OKAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 305 



that is to say, terminate just when the pehxgic sealing be<?ins, when it 

 would not have any sort of effect at all and would not cut off a 

 single vessel except a very few of the laggards that have gone in on 

 the last day of June. It would have retarded them, I suppose, perhaps 

 a week; one vessel in ten or twenty, as the case may be, would have 

 been retarded, 



iS^ow, let me ask you, what would have been the effect if this close 

 time that is now propovsed for Behring Sea had been enforced during 

 the last ten years and had been religiously observed. 



In the light of this evidence — in the light of their utter failure to 

 contradict it and careful avoidance of a question which could be an- 

 swered in but one way — in the light of the admission I have read from 

 the British Commissioners that the coast catch terminates on the last 

 of June, and the Behring Sea begins on the first of July, what if this 

 Kegulatiou which has been submitted to you to be adopted for the pre- 

 servation of the fur seal had been enforced for the last 10 years. It 

 would not have saved the life of one single seal — not one — it would 

 simply have imposed upon these few that are earlier than the first of 

 July the necessity to wait a few days before they entered upon the 

 harvest. 



What more can be said, about this close time? Not a single word 

 usefully. I leave it to the consideration of the Tribunal. The other 

 end of the close time you will remember is proposed to be the 1'ith 

 September. All the evidence is that every seal is out of the sea before 

 the 15th S'eptember. It is no use at the other end, it is no use at the 

 beginning, and no use at the close. Now I come to the question of 

 zone. 



The President. — Is it the case that there is no sealing after Sep- 

 tember at all either in or out of Behring Sea? 



Mr. Phelps. — Inside of Behring Sea to which this alone applies, 

 there is substantially none after the 15th — I would not undertake to 

 say that after a very exceptional season some vessels might linger 

 longer; but nothing to any extent. 



Sir Charles Eussell. — There can be no sealing after the 15th 

 September jiractically — the weather prevents it. 



The President. — The sealing ships do not follow the herds of seals 

 out of Behring Sea? 



Sir Charles Kussell. — The weather prevents sealing. 



The President. — Even in the North Pacific'? 



Sir Charles Eussell. — So I understand. 



Mr. Phelps. — Seals begin to leave along in September, and their 

 migration is determined undoubtedly by the weather. Some times in 

 a very mild season some seals renuxin. The great bulk of them migrate, 

 and the exact period of migration, as with all migratory animals that 

 I know anything about, is affected to a greater or lesser extent by the 

 weather and the season. Certainly so with migratory birds. 



Now in respect to this zone, this 20 mile zone — around the islands 

 in Behring Sea. We have seen that the close time is of no avail at all. 

 How much will be the avail of the 20 mile zone? I will show you in a 

 fewminntes a ludicrous pi(;ture of what Eussia has made out for itself, 

 by insisting upon this 30-mile zone which is 10 miles larger than they 

 proposed for us. We shall follow some of the vessels that we had in 

 hand before, through their very successful voyages around the Com- 

 mander Islands, and I shall show by their logs — all that we could get — • 

 how much this 30-mile zone amounts to; that is to say, it amounts to 

 almost nothing. 



B S, PT XV 20 



