ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 165 



My last visit to Tolstoi Rookery was made on the llth September. No living' seals 

 were to be seen on that part of the rookery-gronnd on which the dead ])n]is were, 

 and it was now apparent that they extended further to the left than is shown in the 

 photographs taken of theni; that is to say, a part of the ground on which seals are 

 shown in these photographs had dead pups on it which at that time could not be 

 seen ; this would add several hundreds to my Ibrmer estimate of their number. No 

 pups that had died recently were to be seen anywhere. It seems reasonably certain 

 that all the dead pups seen on this part of Tolstoi rookery died at about the same 

 time, and I would include with them all, or nearly all, that were lying on the beach. 

 These were doubtless thrown up by the sea, but there Is no evidence that they were 

 killed by the surf. The shore is sandy, and there had not been a heavy sea breaking 

 upon it for more than a month previous to the date the dead pups were lirst seen. 

 It seems possible that the mortality among these young pups was the result of an 

 epidemic that ran its course in a few days, and attacked only a small portion of the 

 young pups. That their deaths were not caused by starvation was very evident, as 

 they were, with few exceptions, large and well developed, not small and emaciated, 

 as is almost invariably the case witLi those that are known to have wandered away 

 from the breeding grounds and died of starvation. It is usual fur young seals that 

 are hungry to congregate at the water's edge and there await the arrival of females 

 returning from the sea to the breeding-grounds. I have on many occasions noted 

 young pups whose continued cries were evidence that the little creatures were in 

 want of food, and invariably pups in this condition were the most persistent in their 

 endeavors to take milk from the breasts of cows as they landed, and would follow 

 them for as great a distance as their strength would perndt, returning slowly to the 

 water's edge when the cow was lost sight of. Had the dead pups seen on Tolstoi 

 and other rookeries died of starvation, they would without doubt have been found 

 in masses near the sea, not scattered over all parts of the breeding-ground, and were 

 it possible that they had been killed by the surf they would have been lying in 

 windrows, as was the case at South-west Bay, where on the 23rd August, 133 dead 

 pups were found lying among sea-weed at different distances from the water. Bare 

 spaces from 10 to 30 yards in width, on which no dead pups lay, separated these 

 windrows of sea-wee(i showing that the highwater mark had changed from day to 

 day. The pups at tins place were in all stages of decomposition; a few had died 

 within a day or two, while little remaiucd of others but their bones, with fragments 

 of skin attached. Pups are constantly swimming across South-west Bay from Upper 

 to Lower Zapadnie rookeries, and it is probable that these lying on the beach 

 represent nearly all that had been drowned, or had from any cause died in the water 

 in the immediate vicinity of this small bay, as the shore is steep and rocky on both 

 sides of it, and anything floating about is almost certain to be thrown up on this 

 sandy beach. 



At North-east Point, on the 20th August, all the rookery ground visible from 

 Hutchinson Hill was carefully examined with a tield glass. 



Hutcliiiison Hill is in the middle of that North-east Eookery, up at 

 the north end. 



A few dead pups were to be seen here and there on all parts of the breeding- 

 grounds, and in one place, at no great distance from the water, but on higher ground 

 than could be reached by the sea, at least 500 were visible from Hutchinson Hill. 

 The ground on which they lay much resembled that on which dead pups were at 

 Tolstoi and Polaviua rookeries, but was not of nearly so great an extent. They lay 

 scattered about as at Tolstoi, not in groups as at Polavina. A careful examination 

 was made by me of all the rookeries on St. George Island, both before and after the 

 dead pups had been noted on St. Paul, but none were seen there with the exception 

 of a very few scattered ones, such as are to be seen on all rookeries. 



Whites and natives on the islands were unanimous in saying that the mothers of 

 the pups found dead on the rookeries had been killed at sea, and that their young 

 had then starved. During the months of July, August and September I had frequent 

 opportunitiesof conversing with the officers of nearly all the ships stationed in Beh- 

 ring Sea, both those of the United States and of Great Britain, and all agreed that 

 itwas not possible for a schooner to have been in and out of Behring Sea in 1892 

 without being captured (see statement in Appendix (C) of Captain Parr, the Senior 

 British Naval Officer stationed at Behring Sea.) The cruizes of the various ships 

 were carefully arranged by Captains Parr and Evans, and so ])lanned that no part of 

 Behring Sea to which sealiug-vessels were likely to go was left unprotected. H. M. S. 

 "Melpomene" and "Daphne", and United States ships "Mohican" "Yorktowu," 

 "Adams," "Ranger" and "Corwin", were engaged in this work. No skins worth 

 taking into account were found on the small vessels that were seized, and most of 

 those they had on board were doubtless taken outside Behring Sea, so that to what- 

 ever cause the excessive mortality among these young seals is to be attributed, sealing 

 at sea can have had nothing to do with it in 1892. 



