258 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



What becomes, I should like to know, of the suj^gestion that in these 

 years the liussians found it necessary to take fewer seals than the 

 United States took afterwards? This is l.Sdl and 18tL'. AVhat are the 

 records for the following- years? In 18(53 it was 70,000. I refer to the 

 United Stales Counter Case pages 195, 19(1, 197 and 199. They are 

 taken from the original letters of the managers of these Companies 

 which are there given. I read in this abbreviated way to save time, 

 and to present results instead of wading through language. You will 

 find the letters there. 



1863 : 70,000 ( U. S. Counter Case, p. 195) 



1864: 70,000 ( — — — p. 196) 



1865: 53,000 (— — — p. 197) 



1866: 53,000 (— — — p. 197) 



1867 : 75,000 ( — — — p. 199) 



The British Commissiouers suggest that the Russians were honest 

 enough, as they were about to cede the business to the United States, 

 to take a large number of seals the last year notwithstanding it might 

 be a detriment to ^he islands. That is not a very respectful suggestion 

 concerning a Government like Eussia, and certainly is not warranted 

 by any evidence; but in the United States Counter Case page 199, 

 N" 15, that such is iu)t the cause of the increase, is shewn. Then the 

 Eussian average in the late years of their control, (after they began to 

 discriminate so that the herd was in a normal condition), reached 

 70,000 skins that were taken ; and it ap])ears that more could have 

 been, and would have been taken, except that they were kept down by 

 the exigencies of the market, the want of demand. 



In 18(!8, in the chaos that took place in the absence of law, there 

 were 240,000 seals killed. That is shewn by Mr. Morgan's testimony 

 in the United States Case, Appendix Volume II, page 03. And in 

 1869, the following year, after the government had gotten hold of their 

 property and began to control it the amount was 85,000. The number 

 of seals killed on the Pribilof Islands from 1870 to 1889 for all pur- 

 poses, (including those pups killed for natives' food and the few seals 

 that died during the drives) is given in the United States Counter 

 Case, pages 425 to 428; and the total number is 1,977,337, being an 

 annual average of 98,857, That is what we took from the island before 

 the take was restricted by orders of the Secretary of State or under 

 the operation of the successive arrangements of the onodus vivencU. 

 There is what the evidence shews upon this point. 



Then it is said that there were warnings to the United States Govern- 

 ment that the killing of 100,000 seals annually was too great — that our 

 officials, some of them, made known to the (jovernment that too many 

 male seals were being killed; and they quote JJaniel Webster, an excel- 

 lent witness, properly relied on by both sides, who says that formerly 

 there would be an average of 38 cows to 1 bull — now they will not aver- 

 age 15. 



Let us see from Mr. Webster's affidavit — his observation was very 

 large — what he does say about it. You may take a casual expression 

 or a line without its context and get a very erroneous imi)ressioii. The 

 reference to this is page 179 of the 2nd United States Appendix. 

 What I am reading is a quotation. He says: 



There was never while I have been upon the islands any scarcity of vigorous bulls, 

 there always bein.i'- Ruffi<'ient number to fertilize all the cows coming to the islands. 

 It was always borne in mind l>y those on the islands tliat a sufticient number of males 

 ■must be preserved for breeding purposes. . . The season of 1891 showed that male 

 seals had certainly been in sufticient number the year belore, because the pui)s on 

 the rookeries were as many as should be for tho number of cows landing. . , ^'hen, 

 too, there tvas a 8arj)lus of vigorous hulls in 1801 who could obtain no cows. 



