RIGHT TO PROTECT INTERESTS AND INDUSTRY. 139 



(4) The depredations in question, dignified in the Report of the 

 British Commissioners by the name of an "industry," are the work of 

 individuals who fit out vessels for this purpose. Their number, though 

 increasing, is not great. The business is speculative, and as a whole 

 not remunerative, though it has instances of large gains which stimu- 

 late the enterprise of those concerned, and make the prospect attract- 

 ive, like all occupations which have a touch of adventure, an ele- 

 ment of gambling, and a taste of cruelty. 



It is this casual and uncertain profit, of these comparatively few in- 

 dividuals, which must of course terminate when the seal herd is de- 

 stroyed or even much reduced, that is to be balanced against the loss 

 that will be sustained by the United States, if that destruction is com- 

 pleted. 



(5) Against this injury, which the United States Government has 

 made the subject of vain remonstrance, there are absolutely no means 

 of defense that can be made available within the limits of territorial 

 jurisdiction. The destruction is wrought outside those limits, and 

 must be repressed there or it can not be repressed at all. 



As it is impossible, when seals are hunted in the water, that the sex 

 can ever be discriminated before the killing takes place, it follows that 

 if what is called "pelagic sealing" is allowed to be carried on, the 

 enormous proportion of pregnant and suckling females and of nursing- 

 young before referred to, must continue to be destroyed. 



That method of pursuit conduces also unavoidably to injurious raids 

 by those concerned in it, upon the seals on the islands. The extent of 

 the shores and the peculiarity of the climate and atmosphere, as des- 

 cribed in the evidence, make it extremely difficult and at times impos 

 sible to maintain such vigilance as will prevent these incursions, if seal- 

 hunting in the neighboring waters is permitted. The result of these 

 raids is suggested in the British Counter Case as one of the means by 

 which the gradual extermination of the seals, too obvious to be de- 

 nied, is taking place. How much the suggestion is worth, will be seen 

 when the whole evidence is reviewed. But the counsel seem to forget, 

 in making it, that it is only the toleration of foreign sealing vessels in 

 waters near the islands, that renders such raids possible. 



The inevitable conclusion from these facts is, that there is an absolute 

 necessity for the repression of killing seals in the water in the seas near 

 the Pribilof Islands, if the herd is to be preserved from extinction. No 

 middle course is jmxcticable consistently with its preservation. 



