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



chis matter, it cnn be demonstrated that any special failure and any 

 special decrease of tlie seal upon the Islands in the ye;us 18!X), 1891 and 

 1892, aud a fortiori earlier, is not due to pelagic sealing'. In order to 

 make out their case for the extraordinary demand which is made by the 

 United States repn^sentatives in their so called llegulations, which are 

 in fact no Kegulation at all, })ut an absolute and complete prohibition — 

 in order to support that demand they have suggested to you that the 

 decrease is due to pelagic sealing and not to action upon the Islands, 



jVIy friend Mr, Coudert, Mr, President, pressed with the fact that there 

 was evidence to be dealt with ])rotested in the first instance against the 

 Tribunal considering the Islands at all and he pointed out tluit which 

 is true, that from the point of view of determining Ivegulatiojis upon 

 the Islands tbis Tribunal has no jurisdiction but he admitted that it 

 was most material with reference to the question how the actual decrease 

 was caused and he attributed it to pelagic sealing iu general terms, he 

 was asked by you whether if he was going to attribute the loss on the 

 Islands or the diminution of the seal race upon the islands to pelagic 

 sealing it was not necessary at any rate to attempt to put some pro- 

 portionate figure or some figure that would show that pelagic sealing 

 had been a sufficient cause to produce the result. Those figures have 

 not been forthcoming. I will show before I close to day they cannot be 

 forthcoming, and I will submit to the Tribunal what tlie real cause of 

 the diminution is. Now there are two causes suggested by the United 

 States Commissioners. You will find the cause 1 believe suggested at 

 page 349, of the report of the United States Commissioners that is the 

 United States case : 



The life of the seal herd, then, depending as it unqnestionably does on the con- 

 stancy of the number of births, can be eudan.nered from two directions. First, from 

 the killing of fertile females; and, second, from tlie excessive killing of males, car- 

 ried to such an extent as to Y)revent the presence of the necessary number of virile 

 males on the breeding rookeries. To one or the other of these causes must be charged 

 the great cljange that lias come upon the rookeries within recent years, and the com- 

 mercial destruction with which the sealing industry is now seriously threatened. 



We are firmly of the ojiiuion that an impartial examination of all the facts in the 

 case will show conclusively that the latter of the two possible causes has had no 

 appreciable part in the destructive work that has been accomplished. 



I accept, Mr. President, the test put down by the United States Com- 

 missioners and I propose to examine as carefully as I can what is the 

 answer that should be suggested to the two questions which they have 

 put on page 319. 



There are other passages to which I should give a passing reference 

 to make my citation conq^lete, though practically speaking, they are 

 only incidentally part of the same proposition. Take the bottom of 

 page 361, 



While there is no douVit that in some instances excessive driving has been allowed, 

 that seals have been driven further than is actually necessary, and that projier care 

 has not been taken to eliminate the nou-killable seals as far as possible Ijefore the 

 driving is well under way those are matters that are so entirely under control that a 

 proper adjustment may be secured at once. 



On j)age 362 : 



The assumption that driving is seriously injurions to the reproductive powers of 

 the male is doubtless unfounded, being quite contrary to the declared belief of Cap- 

 tain Webster and other sealers of long experience. Against every assertion of this 

 kind it is only necessary to put the fact 



please note these words, Mr. President 



that there is no evidence of the lack of virility on the rookeries, but, on the contrary, 

 it is evident that there is a surplus of it at the ]>resent time, unless, indeed, it ia 

 assumed that harems are defeuded and held against the most ferocious attacks, often 

 •at a loss of much blood and muscle, by impotent seals. 



