132 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The complete right of property in the Government while the animals 

 are upon the shore or within the cannon-shot range which marks the 

 limit of territorial waters can not be denied. The only question is 

 whether it has such a right outside of that line, while the seals are on 

 their way to the islands in the regular progress of their migration at 

 the season of reproduction, or when, while remaining on the islands, 

 the females are passing to and fro in the open sea in quest of the food 

 necessary to sustain the young left there, and which would perish if 

 their mothers were destroyed. The clear statement of this question 

 and of the facts upon which it depends, would seem to render its answer 

 obvious. 



(1) Even upon the ordinary principles of municipal law as adminis- 

 tered in courts of justice, such a property would exist under the cir- 

 cumstances stated. It is a general rule, long settled in the common 

 law of England and America, thatwhere useful animals, naturally, wild 

 have become by their own act. or by the act of those who have sub- 

 jected them to control, established in a home upon the land of such per- 

 sons, to which the animals have an aninium revertendi or fixed habit of 

 return, and do therefore regularly return, where they are nurtured, pro- 

 tected, and made valuable by industry and expenditure, a title arises 

 in the proprietors of the land, which enables them to prevent the de- 

 struction of the animals while temporarily absent from the territory 

 where they belong: a title, however, which would be lost should they 

 abandon permanently their habit of return, and regain their former wild 

 state. 



It is under this rule, the justice of which is apparent, that property is 

 admitted in bees, in swans and wild geese, in pigeons, in deer, and in 

 many other animals originally ferce naturce, but yet capable of being 

 partially subjected to the control of man, as is fully shown by the 

 numerous authorities cited in and appended to Mr. Carter's argument; 

 and that point need not be further elaborated. 1 The ca.se of the seals 

 is much stronger, in consequence of their peculiar nature and habits of 

 life. Their home on American soil is not only of their own selection, 

 but is a permanent home, necessary to their existence, and in respect to 

 which they never lose the animum revertendi. Upou the evidence in 



'See also the cases of Hannara v. Mockett, 2 Earnewall v. Cresswell's, Rep., p. 

 943; Keeble v. Hicheringill, Holt's Rep., p. 17. and Carrington r. Taylor. 1 East's 

 Rep., p. 571, and Reporter's note, from which extracts are given in appendix to this 

 portion of the argument, p. ISO. 



