SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 2G5 



water and gradually learn to swim. They are not amphibious when 

 born nor can they swim for several weeks thereafter, and were they 

 put into the water would perish beyond a doubt, as has been well estab- 

 lished by the drowning of pups caught by the surf in stormy weather. 

 After learning to swim, the pups still draw sustenance from the cows, 

 and I have noticed at the annual killing of pups for food, in Novem- 

 ber, that their stomachs were always full of milk and nothing else, al- 

 though the cows had left the islands some days before. I have no 

 knowledge of the pups obtaining sustenance of any kind except that 

 furnished by the cows; nor have I ever seen anything but milk in a 

 dead pup's stomach. 



Daniel Webster asserts positively that the death of every mother 

 causes the death of her pup, which is entirely dependent upon her for its 

 sustenance. Mr. Webster's testimony is valuable not only for its in- 

 trinsic value, but because its reliability is vouched for by the British 

 Commissioners themselves (Sec. 677). 



It will be observed that all the witnesses cited above are men spe- 

 cially capable, of long experience and a knowledge of the subject suffi- 

 cient to enlighten any court whose function it may be to ascertain the 

 facts connected with seal life. Such testimony can not fail to be con- 

 clusive in the judgment of this Court, unless it should be rejected as 

 willfully and intentionally false. No ground for such a wholesale impu- 

 tation upon the character of apparently intelligent and reputable men 

 can be suggested. The functions of every court of justice become im- 

 possible, and decisions on questions of fact must be left to the caprice 

 of judges, if such testimony may be arbitrarily disregard ed. Surely the 

 conjectures and conclusions of an adversary unsupported by the slightest 

 pretense of proof, in a legal sense, can not be deemed a sufficient ground 

 for such a charge. However high may be the character of the British 

 Commissioners for intelligence and integrity, their bald assertions can 

 not take the place of those aids to judicial investigation which the ex- 

 perience of all civilized nationshas shown to be indispensable. It would, 

 indeed, be a difficult task for the Arbitrators to reach any conclusion as 

 to the material questions of fact in this case if the example of the British 

 Commissioners had been followed by the Commissioners of the United 

 States and both sides had confined themselves to conjectural assertions 

 and partial and xinsatisfactory deductions from uncertain premises. A 

 manifest disposition to perform the part of an advocate rather than the 

 duty of an aid to the court in the ascertainment of the truth, must de- 

 tract largely from the value of the work performed by the Commissioners 

 for Great Britain. 



