ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. V. 203 



ISTow, I think I have read as much as will make clear the view that 

 is there put. 



Again my learned friend in another part of his argument said: "We 

 affirm that the property in these seals is as clearly the property of the 

 United States as a ship belonging to the United States." Well, it 

 does not do to carry tliese illustrations too far; but really this does 

 suggest itself to one's mind. My learned friend says a seal is as much 

 property as a ship. Let us suppose a fleet of ships. It would be a 

 very curious result that a fleet of ships was the property of the United 

 States, but that the individual ships were not the property of the 

 United States, if the parallel of the property in the seal and iu the 

 ship is so complete as my friend would seem to suggest. 



EXAMINATION OF THE NATURE AND HABITS OF THE FUR-SEAL. 



But I approach the matter a little more closely. What kind of 

 animal is tliis? To what order of animal is it to be relegated? I do 

 not care whether it is to be called a "flsh" or an "animal", or what it 

 is to be called: — what is if? If an animal, is it a land animal; or is it 

 a sea animal? Well, I observe, iu passing, that all through the legis- 

 lation of the United States the seals are always spoken of in relation 

 to "Fisheries". But that may not be very important. What are its 

 natural appliances for living on land? Can it i^rogress on land with 

 facility? l)oes it get its support from land; or any of its support from 

 land? No. The animal is one which Natm-e has not ada])ted for easy 

 progression on land. It has got no legs; it has got no feet. It can 

 flop, with great rapidity, for a few yards, 50 or 60 at the outside, and 

 then it falls down exhausted; and a curious circumstance in relation 



to it is this, that it is manageable on laud because it is wholly 

 903 helpless upon land, and has not been furnished by Nature with 



appliances which enable it easily to progress upon land. 

 In this connection, I would like to read one passage from the Eeport 

 of Mr. Elliott in 1890, describing the character of this animal when it is 

 being driven on land. I am reading from page 7 of his letter to the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury published with that Keport. It is the third para- 

 graph on that page. 



The least reflection will declare to an observer that, while a fur-seal moves easier 

 on land, and freer than any or all other seals, yet, at the same time, it is an nn usual 

 and laborious effort, even when it is voluntary; therefore, when thousands of young 

 luale seals are suddenly aroused to their utmost power of land locomotion, over 

 rough, sharp rocks, rolling clinker stones, deep loose sand, mossy tussocks, and other 

 equally severe impedimenta, they in their fright [This is the domestic animal] exert 

 themselves most violently, crowd in confused sweltering heaps one upon the other, 

 so that many are often " smothered" to death; and in this manner of most extraor- 

 dinary effort to be urged along over stretches of unbroken miles, they are obliged to 

 use muscles and nerves that nature never intended them to use, and which are not 

 fitted for the action. 



'I'his prolonged, sudden, and unusual effort, unnatural and violent strain, must 

 leave a lasting mark upon the jihysical condition of every seal thus driven, and then 

 suffered to escape from the clul)hed pods on the killing-groumls ; they are alternately 

 heated to the point of suffocation, gasping, panting, allowed to cool down at inter- 

 vals, then abruptly started up on the road for afresh renewal of this heating as they 

 lunge, shamble, and creep along. When they arrive on the killing-grounds, after 

 four or five hours of this distressing effort on their part, they are then suddenly 

 cooled off for the last time prior to the final ordeal of clubbing; then when driven 

 up into the last surround or pod, if the seals are spared from cause of being unfit to 

 take, too big or too little, bitten, etc., they are permitted to go oft' from the killing- 

 ground back to the sea, outwardly unhurt, most of them; but I am now satisfied 

 that they sustain in a vast majority of cases internal injuries of greater or less 

 degree, that remain to work physical disability or death thereafter to nearly every 

 seal thus released, and certain destruction of its virility and courage necessary for a 



