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



pouncls, in the aggregate, of large pebbles, which, in grinflirtg against one another, 

 I believe, must comfort the seal by aiding to destroy, in a great measnre, those 

 intestinal pests. 



Now, I turn to the wider consideration of tbe case of the females; 

 and I turn to the British Commissioners' Report, section 232, where 

 the matter is carefully gone into at page 39 of that Eeport. 



Some particulars are given on a later page respecting the abstention from food of 

 the fur-seals while remaining upon or about the breeding islands. It a]tpears to be 

 certain that the mature males doing duty on the breeding rookeries do not feed at 

 all dnring the breeding and for some time at least after landing females do not leave 

 the rookery grounds in search of food. 



That is a common fact admitted, that for some weeks after, — this is a 

 fiict not in dispute, — the female landing and giving birth to her pup, 

 she does not for some weeks leave the island, and, therefore, for some 

 weeks does not obtain any food at all. That is an admitted fact. The 

 witnesses vary as to the length of time, but the body of evidence turns 

 to that being something like three weeks. 



Mr. Carter. — We do not concede any period of several weeks. 



Sir Charles Russell. — The shortest time that is put (I assure 

 you, Mr. Carter, we are not making these statements without consider- 

 ing them). 



Mr. Carter, — When you say that we concede it, I submit that you do. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Well, if you will be kind enough to pay 

 attention and look at the evidence, I think you will find I am right. 

 There is not one witness who speaks on the subject who was called by 

 the United States who does not admit that for a considerable period 

 they do not leave the Islands after giving birth to their i)up, and the 

 shortest period, I speak from recollection but after careful examination, 

 is a period of 17 days. Other witnesses put it longer, and I say the 

 bulk of the testimony fixes it at about three weeks. 



My learned friend. Sir Richard Webster will read this for me. 



Sir Richard Webstek : 



There is no apparent reason why tlie " holluschickie," or yotiug males, sliould 

 not go to sea in quest of tish. Singularly enough, however, though animals of this 

 class have been killed by hundreds of thousands upon the breeding islands under 

 all conceivable conditions of weather, and often within less than an hour of their 

 deportation from their hauling-grounds, the almost universal testimony is to the 

 ettect that their stomachs are invariably found to be free from food. 



Then follow some passages about male seals that I need not now 

 read again. I may say the first number killed was 20 seals, and the 

 second 98. 



Then n° 235 is— 



From the large North Rookery on Behring Island, 5th September, an adult male 

 or " seacatch," two females, and an unweaned pup, were driven directly from the 

 rookery ground, about 200 yards distant, and killed, by permission of the authori- 

 ties, for jjresentation by us as specimens to the British Museum. The stomachs of 

 all four were completely empty, with the exception of a few worms in those of the 

 three aflults. Not only the pup, but the females, and even the old male, were tat 

 and in good condition. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Now, on the next page, paragraph 242 : 



Perhaps the most notable feature in regard to this food question, and one directly 

 consequent on the prolonged abstinence of the seals from food while on and about 

 the islands, is the entire absence of all excrement on the rookeries and hauling 

 grounds. Captain Bryant appears, however, to bo the only author who has specially 

 mentioned this particular and striking fact. He writes: 



The fact of their remaining without food seems so contrary to nature, that it 

 seems to me proper to state some of the evidences of it. Having been assured by 

 the natives that such was the f;ict, I deemed it of sufficient imiiortauce to test it by 

 all the means available. Accordingly, I took special pains to examine daily a large 



