290 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



could tliey consistently assert this even though the pelagic slaughter 

 should be restricted (by some means which no one has yet suggested) 

 to 10,000 females. It requires no argument to show that the destruc- 

 tion of even that number would be rapidly disastrous to the herds. 



{b) And when we turn to the proofs, they are conclusive that prior 

 to the practice upon any considerable scale of pelagic sealing, the 

 annual draft of 100,000 young males did not tend to a diminution of 

 numbers. 



(c) Of course it is easily possible that the indiscriminate slaughter 

 effected by pelagic sealing may soon so far reduce the birth rate as to 

 make it difficult to obtain the annual draft of 100,000 young males. 

 This draft, under such circumstances, would not necessarily at once di- 

 minish the birth rate, for, the number of females being less, a less num- 

 ber of males would be required. The number of the whole herd might 

 be rapidly diminished by the slaughter of females and the consequent 

 diminution of the birth rate, and still 100,000 males continue to be ta- 

 ken for a time without damage. How soon a point would be reached 

 at which so large a draft of males from a constantly diminishing number 

 of births would operate to produce an insufficiency of males, is a prob- 

 lem which from want of precise knowledge of the relative numbers of 

 the sexes, it would be difficult to solve. 



The British Commissioners' Report upon this subject is as follows: 



The systematic and persistent hunting and slaughter of the fur-seal 

 of the North Pacific, both on shore and at sea, has naturally and 

 inevitably given rise to certain changes in the habits and mode of life 

 of that animal, which are of importance not only in themselves, but as 

 indicating the effects of such pursuit, and in showing in what particular 

 this is injurious to seal life as a whole. Such changes doubtless began 

 move than a century ago, and some of them may be traced in the his- 

 torical precis, elsewhere given (Sec. 782 et scq.). It is unfortunately 

 true, however, that the disturbance to the normal course of seal life has 

 become even more serious in recent years, and that there is therefore, 

 no lack of material from which to study its character and effect even at 

 the present time. 



In the zeal of their advocacy on behalf of pelagic sealing and their 

 denunciation of the methods in use on the Islands, the Commissioners 

 have experienced much and evident difficulty in framing their theory. 

 If they admitted, in unqualified terms, a decrease in number, the ob- 

 vious deduction from the concession would be that the unlimited slaugh- 

 ter of females must bear the blame and burden of such a result. To 

 that extent pelagic sealing must be condemned. If, on the other 

 hand, they should assert that the number actually increased, this 



