ORAL .ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 271 



iiltlioue;h grciit stress had been placed by the Uuited States Government on the 

 alleged iieeessity for prohibiting pelagic sealing in the Behring's Sea, yet no attempt 

 had ever been made by that (government for an arrangement to curtail similar opera- 

 tions along the coast previous to the entry of seals into that sea. 



In ail attempt to vindicate the methods of the lessees of the seal islands, Mr. Haw- 

 kins proceeds: "We, on the other hand, during my experience have had annually 

 large numbers of seal-skins from Alaska, and also from the Copper Islands, which 

 are killed by being clubbed on land, and are selected with judgment, being the skins 

 of young male seals: the older lighting or breeding males are spared." 



This is another presentation of the case of the Uuited States Government for the 

 prohibiting of every other character of sealing but that adopted by the lessees, so 

 frequently combated by your Excellency's advisers. While the Minister of Marine 

 and Fisheries does not deem it necessary to dwell at any length njjon the point, he 

 would, in passing, invite attention to the fact that notwithstanding this statement, 

 the United States Treasury agents now assert the contrary, and the Government of 

 the United States appear to be acting on the Reports of their Agents. 



Omitting the next paragraph, I qnote again: 



The Minister submits that whatever significance Mr. Hawkins' statement may have 

 upon the abstract (juestion of the protection of seal life in the Pacific waters, it can 

 have but little, if any, on the controversy between Great Britain and the United 

 States, as the evil complained of, even if as great as alleged, occurs outside the dis- 

 puted area, as he himself implies in his reference to the "north-west coast skins." 



Therefore, it appears from this Canadian evidence that a danger, and 

 a ])rin('ii)al danger to the seals, lies outside Bering Sea, and in the 

 North I'acitic. Now, I read to the same effect passages from the Report 

 of the liritish Commission which I have just referred to, page 22, sec- 

 tion 138 (quoting): 



If certain mouths should be discussed as a close time for sealing at sea, it becomes 

 important to inquire which part of the season is most injurious to seal life in propor- 

 tion to the number of skins secured, and to this inquiry there can be but the one 

 re})ly, that the most destructive part of the pelagic catch is that of the spring, dur- 

 ing which time it includes a considerable proportion of gravid females, then com- 

 mencing to travel on their way north to bring forth their young. It is on similar 

 grounds and at corresponding seasons that protection is usually accorded to animals 

 of any kind, and, ajiart from the fact that these seals are killed upon the high seas, 

 the same arguments apply to this as to other cases. 



That represents the most destructive part of the pelagic catch to be 

 in the spring, when gravid females are talven on their way north to the 

 Islands. On page 23, section 145, the same Commissioners say : 



From the foregoing review of the various facts and circumstances of seal life in the 

 North Pacific, the following may be stated to be the governing conditions of proper 

 protection and preservation : 



(rt.) The facts show that some such protection is eminently desirable, especially in 

 view of further expansions of the sealing industry. 



(b.) The domestic protection heretofore given to the fur-seal on the breeding islands 

 has at no time been wholly satisfactory, either in conception or in execution, and 

 many of its methods have now become obsolete. 



(o.) Measures of protection to be effective must include both the summer and win- 

 ter homes, and the whole migration-ranges of the fur-seal, and control every place 

 and all methods where or by which seals are taken or destroyed. 



Again, at section 155 and subdivision of that section, which is to be 

 found on page 25 : 



A close season to be provided, extending from the 15th September to the Ist May 

 in each year, during which all killing of seals shall be prohibited, with the addi- 

 tional provision that no sealing- vessel shall enter Behring Sea before the 1st July in 

 each year. 



So that we see that not only is there no ground for an interpretation 

 of the Treaty limiting the Eegulations to Bering Sea, but we have it 

 fully recognized on the part of Great Britain that necessity requires 

 such regulations in the North Pacitic as well as in Bering Sea. 



