332 



ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELP>. 



Note. The diagrams of tlie Uuited States Commissiouers are neces- 

 sarily framed upon conjectural assumptions, wbicli it is impossible to 

 verify. It is believed, however, that no change in these assumptions, 

 which the truth in respect to the loss of seals by their natural enemies 

 other than pelagic sealers, were it known, would require, would call 

 for any material modification of the conclusions to which these tables 

 lead. 



TABLE "B" 



Showing the number of females, which would have been alive in 1882 except for pelagic 

 sealing, and which would have appeared on the breeding grounds i7i 18S4 {calculating 

 from Table A). 



Tears. 



1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 

 1881 

 1882 



■ Catch taken from American Commissioners' Report (TJ. S. Case, p. 366). 



The American Commissioners give a hypothetical herd in which there 

 are supposed to be 1,500,000 females, of which 800,000 are capable of 

 breeding. It is seen, therefore, assuming the Pribilof herd to corre- 

 spond in numbers to the Commissioners' hypothesis, that in ten years, 

 of pelagic sealing, which destroyed 20,000 breeding females a year, the 

 number of females in the herd would be reduced by 361,840, or over 24 

 per cent of the whole number of females, while the breeding females 

 would be reduced, by 220,820, or 27| per cent of the 800,000 breeding 

 cows assumed by the Commissioners. 



TABLE "C" 



Showing the number of females, tvhich would have been alive in 1889 except for pelagic 

 sealing, and which ivould have appeared on the breeding grounds in 1891 {calculated 

 Jrom Table A). 



Years. 



1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 

 1881 

 1882 

 1883 

 1884 

 1885 

 1886 

 1887 

 1888 

 1889 



Catch taken from American Commissioners' Report (F. S. Case, p. 366). 



