POINTS IN REPLY TO THE BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 323 



tention of the United States. Among these witnesses there are a 

 large number who place the proportion of females in the catches 

 made by them, respectively, higher than 00 per cent. 



(5) But the proof furnished by the furriers is absolutely decisive, 

 and this makes the proportion fully equal to the assertion by the 

 United States. 



(G) If we look at the probabilities of the case, no assertion in 

 opposition to the contention of the United States could be enter- 

 tained for a moment. When we consider that the female at sea is, 

 as a general rule, more easily approached, and therefore more easily 

 secured, than the male, and that the number of breeding females 

 is, as compared with the breeding males probably twenty to 

 one, how is it possible that the slaughter of the females should not 

 embrace anywhere from three-fourths to four-fifths of the entire 

 catch? If indeed, we could credit the assertion continually put 

 forward in the report of the British Commissioners and in the Brit- 

 ish Counter Case, that there has been for years on the Pribilof 

 Islands an excessive slaughter of young males, and that thus the 

 number of breeding males has been very much reduced, so as to 

 make the harems three and four times as large as they formerly 

 were, the excess of females over males would be vastly multiplied, 

 and the wonder would almost be how any breeding male should 

 ever be killed. 

 II. Considerable attention is given to an attempt to controvert the 

 position of the United States, that a large number of seals struck by 

 pelagic sealers are lost without being recovered. Of course the United 

 States have had no opportunity to controvert the proofs presented upon 

 this point in the British Counter Case. They contain no evidence except 

 that of pelagic sealers, and this must be taken most strongly against 

 them. Upon this point the reasonable and probable inferences from 

 incontestible facts are of greater weight than the loose and suspicious 

 statements of the witnesses referred to. We know that when a seal is 

 killed he sinks at once, because his specific gravity is greater than 

 that of the water, although he may sink more quickly in some in- 

 stances than others. We also know that when a seal is wounded, but 

 not killed, he has great capacity to escape the pursuer. We know that 

 skill in shooting and skill in recovery must vary very much among dif- 

 ferent men. Under these circumstances, it is not reasonable to believe 

 that half the seals fatally wounded are secured. 



