SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 259 



S. R. Nettleton, a resident of Seattle, Wash., was appointed Special 

 Agent of the Treasury Department in the autumn of 1889, at which 

 time he went to the island of St. Paul in the performance of his duties. 

 He returned to the States in 1S90, and in 1891 returned to St. Paul 

 Island, and remained there through June and July, and was then 

 transferred to the island of St. George, where he remained until June, 

 1892. In the discharge of his duties as Treasury agent, he made such 

 observations as could be taken from the breeding rookeries and the 

 waters immediately adjacent thereto. His statement of facts is based 

 upon personal observation as well as the information received from the 

 natives of such islands and the white men resident thereon. 



This is his language (Appendix to Case of the United States, Vol. II, 

 p. 75) : 



Referring to the question as to whether pelagic coition is possible, I 

 have to say that I have never seen it attempted, but from my observa- 

 tions I have come to the conclusion that pelagic coition is a physical 

 impossibility. 



Dr. H. H. Mclntyre, superintendent for the lessees of the Pribilot 

 Islands, during the entire term of their lease, visited the islands twice 

 in the summerof 1870,andthereheremainedconstantlyfrom April, 1871, 

 until September, 1872, and thereafter went to the islands every summer 

 from 1873 until 1889, inclusive, excepting 1883, 1884, and 1885. His 

 opportunities for observation were excellent, for he remained on the 

 islands four months, from May until August, in each season, supervis- 

 ing the annual seal catch, examining the condition of seal-life, study- 

 ing the habits of seals, and, in brief, doing such work as the interests 

 of the lessees seemed to demand. He says (Appendix to Case of the 

 United States, Vol. II, p. 42) : 



It has been said that copulation also takes place in the water be- 

 tween these young females and the so-called "nonbreeding males," but 

 with the closest scrutiny of the animals when both sexes were swim- 

 ming and playing together under conditions the most favorable in 

 which they are ever found for observation, I have been unable to verify 

 the truth of this assertion. After coitus on shore, the young female 

 goes off to the feeding grounds or remains on or about the beaches, 

 disporting on the land or in the water as her inclination may lead her. 

 The male of the same age goes upon the "hauling grounds" back of or 

 beside the rookeries, where he remains the greater part of the time, if 

 unmolested, until nearly the date of his next migration. 



Mr. Arthur Newman had lived, at the time of his deposition, over 

 twenty years on the Aleutian Islands. For eight years he had been 



