

 south of New Zealand. In 1803 a single vessel took away from the 

 island of Antipodes 60,000 prime fur-seal skins. Macquarie Island 

 was discovered in 1811 by a sealer, who procured a cargo of 80,000 

 skins. Sealing on these islands was at its height from 1810 to 1820. 

 In two years 300,000 skins were obtained, one vessel carrying away 

 100,000. Now Morrell, who visited those regions in 1830, reported that 

 the sealers had made such complete destruction "as scarcely to leave 

 a breed, not one fur-seal" being found by him. A few, however, sur- 

 vived the general slaughter, and, in recent years, under the protection 

 of the Government of New Zealand, a small annual catch of from one 

 to two thousand fur-seals is now taken. 



There is the histcny of the whole of the Avorld, as far as these animals 

 are known to exist in it. My learned friend says these animals were 

 not killed in the sea; they were killed on the islands. That is true 

 undoubtedly. They were killed on land and water. It is not the kill- 

 ing of a seal in the water that exterminates the race. The same seal 

 may be killed in the water as well as on land without affecting the 



