2<)6 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



VI. — The Cows, while Suckling, go to the Sea for Food and 

 Sometimes to Distances as (treat as One Hundred and Two 

 Hundred Miles, and are during such Excursions Exposed 

 to Capture by Pelagic Sealers. 



Tlie statement in the Case of the United States is as follows (p. 115) : 



Necessarily, after a few days of nursing her pup, the cow is compelled 

 to seek food in order to provide sufficient nourishment for her offspring. 

 Soon after coition she leaves the pup on the rookery and goes into the 

 sea, and as the pup gets older and stronger, these excursions lengthen 

 accordingly until she is sometimes absent from the rookeries for a week 

 at a time. 



The absolute correctness of this statement is demonstrated in the evi- 

 dence. 



A cow nurses only her owri pup. The importance of deciding this 

 question correctly makes it necessary that we should give special at- 

 tention to the evidence upon the subject. The British Commissioners 

 have taken a different view and are without support in the general un- 

 derstanding of men as to the practice and probabilities in such cases. 

 It is easy to demonstrate that the assertion on page 115 of the Case of 

 the United States, totheeffect above stated is borne out by overwhelm- 

 ing proof. 



Kerrick Artomanoff (Appendix to Case of the United States, Vol. 

 II, p. 100) says: 



The mother seals know their own pnps by smelling them and no seal 

 will allow any but her own pup to suck her. 



Thomas F. Morgan (ibid., p. 02) says: 



After birth a pup at once begins to suckle its mother, who leaves 

 its offspring only to go into the water for food, which 1 believe from 

 my observation consists mainly of fish, squids and crustaceans. In 

 her search for food the female, in my opinion goes 40 miles or even 

 farther from the islands. The pup does not appear to recognize its 

 mother, attempting to draw milk from any cow it comes in contact 

 with; but a mother will at once recognize her own pup and will allow 

 no other to nurse her. This I know from often observing a cow fight 

 off other pups who approached her, and search out her own pup from 

 among them, which I think she recognizes by its smell and cry. 



Mr. Morgan's testimony is very explicit and is based upon long ex- 

 perience and continued observation. 



Samuel Falconer, at one time deputy collector of customs, and whose 

 testimony has been quoted ou other points, gives the results of his 

 actual observations. He says (ibid., p. 164): 



The place of birth is on the breeding grounds, which takes place 

 after the female lands, generally within two days. When first born 



