ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 329 



This is the point that we consider extremely important to establish. 

 Then he quotes Mr. Taylor who was on the islands in 1881 ; this is on 

 page 439 of the same book. 



The witness thinks there is some damage done in killing and shooting of the cows, 

 and leaving so many young without their mothers. There would be less doubt 

 respecting the cows being shot, or lost if it was satisfactorily shown that large num- 

 bers of young pups were found dead in the rookeries. 



The point of all this, in fact the double point, is, that we show in the 

 first place that this animal, at times at least — during a certain period 

 of the year at least, is a terrestrial and quasi-domestic animal. We 

 show that the pup is entirely dependent upon its mother, and, as a cor- 

 ollary from which there can be no dissent, when the mother is killed 

 under those circumstances the pup must perish. As I had the honour 

 to state to the Court yesterday, when a pelagic sealer kills a nursing 

 mother he kills the pup on the island with unerring accuracy. The 

 death of the pup is as sure to follow the death of the mother as the sun 

 to follow the night. He is able by this process to kill two or three at 

 one time. In all cases we may say when he kills the mother on the 

 feeding grounds 100 or 200 miles away, leaving a pup on shore, that 

 there is the destruction of three animals, and the skin of one only 

 secured, if there are no green hunters about, and only skillful ones who 

 are able to rescue the one that is shot before it sinks to the bottom of 

 the sea. 



We also claim (and this is an admitted fact in the case) that the pup 

 migrates with others in the herd in the fall. As to the course of the 

 migration of the herd, that is also practically admitted. I do not think 

 there is any such difference between us as to require examination. It 

 is also stated (and as to this there is no contradiction) that when the 

 bulls leave the islands, they never go further south or, at all events, 

 seldom go further south, and are seldom, if ever, seen south of latitude 

 50°. The other animals do go beyond that limit, and this may be of 

 some importance, in considering the question of the double residence 

 which is assigned to these animals by the British Commissioners. It 

 is said that they have two homes, one on the islands and the other on 

 the open sea. It is jiroved that the other seals than the bulls do go 

 further south, which shows that there is no common liome even at sea 

 for the whole herd of the animals. Certainly the bulls are entitled to 

 some consideration as members of the family of seals, and it being proved 

 that they do not and that the others do go further south than 50°, the 

 evidence is irresistible that they have no common centre of attraction 

 outside the Pribilof Islands. 



The President. — You mean the cows and pups. 



Mr. CouDERT. — I mean the cows and pups. 



The President.— And the bachelors. 



Mr. CouDERT. — And the bachelors; they go south; but I say, as a 

 herd, as a family — the father, the mother and the children — there is no 

 common home for them npon the earth and upon the sea except upon 

 the Pribilof Islands. I mean there is no home where they can at any 

 time unite and make their common habitat or domicile. As is stated 

 by the British Commissioners on that point at page 31, section 193 — 



It is a noteworthy and interesting fact, ascertained in the course of the present 

 inquiry, that the full-grown males, known as "beach-masters" or "seacatchie" 

 have seldom or never been reported to the south of the 50th parallel, while all other 

 classes of seals are found in considerable numbers much further south. 



So that when they gather together on those islands they gather there 

 by their common consent and instinct. That is the only place which 



