234 ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



In 1868 not less than 200,000 seals were killed, and for 1809 it is said the number was 

 not far below 300,000. The United States Government, fearing their total extinction 

 leased the sole right of seal-tishing on these islands to one tirm, restricting the 

 allowed number to 100,000. From what he had been able to lay before the Fisheries 

 Board, no time should be lost in at once taking steps to protect the seal fisheries in 

 Bass Straits. Wherever projier restriction has been introduced a most valuable 

 industry has been started in connection with the seal industry, and, instead of the 

 three years, as has been proposed by this Board, he strongly recommended five years 

 for the close season, and if at that time the seals have increased the Government 

 might be recommended to lease the islands, allowing only a certain number to be 

 taken annually and on no account to allow the females to be killed. 



I corpe now to the other branch of the question of property, namely, 

 the property which the United States Government asserts in the i?K?ws- 

 try carried on by it on the Pribilof Islands irrespective of the ques- 

 tion whether they have property in the seals or not. Supposing, for 

 the purpose of argument, that my conclusions were not admitted that 

 the United States have a projierty in the seals themselves, or the 

 seal herd which frequents the Islands, they assert that they have a 

 property interest in the industry which is there carried on of such a 

 character that they are justiiied in protecting and defending it against 

 any wrongful invasion. JSTow, for the purpose of the argument upon 

 that question, I employ the same basis of fact which I have employed 

 in discussing the question of property in the seals. And, briefly, I 

 assume as facts those statements before read by me, and which are sub- 

 stantially undisputed. They are these: that this industry was estab- 

 lished originally by Kussia, and that she employed care and labor and 

 devoted expense to its establishment, carrying thither a large number 

 of native Aleutians from the Aleutian Islands, for the purpose of 

 guarding the seals and carrying on the business of selecting the super- 

 fluous increase in order to supply the market; that no interference was 

 made with Russia in the enjoyment of that industry during the entire 

 period of her occupation, down to the time when the Islands passed 

 into the possession of the United States; that the United States con- 

 tinued to carry on that industry also without interference until pelagic 

 sealing was introduced; that the effects of that industry were in all 

 respects beneficial, not only to the United States, but also to the whole 

 world; and that they succeeded in securing the entire annual increase 

 of these animals and devoting it to the purposes of commerce without 

 diminishing the stock ; and that by means of this industry the stock 

 of seals has been actually preserved. And to show the beneficial 

 results in that particular, we have only to compare the condition of the 

 Pribilof Islands with that of the islands in the Southern Ocean — the 

 Falkland Islands, and others where the race has been entirely 

 destroyed. And I might add that it is quite possible that with the 

 prohibition of pelagic sealing, and the establishment of similar rules 

 and regulations over the sealing grounds of the Southern Seas for the 

 perservation of the animals, those islands might be stocked anew, and 

 similar advantages might be enjoyed in many parts of the world to 

 those now produced by the industry on the Pribilof Islands. This 

 result might be brought about and the benefit to mankind greatly 

 increased. 



The President. Do you mean that that should be a matter fo^ 

 international consideration, or that it should be effected by municipal 

 laws"^ 



Mr. Carter. If it were recognized that the seals were property, 

 there would then be an inducement to nations holding sealing grounds, 

 pelagic sealing being prohibited, to cause those grounds to be pro- 

 tected and regulations might be made for the prosecution of the 

 industry. 



