104 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



denhall, Superintendent of the United States' Coast and 



Geodetic Survey, this is purely formal and is attached 



Pa-'eioo. 12^ ^® ^ matter of routine to maps issued from the 



Department in question, and not as in any way 



vouching the accuracy of the data from which the maps 



are compiled. 



In this respect, the map prepared and presented by the 

 British Commissoners differs widely. It is explained and 

 adopted by them in their Report as correct to the best of 

 their knowledge and belief. As the British Commissioners 

 make themselves thus personally responsible for their 

 map, the remarks made in the United States Counter-Case 

 as to the absence of detailed evidence upon which the map 

 is based are not justified. 

 Page 101. The iDCculiar method of argument employed in the United 



States Counter-Case, by which any deduction arrived at 

 by the British Commissioners is characterized as a " theo- 

 retical proposition" or "position," and is discussed before 

 the facts obtained are noticed, is again well exemplified on 

 this page. 



It is thus under this head, in the first place, asserted by 

 the United States that — 



the theoretical proposition of an auimal possessing two homes is contrary 

 to what has been observed in respect to the habits of animals in 

 general. 



British coun- As to this propositiou, it is only necessary to refer to the 

 er- 'ase, p. 152. interesting statement on this subject made by Dr. Merriam, 

 one of the United States Commissioners, writing as a natu- 

 ralist; and it is confidently affirmed that no unprejudiced 

 naturalist w^ll be found to deny the existence of two 

 "homes" in the case of a regularly migratory animal. 



Dr. Merriam's remarks, here particularly referred to, 

 relate to migratory birds, the analogy between which and 

 the fur-seal has been clearly pointed out by Professor 

 Yomber^i^s'g.''^" Augell. If the " home" of any animal be merely its breed- 

 ing resort, any rights which may be supposed to flow from 

 the possession of su(;h "home" would rest in the case of 

 many of the migratory birds, (and particularly of the 

 economically important water-fowl) of North America, 

 exclusively in Canada. 



If, again, the term " home" be considered as equivalent 



to that of "habitat," as technically employed by naturalists, 



it will be found that the most trustworthy and eminent 



authorities are united in defining the habitat of a 



128 migratory animal as including the whole of the area 



over which it normally ranges. 



The statement made by the British Commissioners, as 



the result of their investigations, in respect to the summer 



and winter "homes" of the fur-seal, is next found fault 



with because the names of their informants are not spe- 



British Com-ciflcally detailed. A reference to the British Commis- 



pJrt,"'pa*ral n5- sioucrs' Rcport will show that they have given, in what is 



187. believed to be sufficiently great detail, an account of the 



evidence upon which the "winter home" of the fur seals 



has been defined by them. It is not true that the names 



of their informants are not given. A number of these 



