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



which I am coming presently), at tlie preparation of which, or, rather, 

 at the notes for the preparation for which this gentleman, ]\Ir. Laven- 

 der was i)resent ui)on the island. If there had been any mistake about 

 this matter — if it had been suggested that that Keport was not accu- 

 rate, there would have been strong ground for calling Mr. Lavender as 

 a witness to prove the contrary. You know that IJeport was never 

 forth coming until ordered by this Tribunal; but I call your attention 

 to this — that in ISOCKan independent Agent of the United States states 

 that he found no young bull-seals there, and he attributes it to the kill- 

 ing of two, three, four and five-year-olds. Why, Sir, what as I have 

 reminded you, is the necessary age for these bulls'? The necessary age 

 for these bulls is that tliey shall be seven, eight, nine, ten years old. 

 Nobody can suggest that to the i)elagic sealer is due the killing of bulls 

 or male seals of an age say of four or five years. On the contrary, if 

 that had been the charge against the pelagic sealer, my learned friends 

 would have had no ground for tlieir main comi)laint; and yet we find 

 in 1890 the United States Agent is reporting that he finds no young 

 bulls left u])on the rookeries. 



Now I will pass, if you will permit me to do so. Sir, all references 

 there to Mr. Elliott's 1890 Eeport, because I prefer to take that by 

 itself. I desire to show that independently of Mr. Elliott's Eeport, 

 there was a body of testimony upon this matter which ought to have 

 shown the United States authorities what the real truth was with 

 regard to this matter; and that this allegation that pelagic sealing had 

 depleted the sealeries could not, if fairly examined and tested by the 

 real facts, have been seriously put forward. If that were the real case, 

 after this evidence, I shall submit to this Tribunal that nobody leally 

 could come to such a conclusion. 



Now in 1889 Mr. Goft' reported also as Treasury Agent I must give 

 you, Mr. President, a different reference for that. It is on page 245 — 

 you need not turn to it — but the actual Eeport, produced by Mr. Foster 

 for us, — one Eeport — is to be found at page 8o of the 1st volume of 

 the Apx)endix to the British Counter Case, but I read from page 245. 



Now on page 247 of the British Counter Case appears the Eeport of 

 Mr. Bryant who left in 1877. He says: 



"The whole time I was there" — that is up to 1877: 



The -whole time I was there there was an ample supply of fnll-grown vigorous 

 males sufficient for serving all the females ou the islands, and every year a surplus 

 of vigorous bulls could always be found upon the rookeries awaiting an opportunity 

 to usurp the place of some old or Avouuded bull, unable longer to maintain his place 

 upon the breeding-grounds. 1 should except irom this general statement the seasons 

 of 1873 and to 1875, when the destruction of young males in 1868, and the error 

 made by the Company under their misap))rehension as to the character of the skins 

 to be taken for market, perceptibly affected the males on the breeding-grounds. It 

 is not certain that the fertilizing of the females was thereby affected, and this gap 

 was filled up, and from this time on there was at all times not only a sufficiency hut 

 a surplus of male life for breeding purposes. 



That is up to the year 1877. Perhaps, Mr. President, you will be 

 good enough to make a note in your own mind while upon the page, 

 that Bryant's Eeport was speaking of 1877 when he left the island and 

 never returned to it again. 



Now that statement is taken from Br^^ant's Affidavit at page 7 of 

 Volume II of the United States Case. Here was his Eeport which is 

 an official Eeport of 1875, quoted at page 247 of the British Counter 

 Case. 



At time of writing my detailed Report on the habits of these animals, dated the 

 30th November, 1869, it was stated to be 100,000. This number was based on the 

 best information obtainable at that time from the natives of the island and the few 

 employes of the former Russian Fur Company remalDing in the territory. Since 



