136 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



un sustained by proof, can break their force or change their effect. 

 And the legal conclusions to which they conduct, can nut be regarded 

 at this day as open to serious question. 



The case of the United States has thus far proceeded upon the 

 ground of a national property in the seal herd itself. Let it now be 

 assumed, for the purposes of the argument, that no such right of property 

 Is to be admitted, and that the seals are to be regarded, outside of ter- 

 ritorial waters, as /me nature?, in the full sense of that term. Let them 

 be likened, if that be possible, to the fish whose birthplace and home 

 are in the open sea, and which only approach the shores for the purpose 

 of food at certain seasons, in such numbers as to render the fishing 

 there productive. 



The question then remains, whether upon that hypothesis, the indus- 

 try established and maintained by the United States Government on 

 the Pribilof Islands, in the taking of the seals and the commerce that 

 is based upon it, are open to be destroyed at the pleasure of citizens of 

 Canada, by a method of pursuit outside the ordinary line of territorial 

 jurisdiction, which must result in the extermination of the animals. 

 Is there, even in that view of the case, any principle of international 

 law which deprives the United States Government of the right to de- 

 fend itself against this destruction ofits unquestioned interests, planted 

 and established on its own territory 1 ? In other words, is the right of 

 individual citizens of another country to the temporary profit to be 

 derived out of such extermination, superior on the high sea to that 

 of the United States Government to protect itself against the conse- 

 quences. 



This, if the strict right of property can be successfully denied, is the 

 precise question addressed to the consideration of the Tribunal. Ab- 

 stract speculations can only be useful, so far as they tend to conduct 

 to a just determination of it. 



Before proceeding to a discussion of this question, the material facts 

 and conditions upon which it arise- should be clearly perceived and 

 understood. For it is upon these and not upon theoretical considera- 

 tions that the argument reposes. 



(1) It is to be observed in the first place, that the interest in the 

 business which it is sought to protect, is an important interest and 

 resource of the Government itself. 



The seal industry on these islands was one of the principal induce- 

 ments to the purchase of Alaska by the United States from the lius- 



