ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 219 



in various points of the Islands with which I will not trouble you, and 

 he says : * 



The seals begin tt) make their ap])earance in the region about Cape Flattery in 

 the latter part of December or the lirst of January, varying with dilferent seasons. 

 When easterly winds prevail with much snow they keep well off shore, and do not 

 make their appearance in great numbers before the mitldle of February or the first 

 of March. Last winter was very mild, with but little snow, but the prevailing wIthIs, 

 which were south and south-west, were exceedingly violent, preventing sealiug- 

 schooners from doing much hunting. The mildness of temperature, however, with 

 the direction of the prevailing winds, drove the seals toward the coast in incredible 

 numbers. They gradually work up the coast toward Queen Charlotte Island, when 

 the larger portion of the herds move along the Alaskan coast toward Unimak Pass 

 and other western openings into Bering Sea. A portion of these seals, however, 



pass into Dixon's Entrance, north of Queen Charlotte Island, and into Cross 

 982 Sound and C!ook's Inlet, and do not go to Behring Sea, but have their young 



on the innumerable islands, fiords, and bays in Southern Alaska and British 

 Columbia. These seals are seen in these waters all summer, at the same time of the 

 breeding on the rookeries of the Prihilof Islands, and are killed by Indians and the 

 skins sold to dealers. The great body of the seals, however, do enter Behring Sea, 

 where they are followed by the sealing-vessels. They usually take to the islands 

 about the first of June, the breeding cows and bulls being earlier than the rest of 

 the herd. 



And on the other side, page 176 the third paragraph from the top: 



Very little has been published about the migrations of the seals on the North 

 Pacilic coast before they enter the Bering Sea, and this point is one from which 

 we got a lot of interesting matter. We have taken a good deal of evidence about 

 the presence of seals at Cape Flattery, "and have been told that tliey were more 



numerous last spring than tliey have ever been before I lind a peculiar idea 



existing among those who claim io be authorities in regard to seals iound in the 

 waters of South America, especially about Tierra del Fuego and the Straits of 

 Magellan. The notion that they are the same species of seal as those found in 

 Behring Sea and the North Pacific is quite erroneous. 



That is a different matter. 



Mr. Justice Haelan.— That is the language of Dr. Dawson. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Yes. 



General Foster.^ — All of these are quotations. 



Sir (Charles Russell. — ^'o. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — That which you read before is not a quotation. 



General Foster. — It is from the London Weekly Times. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — No, the end of the quotation from the news- 

 paper stops before that. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Kow I come to a paragraph I wish to read. 

 I need hardly perhaps have troubled the Tribunal with the other: 



These facts about the habits of the fur-seals of Cape Flattery, which I have 

 known for more than thirty years, have this year been proved to he correct by the 

 Royal scientists, and will seem to show^ there are always two sides to every question. 

 "While 1 join with all the sealers with whom I have conversed that there should be 

 a close season on the Prihilof Islands, when no sea's should be killed on those islands 

 or in Behring Sea, I equally join with some of the more intelligent and observing 

 of these sealers, that the hunting of seals along the coast of Washington, British 

 Columbia and South-eastern Alaska does not in any way affect the seal catch on the 

 Prihilof Islands, as there is every reason to assume that these coast seals never enter 

 Behring Sea. 



Thereupon he proceeds to give his views upon pelagic sealing, which 

 is not the point I am now upon. 



Then in the last paragraph but one, on page 177 he refers to what is 

 certainly a remarkable fact if it is correct — I believe it is correct — that 

 after the seals are skinned their dead bodies are left on the island, and 

 are not turned to account for the i)urpose of extraction of oil. 



Mr. Tupper is anxious that Mr, Swan's position should be vindicated, 

 and he refers me to a communication which is in volume III of the 



