ORAL ARGUMENT OP HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 311 



Mr. Phelps. — Yes, I need not stop about that. On tliat chart you 

 ■will also see localities where sealers were warned and seized in 1891 

 under the modus vivendi. Of the 03 vessels that were seized or warned, 

 48 were more than 20 miles from the Pribilof Islands. Of that number 

 more than half were more than 50 miles from the island; no vessel 

 was warned before the 5tli July, and there were until the middle of 

 August, warnings every day. Now suppose that all this time there had 

 been a 20 mile zone, and suppose it had been possible to patrol it, audit 

 Lad been patrolled so that it was not invaded — I should like to know, 

 in the light of these tacts, Avhat diminution would have taken ])lace? 

 Some of course. I do nf)t deny that seals are taken within 20 miles, 

 but a proportion so small that as I remarked a little while ago it is no 

 use at all to prevent it; you may as well let it go as to repress it to such 

 a line as that. 



I will not deal with the attempt that is made to show that these cows 

 become immediately dry. The thing is preposterous. With no animal 

 of the mammal class is any such statement true. And more than 

 that, the nursing period of the young seals (in which they are help- 

 less), confirms that; and, more than that, this vast body oi^ testimony 

 that the day before yesterday I presented to you to show the actual con- 

 dition of the great proportion of these seals which were taken. The 

 suggestion does not bear a moment's investigation. It was started by 

 this man Ca})tain Warren who is proprietor, or part proprietor, of a 

 good many of these vessels, and he set up the suggestion that you may 

 immediately begin to kill seals as soon as they go to wsea, because while 

 they are nursing their young they dry up immediately in" a manner 

 unknown to any such animal — in a manner that would leave the young 

 to starve. That is the only attem])t to break the force of this tre- 

 mendous body of evidence to prove that the fact is not so. 



I need hardly detain you, because it is a comparatively unimportant 

 question ; but I will briefly touch upon it to show that the catch in 

 Behring Sea is much larger than that on the coast, in point of numbers. 

 The only years in which we have any evidence on that point are three, — 

 1889, 1890 and 1891; and 1891 is only part of a year, because the 

 modus Vivendi, as you will remember, came into operation during that 

 year; and, therefore, that is but ])artial. But taking from the British 

 Commissioners' Table the catch, at pages 205, 211 and 212, we have 

 summarised what it shows. In 1889 there are shown 21 vessels with a 

 catch on the coast, that is in the North Pacific, of 12,371 seals. In 1890, 

 30 vessels, (you see they had increased one-half,) with a catch on the 

 coast of 21,390, pretty well approaching to double the catch of the year 

 before. 



Mr. Justice HarI;AN. — You say "coast"; you mean "spring and 

 coast" added together. 



Mr. Phelps. — I mean the North Pacific. 



Sir Charles Kussell. — South of the Aleutians. 



Mr. Phelps. — South of the Aleutians, before you enter the Behring 

 Sea. In 1891 these vessels had increased to 45, and the coast catch that 

 year was 20,727. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — What is the last reference, the one of 1891? 



Mr. Phelps. —It is ])age 212. 



The President. — No. It is 205, I think. 



Mr. Phelps. — That is an average of 507 skins to all the vessels during 

 the whole three years 



Now take the same years, and see what was done in Behring Sea. 

 In 1889 there were the vessels that we have an account of, and the catch 



