ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 125 



Then in this Monograph of 1880, Professor Allen writes on the same 



subject: 



The males, diiring the breeding season, remain wholly on land, and they will suffer 

 death rather than leave their chosen spot. They thus sustain, for a period of several 

 weeks, an uninterrupted fast. They arrive at the breeding stations fat and vigor- 

 ous, and leave them weak and emaciated, having been nourished through their long 

 period of fasting wholly by the fat of their own bodies. The females remain unin- 

 terruptedly on land for a much shorter period, but for a considerable time after their 

 arrival do not leave the harems. 



I will look to see before to-morrow whether there is any other evidence 

 with regard to the sustenance of the female during this period being- 

 drawn from the fat. It is plain that Professor Allen in his earlier ref- 

 erence which I cited there refers to the fat of their bodies in the case 

 of both sexes enabling them to fast from the time they do, notwith- 

 standing the strain there is on their system. 



This is by no means the only evidence. There are two other branches 

 to which I propose to call attention which are in my submission of very 

 great importance. The first is that speaking of the seals whose bodies 

 have been opened prior to this Case, male and female; speaking of the 

 female particularly, until this case commenced there is no evidence at 

 all of anything being found in their bodies. There is one passage in 

 Mr. Stanley Brown's later aftidavit, of 3 female seals being killed at a 

 late date to which I will call attention presently, one of which was 

 found to have food in it. That is the only evidence, but of the ftict 

 that the female seals which have been killed in large numbers, for the 

 purpose of examination only, have no food in them, is spoken to by 

 abundant testimony prior to this case. Next there comes the natural 

 fact to which I must refer, though the subject is somewhat unsavoury, 

 and that is the absence on the rookeries of any excrement or any 

 excreta of any sort or kind. 



Lord Hannen. — Ui)on that may I make a suggestion, simply for the 

 purpose of acquiring information! May not they have habits of clean- 

 liness which would account for it? I am simply enquiring, but may 

 they not go into the water to get rid of any excreta? 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — There is no evidence of their doing so.' 



Lord Hannen. — It only passed through my mind; that was all. 



Sir KiCHARD Webster. — And I may say, my Lord, that it was 

 present to our minds too, and we endeavored to see if there was any 

 evidence of that kind, but there is none. It would be a very remark- 

 able incident, having regard to the time that they remain on land, and 

 their general habits if it w^ere so; but the evidence is particularly 

 strong, and it is my duty to call the attention of the Tribunal to it. 



Now I would ask the Tribunal to refer to paragraphs 232 to 235 of 

 the British Commissioners' Eeport. 



232. 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 appears 

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

 at all during the breeding season, and that for some time, at least several weeks, 

 after landing, the breeding females do not leave the rookery grounds in search of 

 food. There is no apparent reason why the " holluschickie," or young males, should 

 not go to sea in quest of fish. Singularly enougli, 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 

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



233. With a view to obtain such direct information on this subject as might be 

 possible, the stomachs of seals killed in our presence were examined; and though 

 the results of these examinations, noted below, do not entirely confirm the state- 

 ment just referred to, they show a remarkable absence of food. The number of 

 seals which it was thus possible to examine was of course small. 



