274 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Tlie statement is attributed to natives of St. Paul that the females 

 from the rookeries went only 3 or 4 miles to sea and always returned to 

 their young on shore the same day (Sec. 312). A statement so vague 

 as to names and qualifications hardly deserves notice. It may be 

 important, however, as showing that the natives have observed that 

 females do return to their young for the purpose of nursing them. 



Mr. Grebnitsky did not agree with most of the natives, who thought 

 "that the females did not feed during this period," but stated as the 

 result of his own personal observation and long experience that they 

 went out to sea while suckling the young, but not further than half a 

 mile or a- mile from the shore. If food is to be procured so near the 

 land by the mother, it may be that when she was seen floating or 

 playing in the water near the shore by Mr. Bryant, and then return- 

 ing occasionally to suckle her pup, she had also been employed upon 

 the more profitable mission of securing milk-producing material. 



Snegiloff thought that the females leave their young for several days 

 to go as far as 10 miles from land to feed, while Kluge, the agent of the 

 Russian Government in charge of the Copper Islands, thought that the 

 females went as far as 2, 3, or 4 miles, but returned to the rookery every 

 night. 



To this undigested mass of information, thus unsatisfactorily reported, 

 the magnanimous admission is added that "it is certain from statements 

 obtained that females with milk are occasionally killed at sea by the 

 pelagic sealers" (Sec. 314). 



We may conclude from all this testimony on the part of the British 

 Commissioners that the seals which leave the rookeries are almost ex- 

 clusively, if not wholly, female seals, nursing their young and seeking 

 food, and that they proceed to great distances in some cases, and are 

 found in feeding grounds which may be from 40 to 00 miles distant from 

 the land. It now remains to be seen what testimony is offered on the 

 part of the United States to satisfy the judgment and conscience of 

 the court which is to determine this, one of the most important ele- 

 ments in the controversy. 



Assuming all the parties, who have given the information to the 

 Commissioners of Great Britain and to the United States, for the re- 

 spective countries to testify fairly and honestly, it is elementary that, 

 wliere positive evidence of a fact is presented and negative evidence on 

 the other side, the positive evidence shall be credited; otherwise the 

 effect would be to stamp one party with perjury because what he is 



