ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 69 



extent till after the middle of September, before whicli the season of pelagic sealing 

 in Behring Sea practically closes. 



]!*5"ow, Sir, 1 leave this subject, althoiigli tliere is more to be said about 

 it. The bearings of it upon the question of zone you well see is impor- 

 tant because if it be true that they do not leave the islands for food 

 until that late period when they have acconii)lished their work in not 

 only giving- birth to, but of suckling-, their young for a considerable time, 

 of course it justifies the claim for a narrower area and shews the non- 

 necessity for a wider area of restriction. 1 have not lost sight of the 

 fact, and I do not lose sight of the fact, that there are instances given 

 of females with milk killed at very long distances from the islands — I 

 have not lost sight of that fact at all ; but when it is borne in mind first 

 of all, that the percentage of death of pups from natural causes is so 

 enormous, and that these natural enemies of theirs — the Killer Whales — 

 attack them when they can get at them in the water, is not it a fair 

 presumption, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to say that the 

 seals so found at remote distances, are either seals that have accom- 

 plished their work of nursing their young — that are going off milk so to 

 say — or that they are the seals that have lost their pups from natural 

 causes; for I do ask the Tribunal here (without dwelling on the evidence 

 which must be examined more in detail), to note this: That while these 

 instances are mentioned here and there in the evidence on the part of 

 the United States, I cannot recall any case where there is a combina- 

 tion of three essential things in order to enable the Tribunal to judge 

 of the weight of that particular evidence. What I mean is this — a com- 

 bination of statement as to time, of place, and of number. I find isolated 

 instances of killing at a great distance, without statement as to date; 

 of date, without statement as to place, and in both instances no eiuimer- 

 ation of nuinbers, so that they would probably be, not infrequently what 

 might properly be characterised as "exceptional cases." 



The President. — Is it not a general rule of Natural history, that 

 all animals that shed their hair or lose their feathers, like birds for 

 instance, abstain from food and go through a certain process of disease 

 or illness, at least, during that i)eriod of changing their hair or losing 

 their feather? 



Sir Charles Eussell. — I have not a sufficiently large acquaint- 

 ance with Natural history to answer the question in a reliable way — 

 in a way that would assist your view. Sir. In the case of birds of a 

 domestic kind, I have never known of their ahstaininf/ from food. 

 They no doubt go through a period of indifferent health, and they 

 may abstain, to some extent, from food; but I am not aware that they 

 entirely abstain. There are of course such cases as the case of Deer 

 who abstain, during- the rutting season, from food to any appreciable 

 extent, and cases of that kind. 



Now, Sir, I have said all I have to say upon that, except one other 

 observation. You will recollect the Correspondence relating to an 

 interview between Lord Salisbury and Mr. Phelps as to which there 

 appears to be some difi'ereuce of recollection between those two gentle- 

 men u])on the question of a "close time" — This correspondence — (I am 

 not going to deal with it now) took place in February 1888, and April 

 1888, and is referred to in December of 1888, where a close time from 

 April to September, was i)roposed by Mr. Phelps with a conditional or 

 provisional assent by Lord Salisbury. Now I could not have a more 

 notable instance than this, of the amazing ignorance that prevailed on 

 the question of the habits and conditions of seal life, because of course, 

 the suggestion of a " close time", — (and I ask attention to be paid to 

 this) — to Lord Salisbury who knew at that time as much about seals 



