298 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



seal 1 La\ (■ tiikeii have been presiiaut cows. ^Vllen the females nre w ith pup they 

 sleep more, are less ac^tive in the water, and more easily approached than the male 

 seals. But very few youug male seals are taken by me alonjj the coast. (U. 8. Case, 

 Vol. II, p. 261.) 



Peter Church, who has been sealing four years (at page 256 of the 

 United States Case, Volume 11) says: 



Have first taken seal off Sitka the middle of April. Followed the seal up the 

 coast as far as Yakntak. where they disappeared the last of June. . . Most of the 

 seals taken by me have been females with j^ouug. 



There are witnesses from Prince William Sound, latitude 00°. — 

 Nicola Gregreoft" and thirteen other Indians. Xicola Gregreotf says: 



In the latter part of March a few fur-seals usually first make their appearance in 

 Prince William's Sound and are more j)lentitul iu tlic latter part of April. They are 

 mostly large males, very few females being taken, and those only toward the close 

 of the season in the latter part of May. Very few females taken iu this region but 

 are pregnant. (U. S. Case, Vol. II, p. 234.) 



Olaf Kvan says: 



The lirst seals appear in Prince William's Souud about the first of May and were 

 form'^rly very plentiful, while now they are becoming constantly scarcer. I do not 

 know the cause of this decrease. All the seals which I have seen killed were females, 

 and the majority of these were pregnant cows. (U. S. Case, Vol II, p. 236.) 



Nicolas Andersen says : 



Seals are first seen at Prince William Sound about May Ist. (U. S. Case, Vol. II, 

 p. 223.) 



The last locality I will refer to is Cook's Inlet. Metry Monin and 12 

 other Indians testify that: 



The fur-seals usually appear about Cook's Inlet early in the month of May. They 

 were formerly found in this region in great numbers, but of late ye_ars they have 

 been constantly diminishing owing to the number of sealing vessels engaged in kill- 

 ing them. They do not enter Cooks Inlet. (U. S. Ca.se, Vol. II, p. 326.) 



Another witness Alexander Shyha says : 



The fur-seals usually appear off this part of the coast about the month of May, 

 but they do not enter Cook's Inlet. (U. S. Case, Vol. II, p. 226.) 



There is another class of evidence as to where pelagic sealing is car- 

 ried on along the coast, and the character of that catch before the seal 

 herd enters through the passes. The Marquis Venosta, when this was 

 going on, put a question in the course of the argument on this point. 

 He enquired whether by the month of June the female seals are prac- 

 tically in Behring Sea, and whether at that time a considerable num- 

 ber of gravid females were not found along the Alaskan Peninsula.. 

 Sir Richard Webster said that by the 1st of May they would be so far 

 advanced that vessels sailing from Victoria on the 1st of May would 

 not be able to overtake them. 1 projjose to refer to a little ot the vast 

 amouut of testimony on the subject of the duration of Pelagic sealing 

 on the coast. 



The United States Commissioners, at page 305 of the United States 

 Case, say: 



Pelagic Sealing is now carried on in the North Pacific Ocean from .January until 

 late in June. 



The British Commissioners at Section 649 of their Report say; 



Behring Sea is now usually entered by the pelagic sealers between the 20th June 

 and the 1st July. 



The British Commissioners at Sections 132, 212 and 282, say: 



In pelagic sealing, the weather is usually such as to induce a few vessels to go out 

 in Jauuary, but the catches made in this month are as a rule small. In February, 



