ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 183 



which T have stated. That wonhl therefore mean, assmnin^- them to live 

 an average of ten years, 80, 000 i)assiiig; into tlie barren stage or dying-, 

 granting even that among the rest there were no bairen females, and 

 that these are bearing every year. Those 80,000 at least are wholly 

 and entirely lost, so far as the sealing industry on the Islands is con- 

 cerned. It is not denied that ui)on the sealing islands they do not 

 intentionally kill females. They take great credit for it. Whether 

 they are right in taking credit or not is a matter which maybe worthy 

 of a little consideration. 



But assuming, Mr. President, that a zone were established which 

 would prevent the females being killed who had pujjs dependent upon 

 them, and a close time were established, which would prevent the 

 females being killed tliat were gravid, I do not hesitate to put before 

 this Tribunal — and 1 ask their serious judgment upon it — that killing 

 which would take its fair share of fenmles, including these ban en 

 females, together with males, would be a better system than one 

 which rejected this altogether. I must not be drawn into the argu- 

 ment, which I want to keep entirely distinct, of what happens to this 

 race of seals, the enormous proportion that are killed by killer whales 

 and other animals, that disappear altogether. I must not be drawn 

 into the consideration of the fact that we are dealing only with the 

 surplus of this race. That is a matter which requires to be most care- 

 fiTlly examined, and I must keep it entirely distinct. lUit I ])oint out 

 that from the point of view of the duty of this Tribunal, namely to fiud 

 what is necessary for the preservation of seal liie, if they are able to 

 define a zone which will under ordinary circumstances prevent the 

 nursing female on whom the pup is dependent from being killed, and 

 such a close time as will prevent the gravid female from being killed, 

 they discharge their duty; from the point of view that those two oper- 

 ations are necessarily wasteful. Then I do not hesitate to a]>peal to 

 our experience of any other living animal, and to ask the Tribunal to 

 come to the conclusion that a system that takes account of the propor- 

 tion of barren females would be better than a system that disregarded 

 this altogether. Ux liypofhesi, unless the stagey theory be found against 

 me, the barren females do not necessarily go to the islands. Ux hypothesi 

 the female that has not attained to the sexual desire, or has lost it, 

 would not be tempted to go there in the month of June and July. If, 

 as I have ventured to demonstrate, the stagey season cannot be one 

 during which the seals are all on land, and are not found — except on 

 the island, and if the cause suggested by the learned Senator for the 

 seals being irregular in their times of arrival at the islands be not a 

 sufficient cause, it stands to reason that given the two conditions which 

 I have mentioned: — the protection of the nursing mother while the pup 

 is de])endent upon her, and protection of the gravid female, — it is to 

 the interest of the world that is supposed to be longing dying for the 

 blessing of sealskins, that the barren females should be caught and 

 captured instead of being wasted; and the system which has been 

 lauded with so much praise by my learned frieiuls disregards that 

 annual death or disa])pearance or that very large number of animals, 

 amounting in their calculation to between seventy and eighty thousand 

 females. — 



Mr. Carter. — On whose calculation? 



Sir Kic'KARD Webster. — On the calculation of the United States 

 Commissioners. 



Mr. Carter. — Seventy or eighty thousand females? 



