ORAL ARGUMENT OF CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON, Q. C. 283 



and wLicli have not been mentioned by the Treasury Agents. I will 

 conchide this, I think, by referring to the evidence of one Lenard, a 

 Witness called for the United States, or one of the deponents whose 

 afBdavit they give in the A]>pendix to the United States Case, volnnie 

 2, page 217; and I refer to him to show the conseqnence of such raids 

 more than any thing else. I am not quite certain for what reason they 

 put ill his evidence. 

 He says: 



I reside at Belkofsky, Alaska Territory. I have been a sea-otter hunter for forty 

 years, and have occasionally raided the Russian seal islands. Vv'hen on a raid we 

 ■would watch for a favorable opportunity to make a landinjj; and thi'n kill male and 

 female fur-seals indiscriminately. Probably for every 500 marketable skins secured 

 double that number of pups were destroyed. 



That is practically what from the habits of the seaLs and what we have 

 read you would imagine. These men proceed with no care, and they 

 probably create a stampede among the older animals, and the pups are 

 killed in that way and in others. 



Senator Morgan. — That leads me to enquire, Mr. Eobinson, for the 

 purpose of obtaining information, if it is correct that the rookeries 

 occupy the sea front, and in rear of those come the older seals and hol- 

 luschickie. Is that correct! 



Mr. Robinson. — No, I think not. I think the holluschickie haul out 

 on a different place. 



Senator Morgan. — Some of the witnesses speak of open ways being 

 left. That is what I meant. 



Mr. Robinson. — That is seals on the rookeries. You will see in the 

 evidence that the hollnschickie haul out at a diflerent place. 



Senator Morgan. — Entirely independent? 



Mr. Robinson — Yes, because the old seals will not let them come 

 near the breeding section, so to speak. 



Mr. Carter. — That error ought not to be allowed to go uncorrected, 

 because it is in evidence that the holluschickie haul out in the rear of 

 the rookeries as well. 



Sir Richard Webster. — But not in the same place. 



Mr. Robinson. — Perhaps Mr. Carter is right in this way: what I 

 mean to say is this, that they land at a different place. I do not say 

 they do not spread round and get to the rear. 



Senator Morgan. — There are witnesses who speak of open ways for 

 the seals to pass through. 



Mr. Robinson. — I do not think that is connected with the hollus- 

 chickie, but I will not put my recollection, where I do not recollect 

 clearly, against anything that Mr. Carter thinks is correct. Mr. Fol- 

 ger, in the Appendix to the British Counter Case, Volume 2, page 89, 

 refers to one of these occasions when he is speaking of a raid. 



He says : 



I was at Robben Reef at the time the Alaska Commercial Company sent a vessel 

 there — the "Leon", Captain Blair — to destroy the seals. They had tried their best 

 to protect the island, but we were too much for them. We had the guard in our 

 pay, and when the "Leon", which had been sent there to guard the place would go 

 away, lights would be put out aiid we would come over from Cape Patience, where 

 we had men on the look-out constantly, or if we got impatient the fastest sealer in 

 the fleet would go there and be chased by the "Leon" (a sailing vessel), and the 

 others would make the raid; we worked together, and the schooners would divide up. 



It is hardly necessary to suggest in conclusion that it is only natural 

 to suppose these raids must have been frequent. The price then paid 

 for seal skins was an object of temptation. The natives are not to be 

 depended upon, and the United States cared little about it j it was a 



