ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 319 



properly arrested or not, whether the decisiou of our Court in Alaska 

 wlien the res was before it is fiual or not, whether our Government will 

 consent to abandon the effects of that de(;ision, whether the decisiou 

 made by this Tribunal will necessarily decide those issues one way or 

 the other, for one party or the other — as to that I express no oi^iuion, 

 for I have no right to obtrude any upon a Court which is not to deal 

 with the questions involved. 



I propose, with the permission of the Court, to enter upon a some- 

 what detailed examination of the facts. Both my learned friends and 

 myself have stated to the Court certain propositions, and for the pur- 

 poses of the argument we should naturally expect that they will be 

 admitted as facts with the understanding, of course, that they are to 

 be supported by reference in the Case to the testimony which supports 

 these propositions. There are nniuy pro^tositions which are admitted, 

 some which are very imperfectly denied, and as to a few of which it 

 would appear that my learned friends have taken issue with us. 



It is admitted in the case (and it is a very important admission as 

 bearing on the nature of the fur seal) that the pap is invariably born 

 on land. Our Case states it as briefly and tersely and compactly as pos- 

 sible, and every one of the propositions I am now going to read, will, I 

 believe, be admitted to be true on the other side. It will save time for 

 me to read this, for I am unable to state it more succinctly. I am 

 reading from page 98 of our Case, the Case of the United States. 



The pup is bom on the breeding grounds during the months of June or July. Its 

 birth usually occurs within a day or two after the mother seal arrives on the islands, 

 and often within a few hours. A young seal at birth weighs from six to eight 

 pounds, its head being abnoriually large for the size of its body; it is almost black 

 in colour, being covered with a short hair, which changes to a silver-gray colour 

 after the puj) learns to swim. These two grades of pups are distinguished by the 

 names "black pups" and "gray pups". The coat of hair is its only covering, the 

 under-coat of fur not being found on the new-born seal. 



That proposition, I take it, is undisputed. 



It is also undisputed that there is only one pup born at a birth. It 

 is stated that there nuxy be exce])tional instances, phenomenal instances, 

 which prove nothing except that there are exceptions to every rule; 

 that sometimes two are born at a birth. But that may be dismissed 

 from the consideration of the case; and it will be found that there is no 

 dispute between the two sides as to the general fact that only one pup 

 is born at a birth. As the result of a singular phenomenon (and it is a 

 phenomenon, if the view of the British Commissioners as to the nature 

 of this animal is true) this aquatic or marine or pelagic animal, if born at 

 sea, will drown. Birth in its native element, if I may call the native 

 element the element in which it is never born, — birth, at all events, at 

 sea is instantly punished by Nature's law w4th death; and a curious 

 illustration of this is shewn by the fiict that during one year when the 

 winter was extremely severe and lasted into the season when the Islands 

 w^ere generally free in their ap]n-oaches from ice, a number of the 

 mothers were unable to reach shore in time, the pups were born at sea, 

 and every one of them perished. The importance of this consideration, 

 wdien you examine into the nature of the seal, cannot be overstated. 



Some details as to this important matter of fact will be found in the 

 Case at page 99; and I will read a few lines Avith the evidence which 

 supports the statement. 



For the first six or eight weeks of its life the pup is confined entirely to the breed- 

 ing grounds, lieing unable to swim. Mr. Thomas F. Morgan, for nearly twenty 

 years located on the Pribilof Islands as one of the agents of the lessees, states that 

 he has ofteja seen young pups washed off by the surf aud drow^ed. Dr. N. L. Here^ 



