SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 207 



the seals which it is desirable to kill and that the circumstances 

 and nature of the animal are such that in most cases the female preg- 

 nant or giving suck must fall a victim to the weapons of the poacher. 

 Indeed the British Commissioners themselves state (Sec. (548) that it is 

 generally admitted that a considerable 'portion of gravid females are 

 found among the seals taken in the early part of each sealing season. 

 Between two such systems, we repeat, there can be no hesitancy as to 

 which should be preferred, the one based on humane and intelligent 

 principles, and which the interest of the parties concerned would natu- 

 rally make as perfect as possible, the other, which by its very nature 

 leads to brutality and undue destruction, and which is profitable only 

 when it is cruel and indiscriminate. These considerations are reen- 

 lorced by the very significant fact that the breeding females when found 

 at sea are always pregnant or nursing, and frequently both. This fol- 

 lows from the undisputed facts (1) that the period of gestation is 

 over eleven months; (2) that they reach the islands when on the point 

 of delivery; (3) that they remain there until fertilized, and (4) that 

 during the period of their stay they nurse the young, which depend 

 wholly upon their milk for sustenance. 



(e) The British Commissioners' suggestion as a remedy for the slaugh- 

 ter of the mothers and nurses, contained in section 155, subdivision c, 

 does not seem to be one which can have been very seriously entertained 

 by themselves. They suggest a provision that a close season be pro- 

 vided extending from the 15th of September to the 1st of May in each year, 

 during which all killing of seals shall be prohibited, with the additional 

 provision that no sealing vessels shall enter Bering Sea before the 1st of 

 July in each year. They state as a fact in section 649 that "Bering Sea 

 is now usually entered by the pelagic sealers between the 20th of June 

 and the 1st of July and in Bering Sea the same conditions hold" that are 

 described in section 648, namely, that a considerable portion of gravid 

 females are found among the seals taken in the early part of each sealing 

 season. They also say that the pregnant females begin to "bunch up" 

 and to travel fast toward Bering Sea, at the latest, the 1st of June. 

 In other words, the best season for killing nursing and pregnant females 

 in the Bering Sea is precisely the season recommended by the commission- 

 ers as the proper one for allowing the slaughter. Surely the pelagic 

 sealers could ask no better protection for their "industry" in Bering 

 Sea than this, nor could any better method of continuing the abuse 

 and hastening the destruction be devised than opening the catch to the 

 pelagic sealers at their favorite season. 



