ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 191 



tlie herd. Another limit to the increase of the herd, or another cir- 

 cumstance that would operate to limit the increase of the herd, if left 

 to natural conditions, is the contests among the males themselves for 

 the possession of females. Of course, as, presumably, there is an equal 

 number of males and females born each year, and as the aniuuil is in a 

 high degree polj^gamous, one male answering for anywhere from twenty 

 to forty or fifty females, there are fierce confiicts between the males for 

 gaiuing possession of the females, and gaining places on these rooker- 

 ies. Those contests are very deadly, and result disadvantageously to 

 seal life ujtou the rookeries in diifereut ways. It leads to the slaughter 

 of a great many males; and it interferes very greatly with the process 

 of reproduction during the season of reproduction. The way in which 

 these contests between the males operate to reduce the numbers of the 

 herd, is evidenced in various other classes of highly polygamous ani- 

 mals; for instance, the buffalo — the American bison — now nearly extinct. 

 That was a highly polygamous auimal; and the extent to which the 

 males were disabled and killed by conflicts with each other was very 

 great. I believe the same thing is true of all other animals which are 

 highly polygamous, with deer, and elk, and moose and such animals. 



The President. Are the bodies of those animals that are killed by 

 one another picked up for the use of their furs? 



Mr. Garter. No; I apprehend not. 



The President. They are quite lost. 



Mr. Carter. They are lost. The breeding rookeries are left undis- 

 turbed, as far as possible. Such bodies cannot be recovered without 

 going among the rookeries for the purpose of taking them. When the 

 supply of males is not excessive, of course the conflicts are not so fre- 

 quent in number, and not so fierce and deadly in character. 



Take this herd of seals when it has reached its maximum under con- 

 ditions where it is not disturbed by man. If. num appears upon the 

 scene, and makes a draft upon it, he can take a certain number without 

 affecting the normal numbers of the herd. That arises from the cir- 

 cumstance that the auimal is polygamous in its character. If he takes 

 no females, but confines his draft to males, and leaves enough males for 

 the service of the whole herd, he does not touch the birth rate of the 

 herd. Consequently there continues still to be as many born as before, 

 and the herd would preserve its numbers at that maximum point, suf- 

 fering a slight diminution at first by the number of males that are taken. 



The President. Do you mean to say that would be a sort of peace- 

 making, and consequently a sort of taming the animals, changing their 

 modes of life and a domestication ? 



Mr. Carter. No; I do not mean that, in that sense. 



The President. If you su])press the occasions of fighting between 

 them, of course you make them tamer. 



Mr. Carter. You do not suppress them. You affect them to a slight 

 degree, but not to a sufficient degree to make any appreciable differ- 

 ence. You still leave a large number. You still leave a snperfluous 

 number. They are still abundant after you have made your draft from 

 them. 



The President. That is one of the modes of man, of going among 

 these animals and domesticating them. 



Mr. Carter. It is what I call husbandry. I do not go so far as to 

 assert that it makes a substantial change in their nature. 1 only assert 

 the fact that you can take a very large number from them without in 

 any degree diminishing the normal nurabeis of the lierd. You dimin- 

 ish it at firstj of course. If you have a herd of five millions, male and 



