163 



States i^rovules tlieiii with what their natures and necessities require, 

 namely, a hind home where, without disturbance, they breed and rear 

 •^heir young", and where the safety of the race from pursuit and destruc- 

 tion, while at that home, is assured. All this 1ms been done at great 

 expense, and by the exercise of care and supervision. To say that the 

 United States, by providing upon its land a hive for a swarm of bees, 

 or a box for a flock of pigeons, or a place for a lot of deer, in which 

 those animals respectively may abide while breeding and rearing their 

 youug, or for other purposes required by their nature, will become tlie 

 owner of such animals as long as they have the habit of returning to 

 the places so provided for tbem, whereby their product nniy be regu- 

 larly taken for man's use, and yet that it cantiot become tlie owner of 

 a herd or family of fur seals born and reared upon its islands, and 

 for which it i^rovides a land home where they breed and rear their 

 young, where they abide in safety, during stated periods, and to which 

 they regularly return, so that the increase may be taken for com- 

 mercial purx)oses without impairing the stock, is, I submit, repugnant 

 to sound reason and inconsistent with recognized i)rincix)les in the law 

 of i)roperty. 



It is said that these islands, before their discovery by Russian navi- 

 gators, were the land home of these animals, and, consequently; that 

 the seals were ngt provided with that home by Bussia or by the United 

 States, which succeeded to Russia's rights. The answer is, that after such 

 discovery the islands of St. Paul and St. George have continued, for 

 more than a century, to be the land home of these animals only be- 

 cause Russia, and subsequently the United States, so ordered. If the 

 United States desired to establish a naval post on Pribilof Islands, 

 or to use those islands for any other public purpose different from 

 those for which they have been used since 18G7, it could easily drive 

 the seals back into the sea when they attempted to "haul up" on the 

 islands during the breeding season. Such treatment might result in 

 the destruction of the race, as we cannot be sure from any evidence 

 before us that any other islands would be suitable for their purposes. 

 But no such treatment is, in fact, accorded to them. On the contrary, 

 the islands are preserved for their use as a land home. It is as if the 

 United States had said, upon the acquisition of the islands of St. Paul 

 and St. George: "These valuable animals have their breeding grounds 

 here; other animals of like kind have been exterminated by indiscrim- 

 inate slaughter, or for the want of governmental protection; this race 



