256 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



with these and other animals and they heed her teachings. Nothing 

 is left to chance in the all-important matter of perpetuating the species. 

 Coition and impregnation at sea and at irregular times would simply 

 mean irregularity of birth and consequent destruction. If the females 

 were impregnated at any other season their young would be born at 

 sea, and, notwithstanding their "essentially pelagic nature," would 

 inevitably perish. 



This is further demonstrated by inexorable figures. The breeding 

 females, say the British Commissioners, arrive at the islands nearly a 

 month later than the males — that is to say, in June — and "immediately" 

 drop their young. Given the date of birth (some time in June or July) 

 and the period of gestation (about fifty weeks) (Case of the United States, 

 p. 113), it is not difficult to fix the season of fertilization, but it is impossi. 

 ble to fix it at any other time than the period of the breeding mothers 1 stay at 

 the islands. Such evidence as this outweighs the most ingenious and 

 finely drawn conjecture. Even were it possible to show occasional 

 acts of coition in the water after the females have been "released by 

 their jealous male companions" on land, the fact would only be inter- 

 esting from a scientific standpoint. It would not practically affect the 

 question nor alter the fact that the coition which results in fertilizing 

 the female is performed on land, as a result of natural laws, the viola- 

 tion of which to any considerable extent must eventually endanger the 

 existence of, if not promptly and absolutely destroy, the race. 



The British Commissioners, undeterred by these very obvious objec- 

 tions and misled, no doubt, by inaccurate and undisclosed information, 

 assert that there is a certain class of " immature males," known as "half 

 bulls" or "reserves," that poach upon the preserves of the seniors and 

 cover many of the females which escape the attention of the older 

 males upon the rookery grounds and in such cases the act of coition is 

 usually accomplished at sea! (Sec. 287.) 



It is unfortunate that an assertion inconsistent with scientific in- 

 vestigation and completely refuted by abundant proof should have 

 been thus lightly made and suffered to rest upon mere affirmation. 

 The statement is certainly not correct; but, even if it were, it merely 

 states, and this most vaguely, that an irregular practice is sometimes 

 followed in exceptional cases. 



But the important point that the " breeding females" are only served 

 by the " breeding males " on land is shown by the report of the British 

 Commissioners themselves: 



