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



claim would liave giveu them, must be, if it is worth any thiug at all, 

 in connection with some idea that every seal has got such connection 

 with the Pribilof Islands that they are entitled to have it giveu to the 

 United States. That is their case. 



Now, take the end of June and the beginning of July. What is 

 going on then ? Breeding upon the islands. That is to say, the impreg- 

 nation, and birth of the young. If the case were that the seals must 

 be at those islands at that time, the Pacific Ocean would be empty of 

 seals 5 and the rest of Behring Sea would be empty of seals, during 

 these important months, when, according to the contention of the 

 United States, every seal must be upon the islands, it is the fact that 

 thousands of miles away from these Pribilof Islands, these seals are 

 found at this period of the year. 



Then take the stagey season. Many of the dates which I read 

 referred to the time when, according to the hypothesis suggested for 

 our consideration, the seals must be upon land in connection with their 

 pelage. My respectful suggestion is that for the Court to act upon any 

 assumjition in the face of the testimony to which I have called atten- 

 tion would be to disregard the conclusions that ought to be drawn from 

 evidence, in the ordinary sense of the term, and in the absence of any 

 contradiction, if it can be contradicted, or in the absence of any sug- 

 gestions as to how it is that these seals are found at these great dis- 

 , tances from the islands at a time when, according to the United States 

 hypothesis, they ought to be upon the islands, you are to come to 

 the conclusion that every seal must go to the island at some time of the 

 year or another. There are only two causes suggested, Mr. President. 

 The one cause is the sexual instinct. The other cause is pelage. One 

 relates to a limited time, between what I may call the beginning of 

 June and the beginning of July, and the other relates to a limited 

 time from about the first of August to the 28th of September. 



Senator Morgan. — You make no reference at all to the interruption 

 that might possibly occur in the journey up to the Pribilof Islands 

 from the seals being hunted and shot at and wounded and driven off 

 their course in consequence of those things. 



Sir Richard Webster. — Of course, Mr. Senator Morgan, it is a 

 perfectly fair observation to be made, if there was any reasonable evi- 

 dence to suggest that the millions of seals which, according to the 

 United States Case, must be there in order even to approximate to 

 the quantity which they are able to kill every year, could all be so dis- 

 persed or diverted by their natural enemies. 



Senator Morgan. — Not at all. It is very few, as I understand it, 

 that are dispersed and prevented from going to the islands. 



Sir liiCHARD Webster. — I should not have thought — I am address- 

 ing the Tribunal — that it was a satisfactory criticism of the evidence 

 that I have read to refer to those seals as being few. There is a large 

 number of witnesses and a large number of different voyages during 

 June, July, August and September; and in the aggregate I should 

 have submitted with confidence that, looking to the length of the voy- 

 ages, and looking to the length of the distances, it means a very large 

 number of seals, and not a few. 



But under any circumstances, frightening the mother could not pre- 

 vent the seal going to land for staginess. In fact, I should rather have 

 thought they would prefer to go to the land if they were frightened at 

 sea. Of course if the mother is killed, she will not go to the island. 

 She goes to the bottom of the sea or into the boat; but how killing the 

 mother can prevent another mother from going to the island, seems to 

 me difficult to understand. 



