SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 263 



waters will rush in frantic and ludicrous haste away from nn .approach- 

 ing wave, I have taken pups 2 or 3 weeks old and carried them out 

 into still water and they awkwardly, but in terror, floundered toward 

 the shore, although they could have escaped me by going- in the other 

 direction. In three trials, paddling in all about 00 feet, the pups 

 became so exhausted that they would have been drowned had I not 

 rescued them. If the pups, when collected in groups or pods near the 

 shore were to be overtaken by even a moderate surf, they would be 

 drowned, and such accidents to them do occur on the island before 

 they have entirely mastered the art of swimming. 



Charles Bryant has been quoted in connection with other proposi- 

 tions contained in the Case of the United States. He testifies upon this 

 point as follows (ibid., p. 5) : 



The pup is nursed by its mother from its birth so long as it remains 

 on the islands, the mother leaving the islands at different intervals 

 of time after the pup is 3 or 4 days old. I have seen pups, which I 

 had previously marked wil h a ribbon, left for three or four days con- 

 secutively, the mothers going into the water to feed or bathe. A 

 mother seal will instantly recognize her offspring from a large group 

 of pups on the rookery, distinguishing it by its cry and smell; but I do 

 not think a pup can tell its own mother, as it will nose about any cow 

 which comes near it. A female seal does not suckle any pup save her 

 own, and will drive away any other pups which approach her. 



I am positive that if a mother seal was killed her pup must inevi- 

 tably perish by starvation. As evidence of this fact, I will state that 

 I have taken stray, motherless pups found on the sand beaches and 

 placed them upon the breeding rookeries beside milking females and 

 in all instances these pups have finally died of starvation. 



Testimony such as this must be conclusive, except on the theory of 

 absolute and intentional perjury. It is a satisfaction to the counsel 

 for the United States to be able to state that no witness has been will- 

 ing, so far as they know and so far as appears from the British Com- 

 missioners' Report, to put himself upon record, with or without oath, 

 as directly contradicting these emphatic statements. 



John Fratis, a native of Ladrone Islands, went to St. Paul Island in 

 1809, married a native woman of that place and became one of the 

 people. Was made a native sealer and resided on the island from that 

 time on. His experience, therefore, is valuable. He says {ibid., p. 

 108): 



The pirps are born soon after the arrival of the cows, and they are 

 helpless and can not swim and they would drown if put into water. 

 The pups have no sustenance except what the cows furnish and no 

 cow suckles any pup but her own. The pups would suck any cow 

 if the cow would let them. After the pup is a few days old the cow 

 goes into the sea to feed, and at first she will only stay away for a few 

 hours, but as the pup grows stronger she will stay away more and 

 more until she will sometimes be away for a week. 



