SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 299 



this argument, the subject is so important that we again recur to it and 

 call attention once more to the admissions and inconsistencies in the Brit- 

 ish Commissioners' Report. The Commissioners in section G12 exhibit 

 much indignation at the free use that has been made of the appellation 

 "poachers" as applied to the pelagic sealers in general and to Cana 

 dian sealers in particular. This, they say, has been done with the obvi 

 ous purpose of prejudicing public opinion. They then proceed to claim 

 that " adventurers" from the United States are mainly responsible foi 

 the redaction of seals brought about in the southern seas. The killing 

 of seals, they say, has always and everywhere been carried out in the 

 indiscriminate, ruthless, and wasteful manner described in detail in 

 several of the works cited in their Report, and in most cases a greater 

 part of the catch has consisted of females. (Sec. 612.) It is cer- 

 tainly no part of the purpose of counsel for the United States to defend 

 " adventurers " guilty of these barbarous practices, whatever the nation 

 to which they belong. It is rather a question of humanity than of 

 nationality, and the United States would not hesitate to uudertake and 

 to assure the repression of practices which can not be described in over- 

 harsh terms if their own citizens alone were engaged in the business. 

 It is only to prevent "the indiscriminate, ruthless, and wasteful 

 slaughter" by persons who claim the protection of a foreign flag that 

 these methods of arbitration are resorted to. 



But the waste of the seals lost, in addition to the destruction of the 

 fetus or of the pup, as the case may be, is shown to some extent by the 

 Report of the Commissioners for Great Britain. We refer especially 

 to sections G13, 014, 615, 017, 618, 619, 620, 621. 



The discrepancy between the two classes of statements given by 

 themselves is very marked. The agents of the United States, captains 

 in the United States ISavy, the superintendents, and others testify that 

 40 to 60 per cent of the seals are lost. It would seem, however, from 

 the testimony in defense of pelagic slaughter that old hunters are 

 much more successful than the young ones. Green hands, says the 

 captain of the Eliza Edwards, might lose as much as 25 per cent of 

 the seals shot, but experienced hunters would bag their game to the 

 extent of 95 per cent; that is to say, they would lose but 5 per cent of 

 the females shot. (Section 625.) The number of green hands on board 

 the schooner Otto, on which Robert H. McManus, a journalist, was 

 a passenger, sailing for his health, must have been very great in pro- 

 portion to the whole crew. It seemed to him that they did not get 



