298 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



To understand this extraordinary recommendation fully, sections 

 G48 and G49 of the British Commissioners' Keport should he read to- 

 gether. It may be taken for granted that the pelagic sealers need not 

 be told when the hunting season in Bering Sea is at its best. Ex- 

 perience has taught them, and they have profited by the instruction, 

 that their operations in Bering Sea could be most profitably conducted 

 during the months of July and August. Hence it has been their usage 

 to enter Bering Sea hcUcccn June 20 and July 1 (Sec. 649). They would 

 probably not rebel against a possible and occasional delay in opening 

 the season, by ten days. The nursing mothers would be still espe- 

 cially open to capture, and would still constitute the staple article of 

 their "industry." In tlieir search for food and in the instinctive confi- 

 dence which the mothers of dependent offspring almost universally 

 exhibit the seals would be less "wary" than at other seasons, and 

 good shots might still carry on their mission of destruction with the 

 superadded comfort that their business was made reputable by law. As 

 if to make even this small restriction upon the liberty of the pelagic 

 sealer less objectionable, he is reminded that "after about the 20th of 

 May or at the latest the lstof June, very few females with young are taken." 

 (Sec. G48.) His loss would thus be trifling so far as Bering Sea as a field 

 of profitable operation is concerned. It seems that in fine sealing 

 weather the schooners can not keep up with the females. Hence they 

 are not all slaughtered. At this time, after May 20, or June 1, the 

 pregnant females begin to "bunch up" and the catch consists chiefly 

 of young males and barren females (Sec. 048). Why, then, even 

 this restriction? When are the breeding females captured? Is it 

 really intended to assert that the only injury done is that "at a later 

 date in the summer a few females in mill-, and therefore presumably 

 from the breeding places on the islands, are occasionally killed, but no 

 large numbers'?" So extraordinary a statement made in the face of 

 overwhelming proofs requires no discussion. The British Commis- 

 sioners should have vouchsafed information as to the thousands of 

 nursing mothers killed during the season from July to September and 

 should have told us whence they came and where was their " summer 

 habitat." It is very likely, as they assert, that very fete females with 

 young are taken after June 1. The obvious reason is that they have 

 become nursing mothers by the 1st of July, those that escaped the 

 shot-gun, the rifle, the spear, and the gaff having found temporary 

 shelter and protection on the islands. 



(/) Although we have laid much stress upon this in other parts of 



