SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 269 



To the same effect is the testimony of Dr. Hereford. William S. 

 Hereford, a physician of character and experience, a graduate of Santa 

 Clara College, S. J., and of the University of Pennsylvania (ibid., 

 p. 33): 



It is a well-known fact that the female seals leave the islands and go 

 great distances for food, and it is clearly proven that many of them do 

 not return, as the number of pups starved to death on the rookeries 

 demonstrates. 



The old mother seal will not nurse any but its own offspring and can 

 single it out of a band of thousand, even after an absence of days from 

 the islands. The difference between a well-nourished pup and one 

 starving to death is also easily recognized, oue being plump and lively, 

 growing extremely rapidly, the other slowly dwindling away, its body 

 becoming lean, long, and lanky, the head being the largest and most 

 conspicuous part. The poor little thing finally drops from sheer ex- 

 haustion in its tracks, it being only a matter of time before it succumbs 

 to starvation. 



Dr. Hereford narrates in a highly interesting manner the efforts 

 made to raise u Little Jimmie," a child of adverse circumstances, whose 

 mother had been accidentally killed. This narrative may be found on 

 pages 33 and 34 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States. 



Several other witnesses concur in testifying that the mother will 

 readily distinguish her own offspring from that of others and will not 

 permit the young of auy other seal to suckle her. If there is anything 

 in the Report of the Commissioners of Great Britain which rises to the 

 dignity of evidence and which may be weighed against this overwhelm- 

 ing mass of testimony, we have failed to discover it. The plausible 

 suggestion that they make in explanation of the apparent effort of the 

 mother to distinguish her offspring by smelling the various pups, is 

 that she thus goes about until she finds one that does not smell of 

 fresh milk (Sec. 323). 



VII. — Death of the Cow Causes the Death of the Pup. 



The materiality of the question last discussed, and of the fact asserted 

 and demonstrated that the mother nurses only her own pup, lies chiefly 

 in the correlative assertion that the death of the cow causes the death 

 of the pup. 



Assuming the premises to be established that the pup depends upon 

 its mother for food and can be fed in no other way than by that mother, 

 the conclusion establishes itself without the necessity of extrinsic 

 proof. The testimony directly upon this point is voluminous, and, it is 

 submitted, entirely satisfactory. It goes very tar to explaiu one of the 

 general causes for the diminution of the species. 



