SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 241 



(B) THE ALASKAN DOES NOT MINGLE WITH THE RUSSIAN HERD. 



The statement in the Case (p. 99) is in the following words: 



The Commander Islands herd is evidently distinct and separate from 

 the Pribilof Islands herd. Its home is the Commander group of islands 

 on the western side of Bering Sea, and its line of migration is west- 

 ward and southward along the Asiatic coast. To suppose that the two 

 herds mingle and that the same animal may at one time be a member 

 of one herd and at another time of the other is contrary to what is 

 known of the habit of migrating animals in general. 



This statement is based on the report of the American Commissioners 

 (page 323 of the Case of the United States), which report states the 

 conclusion reached by them in the following language: 



The fur-seals of the Pribilof Islands do not mix with those of the 

 Commander and Kurile Islands at any time of the year. In summer, 

 the two herds remain entirely distinct, separated by a water interval 

 of several hundred miles, and in their winter migrations those from 

 the Pribilof Islands follow the American coast in a southeasterly di- 

 rection, while those from the Commander and Kurile Islands follow the 

 Siberian and Japan coasts in a southwesterly direction, the two herds 

 being separated in winter by a water interval of several thousand miles. 

 This regularity in the different herds is in obedience to the well-known 

 law that migratory animals follow definite routes in migration and return 

 year alter year to the same places to breed. Were it not for this law, 

 there would be no such thing as stability of species, for interbreeding 

 and existence under diverse physiographic conditions would destroy 

 all specific characters. 



The testimony in support of this proposition seems to be conclusive 

 and certainly must stand until the learned counsel for the Government 

 of Her Majesty succeed in producing the evidence of witnesses who are 

 able and willing to express a different view. 



It can not be expected that the witnesses shall speak in the same 

 positive and unqualified manner upon this matter, which, to some ex- 

 tent, must be predicated upon conclusions drawn from facts, as they 

 would and do upon the actual and observable differences between the 

 two families of seals. But it will be found that the testimony is the 

 best obtainable under the circumstances and can leave no reasonable 

 doubt in the minds of impartial persons that the two herds are distinct, 

 that they follow definite routes in migration, and that they return 

 year after year to the same place to breed and never intermingle. 



Mr. John G. Blair (Appendix to Case of the United States, Vol. II. 

 p. 193) was at the time of deposing an American citizen, 57 years of 

 age, and had been for fourteen years previous and until recently master 

 14749 16 



