ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 211 



The following things are more or less disputed; and I do not base 

 any part of my argument at present upon them. In the first f)lace, it 

 is said that not so large a proj)ortion as 75 per cent of the pelagic catch 

 is females. 



If it were not any where near that figure — if it was even 20 per cent, 

 it would answer all the purposes which I desire. 



Second. It is not agreed that so great a number as one quarter or 25 

 per cent are wounded and are not recovered. 



Third. It is not agreed that females go out for food at great distances 

 upon the sea. Indeed, I cannot say it is agreed ujion the side of Great 

 Britain that nursing females ever go out for food. 



Fourth. It is not agreed tliat coition takes place on the land. They 

 assert that it takes place elsewhere. 



It is quite immaterial where it takes place. 



Fifth. It is asserted on the part of Great Britain that more or less 

 comniingling takes place between the Russian and the Alaskan herds. 



There is no evidence that there is the slightest commingling; but as 

 far as conjectures go, it is only to the eftect that there may be a com- 

 mingling of some few individuals — wholly unimportant. 



Sixth. It is not admitted on the part of Great Britain that the seals 

 stay so long on the Pribilof Islands as the United States assert that 

 they do. 



That again is of no importance, whether they stay there three or four 

 or five months; if they stay there long enough to submit themselves 

 to human power, so that man can take from them the annual increase 

 without disturbing the stock, that answers all the purjioses of my 

 argument. 



Again, it is said that raids take place upon the islands and a point 

 is made that a great many seals are lost, not by pelngic sealing, but by 

 illegitimate raids upon the island by sealers which the United States 

 does not i^rotect against. 



It is immaterial whether there are or whether there are not for the 

 purposes of my argument; but there are not, in our view, any of any 

 consequence. 



And again, what I have already said, it is alleged that a draft of 

 100,000 young males is too large. 



We do not think it too large. But what if it is. We can find out 

 the right number. Experience will tell us that; and of course self- 

 interest, the strongest motive operating upon men, will insure our obedi- 

 ence to its dictates. 



Then again it is said that the lessees of these islands are careless 

 and negligent in the methods of taking these seals and separating them 

 and driving them for slaughter, the assertion being that the drives are 

 too long, that they are made in a way that is oppressive to the seals, 

 that a good many of the seals driven and which are not fit for capture 

 but turned aside to go back again, are so much injured that they never 

 get back and are jH'actically lost to the herd. 



We conceive all those statements are unfounded; but even if they 

 were true, they would not be material. They would simply show we 

 had been guilty of negligence there. There is nobody who is under so 

 strong a motive to practice diligence as we are, and it is presumable 

 certainly, if there are any neglects, that they will be ascertained and 

 corrected. 



[The Tribunal thereupon adjourned until Friday, April 21, 1893, at 

 11 : 30 a. m.] 



