ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 27 



glowing description of the way in wliich the seal race has flourished on 

 and iu the neighbourhood of the Pribilof Islands. 



It is with these statements before him, and the further statement that 

 pelagic sealing is begininug to make a formidable play or show iu the 

 neighbourhood of Behring Sea, that Mr. Elliott goes to the Islands. 

 Now I have said I am not going to read this report, because it would 

 take me a long time to go through it, and to go through it thoroughly, 

 as it must be gone through thoroughly, but I will epitomize the points 

 to which he refers. He'recoguizes pelagic sealing as a contributory 

 cause of the mischief, but he does not stigmatize it as the main cause 

 of the mischief. He attributes the depletion which he observes to the 

 excessive killing of males, to the injurious system of driving, to the still 

 more dangerous system of redriving again and again the same seal, and 

 he arrives at the conclusion that the drives should be so managed that 

 the seals actually driven are killed. He points out that whereas under 

 the older state of things when he was visiting the islands in 1873 and 

 1874 it was not necessary ordinarily speaking to turn back as it was 

 called more than 10 to 15 per cent of the entire number sought to be 

 driven — that so reduced was the condition of things that they had to 

 be driven and driven again and redriven and turned away from these 

 drives as much on some occasions as 85 %of theentirenumber— I believe 

 I am understating it now — it was as much as 90 per cent as my learned 

 friend reminds me in some cases. He points out what the result of this 

 is. He points out that the result of that driving is to cause the death — 

 I think the expression is — " of countless thousands " — he points out the 

 further result is, as regards those surviving, that in consequence of the 

 cruelty to which tliey were subjected, so far as they were nudes, it was 

 pernjanently to injure if not destroy the use of those males for the pur- 

 pose of procreation. 



iSTow these are the results at which he arrives, clear and distinct — 

 not vague opinions, but perfectly justitied, as I submit the Tribunal 

 will see wlien they come to examine his report by facts and circum- 

 stances which he vouches. 



I wish to say a little more about this. The system pursued now and 

 which is claimed to be the only proper system is, as the Tribuiuil will 

 recollect, the killing of males only. We submit that that, as it has 

 been carried on, is not a sound principle and how my learned fi lends, 

 with that marked devotion which they profess for tlie law of nature, 

 could have found it in their hearts to justify it I do not understand. 

 This is an admitted fact that nature iu its arrangements produces an 

 equal number of males and females — that is the law of nature. Is 

 it to be said that that law exists for no purpose whatever. So is it to 

 be said that there was net some wise purpose in dealing with animals 

 ferw naturae in these balances of the two sexes— I speak of animals 

 ferw naturce only. — If you are dealing with animals domesticated or 

 tamed, so that you can make judicious selection of the best specimen 

 for the purpose of reproduction in dealing with such animals we are 

 able from long experience and observation to arrive at definite and 

 safe conclusions as to the productive capacity of the female or as to 

 the duration of the virile power of the male, and we may, by a system 

 of artificial rules, improve the breed, but where you are dealing with a 

 race admittedly /erce naturae incaiiable of improvement in the breed by 

 the art of man, dealing with a class where you cannot select the best 

 specimens of males and females for the puri)ose of reproduction, where 

 you are practically in ignorance, for that is one of the appalling facts 

 in this case — the amount of ignorance, and very little is known about 



