316 ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 



seals lias attained a tolerable skill lie may be retiiiued or lie may not 

 be retained, but the proportion of at least one lialf must be the men 

 who miss twenty five per cent of tlieir shots. 



The President. — Do you mean to say that this industry of sealing^ 

 on the coast or on the high seas, is carried on by men who are engaged 

 by the trades-unions? 



Mr. CouDERT. — Yes sir; I have it here. It is very curious. 



The President. — And submitted to such rules as you state? 



Mr. CouDERT. — Yes, sir. 



The President. — I thought it was left to all. 



Mr. CouDERT. — nereis an extract from the agreement by the Sealers' 

 Association. I am pleased at the question asked about the nets. It 

 has permitted me to anticipate somewhat, and to produce this. I am 

 reading, as I state for the benefit of my friends on the other side, from 

 the Case of the United States, at the bottom of page 192. 



With the permission of the Tribunal, I will read the remarks just 

 before the quotation. 



After stating how many seals were wounded and lost and thepropor- 

 tiou.is enormous — our case says: 



Not only lias the increase in the number of white hunters in the last few years 

 made the seals ninch wilder tlian before firearms were used, but it has also added 

 largely to the number of inexperienced hunters enj^aged in sealing. It is onl^^ neees- 

 saTy, in order to show how much the unskillful ontnuniber the skillful hunters, to 

 refer to the agreement entered into by the members of the Sealers' Association of 

 Victoria, British Columbia, for the season of 1891; the portion of the agreement 

 referring to this matter is as follows : " We also bind ourselves not to take more than 

 three experienced hunters in the sealing business on each vessel represented by us, 

 said hunters to be engaged at the scale or lay adopted by this Association, as herein- 

 beiore particularly described; and we also agree that all hunters recinired in excess 

 of the three hunters above mentioned for each vessel shall be new men at the busi- 

 ness of seal hunting, and shall be engaged at the same scale or lay hereinbefore men- 

 tioned, and this clause shall apply to ail vessels owned or controlled by the members 

 of this Association, whether clearing from the port of A'ictoria or other ports in Can- 

 ada or the United States, or any port where any vessel owned or controlled by any 

 member of this Association may be fitting out for sealing on this coast." 



The Case adds practically just what I have stated: 



The number of hunters thus allowed to a vessel is, therefore, about one half tho 

 number of those actually taken on a vessel employing white hunters. 



Lord Hannen. — May I ask you: What is it you are citing this to 

 establish? What is your proposition? 



Mr. CouDERT. — I am talking of the enormous destruction that results 

 from pelagic sealing in the manner in which it is now conducted. 



Lord Hannen. — Does that depend upon whether these rules of 

 trades-unions are observed or not? 



Mr. CouDERT. — It depends upon the skill of the huntsmen, to a great 

 degree. Your Lordship will find when I read the evidence, that a dis- 

 crimination is made by the witnesses. Some of them say: "Green 

 hands miss 25 per cent"; one or two witnesses say that they "fire away 

 all day and do not get any"; but others say a skilltul man will not lose 

 more tlian four or five per cent or six per cent or seven per cent of those 

 which he kills. It is important, therefore, in this connection, as explain- 

 ing what green hands are, what ex]ierienced hands are, Avhat the expec- 

 tation may be of improving in this race for destruction, and as an 

 explanation for destruction in the past, to show that the means of per- 

 fecting themselves in this business are shut off by regulations, which 

 are stronger and more powertul, very often, than the laws of the land. 



Mr. Justice Harlan. — What did this Association mean by providing 

 for the employment of inexperienced hunters? 



