RIGHT TO PROTECT INTERESTS AND INDUSTRY. 133 



this case it is gravely to be doubted, whether if the United States Gov- 

 ernment should now repel them from the Pribylof Islands, and prevent 

 henceforth their landing there as they are accustomed to do, there is 

 any other land in those seas, affording the requisite qualities of soil, 

 climate, atmosphere, approach, propinquity to the water, food, and 

 freedom from disturbance, on which they would be able to reestablish 

 themselves, so as to continue their existence. 



Especially does the rule of law above stated apply to animals, which 

 in their temporary departure from their accustomed home, enter upon 

 no other jurisdiction, and derive neither sustenance nor protection from 

 any other proprietor, but only pass through the waters of the common 

 highway of nations, where all rights are relative. 



(2) But upon the broader principles of international law applica- 

 ble to the case, the right of property in these seals in the United 

 States Government becomes still clearer. Where animals of any 

 sort, wild in their original nature, are attached and become appur- 

 tenant to a maritime territory, are not inexhaustible in their pro- 

 duct, are made the basis of an important industry on such territory, 

 and would be exterminated if thrown open to the general and unre- 

 stricted pursuit of mankind, they become the just property of the 

 nation to which they are so attached, and from which they derive the 

 protection without which they would cease to exist, even though in 

 the habits or necessities of their life some of them pass from time to 

 time into the adjacent sea, beyond those limits which by common con- 

 sent and for the purposes of defense, are regarded as constituting a part 

 of the national territory. In such a case as this, the herd and the 

 industry arising out of it become indivisible, and constitute but one 

 proprietorship. 



While the United States Government asserts and .stands upon the 

 full claim of property in the seals which we have attempted to establish, 

 it is still to be borne in mind that a more qualified right would yet be 

 sufficient for the actual requirements of the present ease. The ques- 

 tion here is not what is the right of ownership in an individual 

 seal, should it wander in some other period into some other and far 

 distant sea; that is an inquiry not essential to be gone into; but what 

 is the right of property in the herd as a whole, in the seas, and under 

 the circumstances, in which it is thus availed of by the United States 

 Government as the foundation of an important national concern, and in 



