310 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



First. That 95 per cent of all the seals killed in the Bering Sea are 

 females. 



Second. That for every three sleeping seals killed or wounded in the 

 water only one is recovered. 



Third. For every six traveling seals killed or wounded in the water 

 only one is recovered. 



Fourth. That 95 per cent at least of all the female seals killed are 

 either in pup or have left their newly-born pup on the islands, while 

 they have gone out into the sea in search of food. 



The result is the same in either case. If the mother is killed the pup 

 on shore will linger for a few days, some say as long as two or three 

 weeks, but will inevitably die before winter. All of the schooners prefer 

 to hunt around the banks where the female seals are feeding, to attempt 

 to intercept the male seal on their way to and from the hauling grounds. 



This overwhelming and practically uncontradicted evidence certainly 

 justifies the statement of the British Commissioners as to the "remark- 

 able agreement" upon the subject. How the facts could be disputed 

 without impeaching witnesses taken from every class of society where 

 knowledge could be found, it is impossible for us to conjecture. Offi- 

 cers from the Navy of the United States; British sea captains as well 

 as American seamen, journalists, natives, all concur as to the fearful 

 destruction which is going on. It is notpossible to read the testimony, 

 even making far more allowance for exaggeration than the nature of the 

 case will justify, without reaching the conclusion that pelagic sealing 

 must be stopped or all hope of preserving the herd abandoned. Pallia- 

 tion, compromise, and mitigating processes are out of the question. 

 The outrage must be cut at the root and its continuance made impos- 

 sible. Females that are pregnant eleven months of the year, and nurs- 

 ing mothers three or four months, must be left undisturbed, and if, as 

 all agree, it is impossible to discriminate in pelagic sealing between 

 the mothers and the males, then the other alternative is inexorably 

 before us, and that is absolute interdiction. 



(g) The principal fact that a decrease, alarming and continuous, has 

 been noted, is by the proofs and admissions made evident. It required 

 no proofs, as it is conceded by the Commissioners on both sides to exist, 

 and it is for the purpose of remedying the evil that this Arbitration 

 has been entered into. It is claimed on the part of the United States 

 that the diminution which threatens extermination is wholly due to 

 pelagic sealing, a practice which does not permit the hunter to spare the 

 gravid or nursing females; while at the same time, and cooperating 

 with this principal source of undue destruction, the methods used by 

 the hunters frequently result in the death and simultaneous loss of the 

 animal. It need hardly be said, that prima facie, to such a system 



