116 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 



the Tribunal of what has been the conduct of the United States Gov- 

 ernment in connection with the information they have obtained — that 

 although there were at their disposal five or six competent gentlemen 

 who had been in an indepeudejit position and had previous experience 

 of the existing, state of things on the Pribilof Islands, and therefore 

 whose opinion would have been extremely valuable inasmuch as they 

 would not be forming conclusions for the first time, but would be bring- 

 ing their opinions to bear on the changed state of circumstances — the 

 United States, in the exercise of their discretion, thought tit to send, in 

 the years 1891 and 1892 — 1891 particularly — to the Islands, Mr. Stanley- 

 Brown, who while his powers of observation were, I will assume, equal 

 to those of anyone and his intention to record accurately surpassed by 

 nobody, on the other hand it is obvious from a perusal of his affidavits, 

 that he spoke in ignorance and in inexperience of what had been known 

 before of the habits of these seals, and to a large extent was forming 

 opinions and drawing conclusions which a vast mass of testimony enables 

 one to show are incorrect, or at any rate are not correct to the full extent 

 they are not stated. 



Now, Sir, the paragraph to which I was about to refer will be found 

 at page 386 of the United States Counter Case. This is referring, Sir, 

 not to his visit in 1891 but to his visit in 1892. The paragraphs of the 

 affidavit are not numbered, but you will find it is the last paragraph on 

 page 386. He says there : 



I arrived on the islaud this year a few days after the coming of the first cows, and 

 by selecting a small harem composed of seals the arrival of which I had seen, and 

 giving it daily observation, I was able to satisfy myself that females begin to go into 

 the water from 14 to 17 days after first landing. On first entering the sea they make 

 a straight line for the outer waters, and as far as the eye can follow them they seem 

 still to be travelling. 



It is perhaps unfortunate that we were not told what distance that 

 was. We know from other evidence that the sea, at those times is 

 densely crowded when the weather is fine, with seals. Then Mr. Stanley- 

 Brown says : 



The first cows to arrive are the first to depart in search of food ; 



Of course that is purely inference, whether or not they depart in 

 search of food: 



And by the first week in July the cows are coming and going with such frequency 

 as to be readily seen at any time. The accompanying photograph (taken on July 8, 

 1892, from the same position as, but one day earlier than, the one last year which 

 faces page 13 of Vol. II of the Case) shows pups the mothers of which are already at 

 sea. 



I do not think the photograph will enable you to tell that the pups' 

 mothers are already at sea, but I am quite willing to assume that Mr. 

 Stanley-Brown did see — and I take it from him without a word of criti- 

 cism — the mother-seals going into the water, and that the conclusion 

 that he draws is that they begin first to go into the water at from four- 

 teen to seventeen days. Whether they first go into the water to feed, or 

 whether they go into the water for purposes of enjoyment, or for other 

 purposes dictated by other instincts, as others have thought with not 

 less experience than Mr. Stanley-Brown, is a matter which one may 

 fairly criticise; but at any rate the furthest that Mr. Stanley-Brown can 

 go, looking at the matter from the point of view that he is entitled to 

 look at it from — namely that of supporting as he fairly wished to sup- 

 port the United States case — is that they go into the water for the first 

 time from 14 to 17 days after they come on shore. 



