132 



That tlie United States, its agents and lessees, do all tliat is neces- 

 sary to secnie their return each year to, and their remaining at, the 

 Pribilof Islands for all the purposes for which they must come to, aud 

 for a time abide, upon land. 



These considerations, it is contended — assundng that these fur seals 

 are of the class commonly called animals ferm natarw — rest upon a prin- 

 ciple fundamental in the institntion of propsirty, that in-inciple beingthat 

 whenever any useful wihl animals, the supply of which may be exhausted 

 by indiscriminate slaughter, or by reckless handling, '^so far submit 

 themselves to the control or dominion of particular men as to enable 

 them cxclasiceUj to cultivate such animals and to obtain the annual 

 increase for the sux)ply of human wants, and, at the same time, to pre- 

 serve the stock, they have a property in them; or, in other words, what- 

 ever may be justly regarded as the product of hunum art, industry, and 

 self-denial, must be assigned to those wdio make these exertions, as their 

 merited reward." 



In opposition to this claim of ijroperty by the United States, Great 

 Britain contends that these seals are strictly animals/erflewttt^rcB; that 

 the only iiroperty in them known to the law is dependent on actual, physi- 

 cal possession ; that the United States or its licensees have the exclusive 

 right to take possession of them only while they are on the islands of 

 St. Paul and St. George, but that such right is lost w^hen they leave 

 the Islands and go into the high seas, for the purpose of obtaining tish 

 for food, even if they have, when so leaving, the intention to return 

 to their breeding grounds; that the citizens or subjects of all nations 

 have equally the right to kill or take possession of them in the high 

 seas; that while on the Islands neither the United States nor their 

 lessees take manual possession of the seals other than of those 

 actually killed; that, even if it be true that the care, industry, self- 

 denial, and i)rotectiou bestowed upon these animals while on their 

 breeding grounds has secured, does now secure, and will alone secure, 

 this race from extermination by pelagic sealing, that fact can not 

 give a right of property to the United States; and that the right of 

 pelagic sealers to capture aud kill these. seals in the ojien seas, for 

 I)rofit, by any methods they choose to euii)loy, even by such as will 

 certainly or soon destroy the entire race, is supported by the estab- 

 lished principles of international law. 



While, in a sense, all property has its root in municipal law, I agree 

 that the question as to the ownership) of these animals when they are 



