186 



by tlic United States in these animals wonld secure, beyond all qnes- 

 tion, the preservation of these animals. Natural justice, right reason, 

 and the interests of mankind, demand that this recognition be given 

 by this Tribunal; for the United States, alone of all the nations, holds 

 such relations to these animals, that it can preserve the race from ex- 

 termination while utilizing it for the purposesfor which it was bestowed 

 upon man. No possible harm, but only good, can come from a Judg- 

 ment to that effect. Such a judgment will declare that the law of 

 nations is adequate to preserve valuable animals whose existence is 

 endangered by the acts of a few who seek temporary profit for them- 

 selves in the extcnuiiiation of the race. 



For the reasons stated, I am of opinion that these fur seals, con- 

 ceived, born, and reared on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, be- 

 longing to the United States, are, when found in the high seas on their 

 way back to their land home and breeding grounds on those islands, 

 the property of the United States, and that this right of property is 

 qualified only in the sense that it will cease, when, but not before, they 

 cease to have the habit of returning to the Pribilof Islands after their cus- 

 tomary migration into the open waters of Bering Sea and the North 

 Pacific Ocean. 



If the claim of the United States to own these fur seals rests, in law, 

 upon a sound foundation, the next inquiry is whether it may protect its 

 property"? There caw be but one answer to this question. Manifestly it 

 would have the same authority to protect its proi)erty that an individual 

 has for the protection of his property. The United States may, to that 

 eiul, employ any means Avhich the law, under the like circumstances, 

 permits to an individual for the protection of his property. No one 

 questions its right to afford protection, to that extent, while the seals 

 are on its islands, and while they are within territorial waters. That 

 right — if the United States owns the seals — is not lost while they 

 are temiiorarilly absent in the high seas, beyond territorial waters; 

 for, they are rightfully in the high seas, and the United States is right- 

 fully present Avherever its ships may be in the high seas. It is 

 scarcely necessary to cite authorities in support of this position. 

 The Attorney-General of Great Britain concedes that "if the fur seal 

 is to be treated as an article of property, there is the right to defend 

 it on the high seas if attacked" — "the ordinary right of defense of x)os. 

 session which belongs to an individual owner of property.*^ 



