57 



twn and prescrratwn of deals hi the class or Jterd that lial)itn{\lly resort 

 to the waters of Bering Sea is the real inquiry "concerning- the pres- 

 ervation of the fur-seal in, or liabitnally resorting to," Bering Sea that 

 is submitted to the Arbitrators. All the other questions i^resented for 

 consideration or decision by the Arbitrators relate alone to the powers 

 that either Government may employ and their jurisdictional rights to 

 enforce their respective contentions, or that both should employ con- 

 currently, to i^rotect and preserve seal life, outside of their territoria 

 limits. 



Is it true, as it is asserted by the United States, that property in 

 fur-seals may be acquired while they are alive and without actual 

 capture? That depends to a great degree upon the value of the uses 

 to which they are put and the certainty and regularity with which 

 they may be subjected to those uses, and these considerations relate 

 to animals as classes, and to their habits as a class, and not to the 

 peculiarities of the individuals. Some individuals are frequently found 

 among animals that are everywhere classed as domestic which are as 

 wild and fierce (or timid as the case inny be) as the wildest of animals, 

 such as horses, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry, and dogs. And some of 

 the wildest and most ferocious animals have been so domesticated by 

 training as to become hnrndess, and even serviceable, or profitable in 

 a high degree, sucli as hunting ]eo[)ards, hawks, cormorants, elephants, 

 and even bears, lions, and tigers. But these exceptional instances of 

 domestication by training prove nothing as to the general nature or 

 habits of the classes of animals in which they are found. 



If a class of animals is valuable for the uses of mankind and is, by 

 habit, drawn within reach of man periodically, with regularity and 

 certainly, the nation that thus acquires a settled and peculiar power 

 of control over it on land may base a legitimate industry upon the mate- 

 lial it affords, and may decilare the animals to be its property. A 

 nation so situated may certainly make such an assertion and declara- 

 tion of ownership) in the entire class of such animals as against the 

 right of its own people to treat them as being wild animals and res 

 nuUius, and in that sense and to that extent at least it may exercise 

 ownership over them without capturing them. Animals that are classed 

 as being domestic, are protected by a legal presumption of ownership, 

 liowever wild they, in fact, may be. Aiumals domesticated by train 

 ing are sheltered by the same presumption of law, until they have 

 resumed their wild condition. 



Wild aninnils, calkal game, are iKjt protected by legal fictions but 



