ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 203 



Mr. President, may I pause for a inomeiit to remind the Tribunal tliat 

 a bull-seal to be any good at all upon the rookeries, must be over seven 

 years old. According to the best information, the best bull seals are 

 about 9 or 10 years old; therefore, adding on one year for the birth, 

 this must date you back to find something that has occurred to dimin- 

 ish male seal life as far back as IS.sO or 1881; and I will point that 

 observation presently when I come to the suggestion that pelagic seal- 

 ing can have been the cause. 



Then in the year 1890, at paragraph 832^ the British Commissioners 

 say: 



Colonel J. Murray, First Assistant Government Agent, reports tliat tlie seals on the 

 Pribilof Islands have been steadily decreasing since 1880, and attributes this to the 

 excessive slaughter of males 2 to 5 years old. 



Would you go back, Mr. President, if you please, to the year 1882. 

 I did not read the last part of paragraijh 823. This is what I had in 

 my mind. 



The same gentleman. — 



that is Mr. Mclntyre — 



reports that at this time — 



that is the year 1882 — 



the desired number of large skins could no longer be obtained. 



Showing, as I shall show later on, that they were talking of killing 

 seals of too small a size as early as the year 1882 to make up the nnm- 

 ber of 100,000. I suppose this is the evidence that the British Commis- 

 sioners ought not to have included in their Eeport on the view of their 

 duties suggested by my friends. 



Now, Sir, I have read the do(;uments — (in the great majority of cases, 

 I believe in every case, the original document is here; they are at my 

 friends disposal) — and I have read tliem as shortly as I could — I have 

 read them in chronological order — and what does it point to'? It 

 points to the circumstance that in 1878, 1880, 1882 and at later years, 

 the fact that too many seals were being killed was being brought to 

 the attention of the United States authorities. My friends are entitled 

 to the benefit of the fact that other peoi)le, possibly from motives in 

 connection with the Company were not telling the truth — that is to 

 say that there were couleur de rose reports in tlie year 1885, and in the 

 year 1880, from Mr. Tingle and from INIr. Moulton. But we are now 

 considering what the real fact is, and the fact to which I am address- 

 ing your attention, fact, is that during this time, if these lieports are 

 true, too many seals were being killed — and there was too little virile 

 life upon the rookeries in order to keep up the race of seals, attention 

 was being called to it by jiersons of position and persons whose repu- 

 tation ought to have attracted more attention than it did at the time 

 the Keports were made. If you will look at page 139 — I missed out 

 the end of Paragraph 830, you will see this — that in the year 1888. 



The standard weight of skins was lowered from 6 lbs to 5 lbs and to 4 1/2 lbs., 

 because of scnrcity of 6 lb skins. Thus, all males from 2 to 5 years old became, and 

 thereafter continued to be, accounted killable. 



Now, Mr. President, that is how the matter stands with regard to 

 what I may call the concurrent Keports which were being made from 

 time to time by Treasury Agents, and by inde])endent people, many 

 of whom are still living. Nobody can suggest that these agents had 

 any motive for making reports of this kind. Their interest was the 



