ORAL ARGUMENT OF CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON, Q. C. 279 



where tlie fact is stated. I say this pelagic sealing has iievei^ been 

 practised elsewhere aud never was known until it was practised in these 

 waters, 



JSow the statement in the United States Case at pages 195 and 196 is 

 that 60 per cent are lost out of every 100 killed, and the probability is 

 the percentage is even moie. In the British Counnissioners' Eeport, 

 paragraph 6li7, you will find a table given, and I think the better way 

 of treating this is not to trouble you with special affidavits, but to give 

 the result of the analysis which we have here of a large number of affi- 

 davits, putting together some 50 or 60 affidavits of different people who 

 speak to the number they have killed. We have aggregated that num- 

 ber, and we have 9,337 skins taken and a loss of 4 per cent. That is in 

 the table appended to paragraph 627 of the British Commissioners' 

 Eeport. 



If you look at the British Counter Case Appendix, vol. 2, page 6, Mr. 

 President, you will see a farther table. Of course, between the prepa- 

 ration of the Case and Counter Case we were collecting evidence, and 

 there is a large list of affidavits by different people tabulated in this 

 way, giving the names of the deponents, names of the vessels they 

 belonged to, the number of skins obtained, and the number of seals lost, 

 the percentage, and the different years, with remarks. 



Now in those affidavits we have 39,879 skins taken, and we add to 

 that the 9,000 odd in the previous table, making together 49,216, or say 

 50,000; with a up of 1,602, making a loss of 3-2 per cent. From page 

 7 to page 10, we have some 80 witnesses, or an abstract rather of their 

 testimony, which forms the evidence which has been tabulated and 

 analysed, as I have mentioned. It would seem to be impossible to 

 present that kind of evidence more satisfactorily. There is no doubt 

 evidence on the other side both ways; that is to say, witnesses called 

 on behalf of the United States who say that they have lost a good many, 

 and witnesses called on behalf of the United States who say that they 

 have lost but very few, and you must collect from the evidence ^ro and 

 con in that matter what you may take to be the reasonable inference from 

 it, taken as a whole. That is treated of again in the British Counter Case, 

 pages 191 to 193, in the British Commissioners' Report at paragraphs 

 616 to 626, and in the Counter Case at pages 158 to 159. I do not think, 

 though it is tempting to read some of these affidavits, that it would be 

 worth while to detain the Tribunal while I call attention to any of the 

 details. The net result is that we have tabulated them all, and have 

 the statements of different people of the number they state, by actual 

 count, amounting to 10,000. We have the statement of the number 

 that those people swear to as having lost, and it comes to 3-2 per cent. 

 That is the total, if you recollect on the first 9,000 odd. Then we get 

 39,000 more, making ciose on 50,000 which was a total of 3-2 per cent. 



Now I desire to call attention to the affidavit of Mr. Behlow in the 

 Appendix to the United States Case, on another question, volume 2, 

 page 402, which we think must certainly be a mistake. I call attention 

 to it more particularly because it seems worth while to call attention to 

 anything that this gentleman says, with regard to which we conceive 

 him to be inaccurate, for he is a gentleman who has made no less than 

 11 or 12 affidavits on behalf of the United States. His statement is 

 that he examined 1,342 salted fur-seal skins, ex schooner "Emma and 

 Louisa "from the North Pacific Ocean; and he undertakes to tell you 

 what kind each skin belonged to, tliat is to say, whether pup, male, or 

 female, and to give an analysis of the whole. 



