224 ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



territory of the United States, and along a va.st extent of tliis soutneni 

 part of Alaskan territory and of the Aleutian Chain. A winter habitat 

 along the coast of British Columbia, if it were anything but an imagi- 

 nation, is too slight a consideration to form any figure in this discussion. 



What is the other ground of merit? That is rather more singular, as 

 it seems to me. They say the seals consume along the shore of British 

 Columbia a great mauy fish in the sea. The suggestion is, I suppose, 

 that if the seals did not consume those fish, the inliabitants of those 

 shores would catch them and that, therefore, the seals take away those 

 fish from them ! In other words the intimation is : " We feed these seals 

 with our fish!" All I have to say in reply to that is that the fish which 

 they consume, these squids, and crustaceans and cods, and what not, 

 are not the property of Canada, or of Great Britain. They are the 

 property of mankind. Mankind feeds these seals. It is from mankind 

 that they get their sustenance. They take it out of the illimitable stores 

 of the sea. It is not the property of any nation, but of mankind. I 

 grant you that the circumstance that mankind feeds these seals with 

 its fish is a circumstance tending to give mankind an interest in the 

 product. The seals in a beneficial sense belong to mankind. That is 

 our position; and we (jire them to mankind; and mankind works out its 

 true and beneficial title only by employing the agency and the instru- 

 mentality of the United States. That is the only way whereby mankind 

 can reach, or ought to reach them. The world says to the United 

 States : "You have, by nature, this extraordinary advantage of locality, 

 and possession. You, and you alone, have the ability to take the whole 

 annual increase of this animal and funush it to the world if you will 

 onlj' cultivate it. It is your duty to improve your natural advantages 

 by taking the annual increase, and when you tlo that, tee get the benefit 

 of these seals, and we get it in the only way which it can be afforded to 

 us. J^o other nation can touch the animal except on the high seas, and 

 to take it there is to destroy it." Therefore, the argument that the fish 

 which these seals consume are fish belonging to British Cokimbia and 

 that, therefore, the inhabitants of that region have an equity of a supe- 

 rior character in the seal entirely disappears. There is neither fact nor 

 reason to support it. 



In reaching these conclusions as to property in seals, it will be 

 observed that I rely on no disputed facts; u})on no facts which are in 

 serious dispute. I have said so at least. My assertion in that particu- 

 lar may not be accepted; but I feel quite sure that when the members 

 of this Tribunal come to consider the facts, they will agree that all the 

 facts I rely upon, are placed beyond dispute. They are conceded, or 

 placed beyond dispute by the evidence; but I could really make the 

 whole argument upon a nuich narrower ground of fact and keep myself 

 within what is absolutely indisputable. 



Here is the report of the joint Commissioners; it will be found at 

 page 309 of the Case of the United States, and contains the following: 



5, We are in thorough agrecnieut that for iudiistrial as well as for oilier obvious 

 reasons it is iucumbeut upon all nations, and particularly upon those, haviug 

 direct commercial interests in fur-seals, to provide for their proper protection and 

 preservation, 



6. Our joint and several investigations have led us to certain conclusions, in the 

 first place, in regard to the facts of seal life, including both the existing conditions 

 and their causes; and in the second place, in regard to such remedies as may bo 

 necessarj' to secure the fur-seal against depletion or commercial extermination. 



7. We find that since the Alaslva purchase a marked diminution in the number 

 of seals on and habitually resorting to the Frybilof Islands has taken place; that it 

 has been cumulative in effect, and that it is the result of excessive killing by man. 



