ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 7 



there was, somewhere, north of the Aleutian chain in the Bering Sea 

 another great breeding place and resort for these animals. He, there- 

 fore, expended much labor in endeavoring to discover these resorts 

 and in the year 178G, I think it was, on one of his voyages, he suddenly 

 found himself in the presence of that tremendous roar — a roar almost 

 like that of Niagara, it is said — which proceeds from the countless multi- 

 tudes of those animals upon the islands. He knew then that the object 

 for which he was seeking had been attained; and, waiting until the 

 fog had lifted, he discovered before him the islands to which his name 

 was afterwards given. That was in 1786. Immediately following that 

 discovery many Eussiaus, sometimes individually and sometimes asso- 

 ciated in companies, resorted to those islands, which were uninhabited, 

 and made large captures of seals from them. The mode of taking 

 them was by an indiscriminate slaughter of males and females; and 

 of course it was not long before the disastrous effects of that method 

 became apparent. They a\ ere greatly reduced in numbers, and at one 

 or more times seemed to be upon the point almost of commercial exter- 

 mination. By degrees those engaged in this pursuit learned what the 

 laws of nature were in respect to the preservation of such a race of 

 animals. They learned that they were highly polygamous in their 

 nature, and tliat a certain draft could be taken from the superfluous 

 males without sensibly depreciating the enormous numbers of the herd. 

 Learning those facts, they gradually established an industry upon the 

 islands, removed thither a considerable number of the population of 

 one or more of the Aleutian Islands and kept them permanently there 

 for the purpose of guarding the seals upon the islands, and taking at 

 the time suitable for that purpose such a number of superfluous males 

 as the knowledge they had acquired taught them could be safely taken. 



Finally the system which they established grew step by step 

 more regular and precise; and sometime, I think I may say, in the 

 neighborhood of 1845, they had adopted a regular system which 

 absolutely forbade the slaughter of females and confined the taking 

 to young males under certain ages and to a certain annual number. 

 Under that reasonable system, conforming to natural laws, the exist- 

 ence of the herd was perpetuated and its numbers even largely 

 increased; so that at the time when it passed into the possession of 

 the United States I tliink I may say it was true that the numbers of 

 the herd were then equal to, if not greater than, ever had been known 

 since the Islands were first discovered. A similar system had been 

 pursued by the Eussians with similar effect upon the Commander 

 Islands, possessions of their own on the western side of the Bering 

 Sea. 



The advantage of these results, so beneficial to Eussia, so bene- 

 ficial to mankind, may be more easily perceived by comparing them 

 with the results which have flowed from the discovery of other 

 homes of the fur-seal in other seas. It is well known that south of the 

 equator and near the southern extremity of the South American con- 

 tinent there were other islands, Masafuera, Juan Fernandez, the 

 Falkland Islands and other places, where there were seals in almost 

 equal multitudes. They were on uninhabited islands. They were in 

 places where no protection could be extended against the capture of 

 them. They were in places where no system of regulations limiting 

 drafts which might be made upon them could be established; and the 

 consequence was that in a few short years they were practically 

 exterminated from every one of such haunts, and have remained ever 

 since practically, in a commercial point of view, exterminated, except 



