26 ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 



days ■\vorkefl . . . We opeiiod the season by a drive from tlie Reef rookery and turned 

 away 83 1/2 per cent, when we sliould have turned away about 15 per cent of the seals 

 driven, and we closed tlie season by turning- away 86 per cent., a fact wliich proves 

 to every impartial mind that we were redrivinp; the yearlings, and considerin3^ the 

 number of skins obtained that it was impossible to secure the number allowed by 

 the lease, that we were merely torturing the young seals, injuring the future life 

 and vitality of the breeding rookeries to the detrimeut of the lessees, natives, and 

 the Government. 



Sir Charles Eu^^ell. — Then Mr. Lavender, tvLo was also an Assist- 

 ant Treasury Agent of the United States, says in condemnation of 

 these drives: 



All the male seals driven should be killed, as it is my opinion that not over one 

 half ever go back upon the rookeries again. 



Then we come to an important paper read before the Biological 

 Society of Washington by Mr. William Palmer of the United States 

 National Museum, in which he, writing in 1891, treats the subject on 

 the same lines, and I will ask my learned friend to read that for me. 

 It is proper to say, as indeed this extract shows, that he has enlarged, 

 in the earlier part of this i^aper, upon the evils which he conceives to 

 be attendant upoui pelagic sealing, and then he proceeds to point out 

 that pelagic sealing is not the only cause which has worked to the 

 detriment of the seal. 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. — This is taken from pages 187 and 188 of 

 the British Commissioners' Report; but it will be found in part in the 

 Counter-Case on page 206. 



But pelagic seal fishing is not the only cause of the decrease of seal-life on the 

 Pribilofs. 



Probably an equal cause is the unnatural method of driving seals that has been 

 followed on the islands since the lirst seal was captured. 

 751 The mere killing of seals as conducted on the islands is as near perfection as 



it is possible to get it. 



They are quickly dispatched, and without pain. One soon recognizes, as in the 

 killing of sheep, that in the qxiickness and neatness of the method lies its success, all 

 things considered. 



But the driving is a totally difiercnt matter. I doubt if any one can look upon the 

 painful exertions of this dense crowding mass, and not think that somewhere and 

 somehow there is great room for improvement. It is conducted now as it always 

 has been; no thought or attention is given to it, and, with but one exception, no 

 other method has been suggested, or even thought necessary. 



The fur-seal is utterly unfitted by nature for an extended and rapid safe journey 

 on land. It will progress rapidly for a short distance, but soon stops from sheer 

 exhaustion. Its flipper's are used as feet, the belly is raised clear from the ground, 

 and the motion is a jerky but comparatively rapid lope. When exhausted, the ani- 

 mal flops over on its side as soon as it stops moving, being unable to stand up. 



The character of the ground over which the seals are driven is in many places 

 utterly unfit for the purpose; up and down the steep slopes of sand dunes, over cin- 

 der hills studded with sharp rocks, some places being so bad that they are avoided 

 by the people themselves; but the seals have been driven over the same ground for 

 many years, and on some of the hills deep paths have been worn by the passing of 

 tens of thousands of seals. No attempts have been made to remove the rocks or to 

 lessen the difiiculties of the passage and the seals are still driven pell mell over huge 

 rocks and down steep inclines, where many are crushed and injured by the hurrying 

 mass of those behiud. When the drive reaches the killing ground it is rounded up 

 and left in charge of a man or boy to await the killing, which begins at 7 a. m. A 

 pod of perhaps 60 seals are then cut out of the drive and driven to the killers, who 

 with long wooden clubs stun those seals that are of proper size and condition by a 

 blow or two on top of head. 



The seals that are not killed are then driven away by tin pans and a great noise, 

 and while in an excited and over-heated condition rush as fast as it is possible for a 

 seal to go into the icy cold waters of Behring Sea. 



It will thus be seen that these seals are subjected on an average from 2 o'clock 

 in the morning until 10 to a long drive over very rougb ground, then to a dense 



