SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 293 



more numerous than ever. They have, no doubt, demonstrated this to 

 their entire satisfaction on pages 72 and 73 of their Report. Capt. 

 Warren they quote as saying that he noticed no diminution in the 

 number of seals during- the twenty years that he had been in the busi- 

 ness, and, if any change at all, an increase. (Sec. 403.) To the same 

 effect, Capt. Leary, who says that in the Bering Sea they were more 

 numerous than lie had ever seen them (Sec. 403); while Mr. Milne, col- 

 lector of customs at Victoria, reports, what others have said to him, that 

 owners and masters do not entertain the slightest idea that the seals 

 are scarce. (Sec. 403.) What a tribute this must be to the management 

 of the Pribilof Islands if, notwithstanding the conceded destruction of 

 gravid and nursing females, these statements should be true. Capt. 

 W. Cox took 1,000 seals in four days, 100 miles to the westward of the 

 Pribilof Islands. (Sec. 405.) He found the seals much more plentiful 

 iu Bering Sea than he had ever seen them before. It would have 

 added much to the interest of Capt. Cox's statement if he had told us 

 how many of these seals gave evidence of having left their pups at 

 home. 



The British Commissioners multiply the evidence to show that the 

 general experience as stated to them has been that seals were equally 

 or more abundant at sea at the time of their examination than they had 

 been in former years. It is difficult to treat this with the respect that 

 a report emanating from gentlemen of character and high official posi- 

 tion should meet. Either the statement in the Joint Report is true and 

 the assumption of an increase is untrue, or vice versa. In view of the 

 evidence that these seals have no other home than the Pribilof Islands, 

 it is plain, beyond the necessity of demonstration, that all the seals Jcilled 

 by Capt. Cox and others in the Bering Sea were inhabitants of those 

 islands, and the testimony only goes to show that the mothers do go 

 out to sea 100 miles or more, as is sworn to by the witnesses for the 

 United States, and that it is while they are on the feeding grounds, or 

 searching abroad for food, that they are captured by the Canadian 

 poachers. If this is not so, then let the Commissioners or those advo- 

 cating their views tell us where these seals slaughtered by Capt. Cox 

 and others found their "summer habitat". 



Any pretense that the seals are decreasing at home — i. <?., where they 

 live through the summer, and breed, and nurse, and shed their hair — • 

 and at the same time are increasing in the sea is simply an absurdity. 

 It would have added much to the value of the testimony of all these 



