120 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. 0. M. P. 



nection with them. The statement with regard to the seals that 1 i)ro 

 pose to read is at page 40 of Elliott's Eeport of 1881, 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — The one that was published in 1881? 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — Published in 1881 by the United States 

 Government. It is what Mr. Foster called the Tenth Census Report. 



Mr. Foster. — Prepared upon observations made from 1872 to 187G. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — Very likely so; but this is a republication. 

 It had been previously published, as I shall show in a moment or two, 

 in earlier years. 



The paragraph is headed " Young Pups learning to swim." 



Early in August, usaallj'^ by the 8th or 10th, I noticed one of the remarkable move- 

 ments of the season. I refer to the jiup's lirst essay in swimming. Is it not odd — 

 paradoxical — that the young seal, from the moment of his birth, uirtil he is a month 

 or six weelis old, is utterly unable to swimf If he is seized by the nape of the neck 

 and pitched out a rod into the water from the shore, his bullet-like head will drop 

 instantly below the surface, and his attenuated posterior extremities Hap impotently 

 on it. Suffocation is the question of only a few minutes, the stupid little creature 

 not knowing how to raise his immersed head and regain the air again. After they 

 have attained the age I indicate, their instinct drives them down to the margin of 

 the surf, where the alternate ebbing and flowing of its wash covers and uncovers 

 the rock or sandy beaches. They first smell and then touch the moist pools, and 

 flounder in the upper wash of the surf, which leaves them as suddenly high and dry 

 as it inmiersed tliem at first. After this beginning, they maiie slow aud clumsy 

 progress in learning the knack of swimming. For a week or two when overhead in 

 depth, they continue to flounder about in the most awkward manner, thrashing the 

 water as little dogs do with their fore-feet, making no attempt wliatever to use 

 the hinder ones. Look at that pup now, launched out for the first time beyond his 

 depth; see how he struggles — his mouth wide open and his eyes fairly popping. He 

 turns instantly to the beach, ere he has fairly struck out from the point whence he 

 launched in ; and as the receding swell, which at first carried him ott' his feet and 

 out, now returning, leaves him high and dry for a few miuutes, he seems so weary 

 that he weakly crawls up out beyond its swift returning wash, aud coils himself up 

 immediately to take a recuperative nap. He sleeps a few minutes, perhaps half an 

 hour, then wakes as bright as a dollar, apparently rested, and at his swvimming 

 lesson he goes again. By repeated and persistent attempts, the young seal gradually 

 becomes familiar with the water aud acquainted with his own power over that ele- 

 ment, Avhich is to be his real home and his whole support. Once boldly swimming, 

 the pup fairly revels in his new happiness. He and his brethren have now begun to 

 haul and swarm along the whole length of St. Paul coast, from Northeast Point 

 down and around to Zapadnie, lining the alternate sand beaches and rocky shingle 

 with their plump black forms. 



I now read from page 141 of Volume I, Appendix to the British 

 Counter Case, from Mr. Macoun's report: 



The first pups I saw swimming in 1892 were in the water in front of North rookery 

 on St. George Island, the 18th July. The day was bright and warm, and the tide at 

 the time of my visit was just beginning to flow. A great many pujis were playing 

 in the pools among the rocks near the edge of the sea; in one place there were forty 

 or fifty going, in many others more than half that number, while all along the shore 

 the young seals were in little groups of from three to ten. No old seals were near 

 them but those swimming about in the water and those going to and coming 

 from it. As the tide came in some of the pups slowly retreated, but many of them 

 remained among the rocks until the water was some distance beyond them. They 

 played about in much the same way as hollnschickie do, and swam from one rock to 

 another and back many times, with no appreciable interval of rest. I neither at this 

 time nor on any other occasion saw an old seal attempt to teach a pup to swim nor 

 carry it to the water; nor did I ever see anything that would lead me to suppose that 

 pups learned to swim. On the contrary, a pup cut from its mother can swim for a long 

 time. Ten days later these pups had inci'eased considerably in size, aud were swim- 

 ming and playing about in tlie water in great numbers, seeming as much at home 

 there as the older seals did ; a few of them were 50 or 60 yards from the shore diving 

 without apparent effort through the large waves that were coming in. 



Early in August j)"ps had begun to haul out with the holluschickie on the North 

 side of Lukannon Rookery, nearly a mile from the rookery, and by the middle ot 

 that month a great many of them were to be seen far liom the rookery grounds. 

 They were of course, in greatest numbers in front of and near. 



