ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR RICHARD WEBSTER, Q. C. M. P. 233 



and so on. I do not pause to read tlie wliole passage. I ask the Tri- 

 bunal to be good enough to note it for consideration. Tliere are many 

 more, but I must make a selection, and I want to call attention to the 

 daily field notes. Would you look at page 232 where they begin, and 

 you will find under each rookery, and giving the date, JVlr. l^^lliott set 

 down what he had actually seen on many occasions. \'ou will find that 

 he refers to the fact of Mr. Goft' being with him at times, and he refers 

 to other Treasury Agents being there. I aslv the Tribunal to kindly 

 note pages 232, and 233 and 230. You will see there what I had in my 

 mind. 



In company with Mr. Goff and D'', Lutz I made my plotting of the breeding seal* 

 as they lay on tlie Reef and Gaibotch to-day. 



And then follows a categorical statement of what he saw. I shall 

 ask the Tribunal to be good enough to read for themselves Mr. Golf's. 

 afiidavit made on behalf of the United States: not a word of qualifica- 

 tion of this or a suggestion that this is not a true state of things — not 

 a word. 



Then page 242. " A survey of Tolstoi this morning. That is on the 

 30th July, and on page 243 on the 7th July. The Tribunal must not 

 think that these are exhaiTStive statements of all the Keport contains. 

 The real way to judge of this Eeport is to read it and picture to your- 

 self what the man was seeing from day to day, and assuming him to be 

 a man of experience, which cannot be denied — a man who had more 

 experience than anybody else, and appointed from a knowledge of his 

 imi)artiality and sent to report that it was pelagic sealing and nothing 

 else that injured these rookeries — it does enormously strengthen the 

 value of this Eeport. I pass from that, Mr. President, because I think, 

 at any rate, the Tribunal appreciated my argument on this the other 

 day. 



I come now to the third cause of injury to these rookeries and agairt 

 I say, taking it from the testimony on both sides, that on impartial con- 

 sideration you must come to the conclusion that, driving, overdriving,, 

 and redriving have for years been injuring the male life on these rook- 

 eries. I will as briefly as possible put before you the evidence as tO' 

 this part of the Case, and I will ask the Tribunal to turn to tlie British 

 Commissioners' Eeport, paragraph 704. This is what the British Com- 

 missioners reported from what tliey saw themselves before they had the' 

 corroborative testimony to which I am about to call attention later on.. 



I read from paragrar)h 704: 



One of tlie most important points connected with the method of talcing fur-seals- 

 on the Priliilof Islands, is that of the driving from the various hauling groumls to 

 the liilling grounds. However safeguarded or reguhitcd, the method of driving fur- 

 seals overland for considerable di.stances must be botli a cruel and destructive one.. 

 Active and graceful as a fish in the water, the fur-seal is at best clumsy and awk- 

 ward in its movements on land, and though it is surprising to note at how goodl 

 a pace it can, when forced to do so, travel among the rocks or over the sand, it is; 

 also (juito evident that this is done at tlie expense only of great effort and muchi 

 vital activity, as well as at serious risk of pliysical injury. A short shuffling run is. 

 succeeded by a period of rest, and when nndisturbed, all movements on sliore arc 

 carried out Avith the utmost deliberation and fre((ucnt stoppages. Hut Avlien a lienL 

 of seals, half crazed with fright, is driven for a distance of a mile or more iVom tlie 

 hauling ground to some killing place, already pestilential with the decaying car- 

 casses of seals previously killed, it unavoidably, and however frecjnently the animals 

 may be allowed to rest, entails much suffering. When the weather is at all warm, 

 or when the seals are pressed in driving, individuals frequently dro]) out and die of 

 exhaustion, other's again are smotlicretl by the crowding together ol' the frightened 

 herd, and it is not iufre(iuent to lind some severely wounded by bites ruthlessly 

 inflicted by their companions when in a high state of nervous tension. It a]i])ears 

 also, from information obtained on this subject, that in warm weather seals, during; 



