117 



ists who gathered the facts from personal observations. They rehite to 

 the same race of fur-seals at the antipodes that we are inquiring about 

 in this case. 



These able scientists enter minutely Into all the characteristics of the 

 fur-seals and other carnivorous amphibia and give exact descriptions 

 of their actual and comparative anatomy. Their accounts furnish 

 accurate data, iu strong contrast with the guessing and conjectures of 

 the tyros, many of them without previous experience, who were sent 

 out to make a brief and necessarily superficial study of the Pribilof 

 herd, chiefly with a view to bolster up special theories that are made 

 the bases of the contentions that the Tribunal is now examining. 



Although these books were written more than a half century ago, 

 they are as accurate as a photograph as to the physical characteristics 

 and the habits of the fur-seals of the oSTorth Pacific, and show that they 

 are exactly now what the same species was one hundred years ago iu 

 the South Pacific Ocean. 



I rely upon these exact and scientific statements of these learned and 

 trained naturalists to clear up the doubts and reconcile or remove the 

 conflicting conjectures of the numerous witnesses in this case who dis- 

 agree chiefly because they are not well informed as to the subject. In 

 the matter of the virility of the harem masters, the alleged barrenness 

 of cows killed in July, August, and September, and the possible dis- 

 eases that may have swept ofl" large numbers of pups on the island, 

 oinnious are advanced with bold freedom by men whose opinions are 

 not entitled to any weight whatever. I do not remember that any one 

 of the many statements of the hundreds of witnesses who si^eak so 

 confidently on these suojects is based either upon actual skill or actual 

 examination, by dissection or in any practical way, of the characteristics 

 of fur-seals. All the evidence shows that the breeding cows are fer- 

 tilized within a few days — about ten days — after parturition, and that 

 until that is accomplished the harem masters control their movements 

 with the most jealous care, and none of them are permitted to go into 

 the sea until they are impregnated. Tbey then set out to get food to 

 nourish the pups they have borne, carrying in their bodies the living 

 germ of the next creation. In these early days the fact of fertilization 

 is not discernible even on close examination to the unskilled eye; yet 

 such examinations were not made, and these seal-hunters and so-called 

 professors unhesitatingly testify that a cow seal, having milk in her 

 breasts, is barren because there were no external signs that she was 

 gravid with young. 



