330 ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 



tliey frequent together as a family or herd. To me, I confess, it seems 

 to verge upon absurdity to talk about a double habitat for these ani- 

 mals, a habitat or home upon the land and another upon a space of 

 1,000 miles of ocean. They leave their hoiue for food. They are driven 

 away by the necessities of climate. They never land at any other 

 place. They never live upon land unless on our islands, and I think 

 we are justified in saying, beyond any fear of contradiction, that there 

 is the only home that they possess. 



That they do not land excei)t on the Pribilof Islands is practically 

 admitted, but I would like to read one or two extracts in order that I 

 may not ask the Court to take anything for granted. I select from the 

 collated testimony page 80, a brief extract from the testimony of Mr. 

 Daniel Webster, and I do this with especial satisfaction, because Mr. 

 Webster is not oidy an intelligent and reliable man, but the British 

 Commissioners themselves have spoken of him as a witness in whom 

 trust could be placed. He entered the Islands with the United States 

 and has lived there ever since and so conducted himself that even the 

 British Commissioners accept him as a reliable and truthful witness. 



In my twenty-three years' experience as a whaler in Behring Sea and the North 

 Pacific, dnring which time I visited every part of the coast snrronnding these waters 

 and my subsequent twenty-four years' experience on the seal Islands in Behring and 

 Okhotsk seas, I have never known or heard of any place where the Alaskan fur-seals 

 hi'eed except on the Pribilof group in Behring Sea. These islands are isolated and 

 seem to possess the necessary climatic conditions to make them the favourite breed- 

 ing grounds of the Alaskan fur-seals, and it is here they congregate during the sum- 

 mer months of each year to bring forth and rear their young. 



I shall not multiply extracts for I conceive this to be substantially 

 conceded and with some slight differences in expression, I may say the 

 British Commissioners themselves accede to this ])roposition. Tliey do 

 threaten us, it is true, and say that if we do not mend our methods on 

 the Islands these animals may be driven off and go to some other place. 

 They do not tell us to what place they might go. If they did we might 

 protect ourselves by acquiring those islands or lands wherever they may 

 be. But after all, with all respect for tlie ingenuity of t]ie speculation, 

 it is only speculation, and as these seals have been going there for 100 

 years and they have never been treated so well on tlie Islands as they 

 are now, I think we may view with composure the tlireat that they may 

 leave us at some indefinite period for some undefined spot. 



Mr. Justi(;e Harlan. — Is the blue colour on the map intended to show 

 the general migration route of the seal from the Pribilof Islands and 

 back. 



Mr. CoUDERT. — Yes; the dark lines show the track pursued by the 

 bulls. I will now read but two or three lines from the deposition of 

 Mr. Laing. It is very brief. He is one of the most experienced wit- 

 nesses. This is page 188 of Volume 3 of the British Appendix. 



Yon have never heard of any rookery along the coast? I ncA^cr heard of one. 

 There is a rookery of sea lions off Queen Charlotte Island, but I never lieard of any 

 of seals. 



Here I wish to call attention to another point, and one of consider- 

 able importance; and 1 am free to say I do not know wliether there is 

 any dispute about it or not. I think it is practically admitted; but I 

 would prefer, in view of its importance, to read some testimony briefly 

 on the subject. I read from the United States Case, page 94, as to the 

 distinction: 



The two great herds of fur-seals which frequent the Behring Sea and North Pacific 

 Ocean and make their homes on the Pribilof Islands, respeetively, are entirely dis- 

 tinct from each other. 



