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



Senator MorGtAn. — !N"ot of the animals engaged in reprodnction. 



Sir Charles Russell. — JSTot as far as it can be avoided. 



Senator Morgan. — But they are divided geographically from each 

 other by an instinct of nature. 



Sir Charles Russell. — I assure You, Sir, I would not rely too 

 much u])on that, because the lines are not so very sharply drawn as all 

 that. There is a picture, if you turn to the diagram which faces page 

 22 of this report, which is a very expressive one, and I think, while, ol 

 course, it does not profess to be strictly accurate, it gives a very great 

 idea of it. 



The President. — You mean the killing in June and July. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Yes, the great killing is in the months oi 

 June and July. The earlier history, going back a good many years, 

 shows they used to get the killing all practically done, certainly, before 

 the end of July. 



The President. — Before the stagey period. 



Sir Charles Russell. — But undoubtedly of later years, from the 

 constant necessity of redriving, the period of killing has been extended, 

 but it is as substantially shown on page 22. 



It is true, as Senator Morgan, said — 1 have not suggested anything 

 to the contrary. — that there are certain more or less clearly marked 

 lines of demarcation, if I may use that word, between the young kill- 

 able males and the others; but that is not very sharply defined, and 

 the evidence undoubtedly shows that a number get mixed up in the 

 herd, which have to be separated from the rest and diiven back. You 

 will remember that when I was dealing with the question of the alleged 

 incapacity of domesticity of the fur-seal, that I cited the case of a pup 

 called " Jimmie", which had been got hold of by a gentleman there, and 

 he described it as a pup which the cow had dropped while being driven. 

 So that they do get to a greater or less degree mixed up, although of 

 course the object is to prevent that mixing. 



On page 10 of the Rei^ort, they dwell on the misproportion — the alter- 

 ation, I will say, of the proportion of males and females — very much as 

 Professor Elliott does, and citing Professor Elliott — they dwell upon the 

 large and increasing number of barren females; and in paragraph 50 

 of that Report, they mention that percentage of driving back, which 

 shows the condition to which the race had then ueen reduced. They 

 say in relation to these drives, the last sentence in this paragraph: 



The proportion thus turned away, according to the report of the special Treasury 

 Agent in 1890, actually rose to ninety per cent of the whole number driven. 



Now, it is a plain matter of arithmetic, if you drive 100 and only kill 

 10 of that hundred, that the other 90 are doomed to be driven and 

 re-driven; and nobodj- can tell exactly how often, but at all events 

 several times, before they meet their ultimate fate. 



Then at page 11, they proceed to deal with the sealing at sea. They 

 note the fact — in a marginal note, and it is not necessary, I think, for 

 my purpose, to read the paragraph — that pelagic sealing is a further 

 draft upon seal life. They give its history and development, beginning 

 with independent native hunting, its growth, and then they mention 

 the fact, which is not unimportant in connection with what has been 

 said about 1884 and the marked decrease that was seen in 1884, that 

 the first vessei which entered Behring Sea for the purpose of sealing 

 was the " Mary Ellen", in 1884. That, I think, was an American vessel. 

 I should have said that was the first of the Columbian -vessels. Then 

 they deal with the decrease observed on the Pribilof Islands, and the 

 measures practiced to obtain a quota; and in paragraph 72 there is a 



