ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 163 



of the Appendix to the British Counter Case, to which I am about to 

 refer. It is by Captain Parr, who is the cliief ofticer in charge of tlie 

 watching fleet: 



With reference to the possibility of any other sealiug-schooners having been 

 talcing seals in the neighborhood of the Pribilof Islands besides those cajitured, I 

 have heard it stated that one vessel claimed to have done so to the extent of some 

 100 skins, but I think even that is donbtful. If the total number of seals killed in 

 Behring Sea by sealiug-schooners is taken at 500, I should say that it would largely 

 exceed the mark. 



I have etc. (Signed) A. A. C. Pauk. 



Therefore we have got this common ground, that pelagic sealing in 

 the eastern waters of Behring Sea was practically uou-existent iu the 

 year 1892. 



Let me call attention, Sir, if you please to the actual observations 

 ]nade by Mr. Macoun in the year 1892 upon the island, corroborated, 

 as I shall show you presently, by Mr. Stanley Brown's aftidavit. I 

 shall read from both the United States testimony as well as from Mr. 

 Macoun's report. I now read from page 115 of the flrst volume of the 

 Appendix to the British Counter Case: 



During the months of July and August a great many females were watched as they 

 came from the water, and although in a few cases they were seen to go to the extreme 

 back of the occupied rookery-ground, none were seen to go beyond it. 



(&) Many pups lose their lives when stampedes occur, and many others when bulls 

 dash among the breeding females and their young to prevent the escape of a female 

 from the harem. 



The scattered dead pups that are to be seeu on all rookeries have been destroyed 

 in either of these ways. 



(c) A few pups probably lose their lives in the surf, or by being dashed irjion rocks, 

 but the number must, under ordinary circumstances, be very small. As earJy as the 

 18th July, and on many occasions afterwards, pups were watched while in the water 

 close to the shore, and though they were often thrown with great force against the 

 rocks, no pup was ever seen to receive the slightest injury. These causes of death 

 to young seals were noted by me, but are obviously insuthcient to account for the 

 great mortality among the pups on Polavina and Tolstoi rookeries. 



While standing beside the camera at Polavina rookerj^ on the 22nd July I counted 

 143 dead pups; they were of the same size as the living pups near them, and exhib- 

 ited no sign of having died of hunger, nor did it appear that they had been crushed to 

 death in a stampede, as those that could be seen were at or near the limit of the rookery- 

 ground. No estimate could be made of the number of dead pups that were lying on 

 this rookery as the seals lay so closely together on its southern and eastern slopes 

 that but a small part of the breeding-ground was visible. Professor Evermanu (a 

 naturalist on United States Fish Commission steamer "Albatross"), Avho was Avith 

 me at this time, and who counted 129 dead pups, thought, with me, that if so many 

 were to be seen at the outer edge of the rookery-ground, the whole number must be 

 very great, and about a month later (20th August) I had ample proof that this was 

 the case. 



I pause. Sir, to note that the United States have printed Mr. Ever- 

 man's report of this very day, the 22nd of July; and he, at page 271 

 of the Counter Case of the United States, referring to this rookery, 

 exactly confirms what Mr. Macoun had said. He gives the number of 

 pups which he saw from that place as 129, the same number given by 

 Mr. Macoun. 



I now come back to Mr. Macoun: 



I revisited Polavina rookery on this date with a native, Neh-an Maudrigan. This 

 man speaks and understands English very well, and was at this time on his way to 

 North-east Point to take charge of the guard-house there. A great many dead jjups 

 were lying at the south end of the rookery, nearly or quite as many as were to be 

 seen on Tolstoi rookery. They were lying on a sandy slope between the water and 

 the rocky ledge that separates the lower from the higher parts of this rookerj'- 

 ground, and were rather more grouped together than at Tolstoi, from 10 to 100 lying 

 quite close together, with spaces from 5 to 10 yards square between the gi'oups. 

 There were individual dead pups scattered everywhere over the rookery as on all 

 others, but on that part of it referred to above the number was very great, and the 



