PART 11. 



Argument addressed to the 5th Question for Decision under 

 Article VI of the Treaty of Arbitration, viz.: Has the 

 United States any Bight of Protection or Property in the 

 Fur-seals f 



PROPOSITIONS MAINTAINED IN PART II OP THE ARGU- 

 MENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



1. That seals are animals /(?r«; naturw. 



2. That the only property in animals /era? naturw known 

 to tlie law is dependent on possession. 



3. That this law is common both to Great Britain and 

 the United States. 



4. That the owner of land has the exclusive right to take 

 possession of them while they are on his land ; but that 

 right is lost when they leave his land ; and when they are 

 on the high sea all alike have the right to take possession 

 of them. 



5. That while on the Pribylofi' Islands, neither the United 

 States nor their lessees exercise their right to take posses- 

 sion of the seals other than of those actually killed. 



And that when the seals leave the Pribyloff" Islands and 

 take to the high seas, all exclusive right of the United 

 States is at an end, and all alike have the right to take 

 possession of them. 



6. That no right of protection of the seals in Behring 



Sea or in any other part of the Pacific exists. 

 28 7. That the claim of a Government to protect ani- 



mals, which are not their property, on the high sea, 

 and thereby to interfere with the exercise of the rights of 

 fishing which other nations possess, cannot be supported 

 by any known principles of law. 



8. That no analogy exists between the rights claimed by 

 the United States and those claimed and exercised by other 

 nations on the high seas, whether as regards fishing laws 

 or otherwise, and that the United States cannot derive any 

 warrant for the right claimed from such fishery or other 

 laws. 



37 



