336 ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 



tinuous schools of seals, but rather small parties srattered along. The colnmn 

 travelling along the British Columbia coast, head for the Pribilof Islands, their 

 natural breeding ground. The other army proceeds along the Japanese coast, and 

 head for the Commander and Robben Islands. I believe that the seals always return 

 to the place of their birth. 



Perhaps I might have been satisfied with reading this alone to the 

 Court, emanating from such a source, (which is certainly not one 

 favorable to the United States), and have claimed that until it was 

 contradicted it should be considered conclusive upon the i)oint; but if 

 the High Tribunal desires more, it will find an abundance of corrobora- 

 tive proof in the Case. 



The President. — This last witness was a pelagic sealer! 



Mr. CouDERT. — He is the Vice-President of the Sealers' Association 

 of Victoria. 



The President. — But he was a pelagic sealer? 



Mr. CouDERT. — You are speaking. Sir, of the last witness? 



The President. — Yes. 



Mr. CouDERT. — Yes, he is the Vice-President of the Sealers' Asso- 

 ciation of Victoria. 



The President. — Those are pelagic sealers'? 



Mr. CouDERT. — Yes; and he is speaking from his actual knowledge 

 of the subject. 



The President. — Does he carry on his business on the other side of 

 the Pacific — the Japanese and Eussian coasts'? 



Mr. CouDERT. — He deals in skins — I do not think that he under- 

 takes to get them on the high seas. His is the safer and more com- 

 fortable business of remaining on land, and dealing with the skins 

 after they have been taken from the animals. 



Mr. Gram. — Mr. Coudert, if you will allow me, I will draw your 

 attention to what is stated in the British Counter Case, page 136 and 

 following. It commences thus: 



Since the date of the Report of the British Commissioners, information obtained 

 from pelagic sealers and seamen engaged in navigating in various parts of the North 

 Pacific has resulted in the accumulation of an overwhelming amount of evidence 

 supporting the position that no constant separation exists between the seals, fre- 

 quenting the two sides of the Ocean. 



Mr. Coudert. — Yes. 



Mr. Gram. — And in the following pages there are reported a good 

 number of instances. 



Mr. Coudert. — Y^es; I was coming to that subject. I am glad that 

 the learned Arbitrator called my attention to it. But taking even the 

 proposition as broadly stated as it can be by the Counsel, what does it 

 amount to? — that the evidence is overwhelming that no constant sepa- 

 ration exists between the seals frequenting the two sides of this ocean. 

 Does it mean anything more than what is stated by the British Com- 

 missioners as an exceptional case oi stragglers being found everywhere'? 

 I think when the learned Arbitrator examines the case, he will find that 

 it is nothing more than a reiteration, under a stronger form, of the 

 exceptional instances adduced by the British Commissioners ; that there 

 is nowhere an allegation — and that is all that I care to establish — that 

 those two herds, armies, tribes, or families, are not absolutely distinct. 

 Even if it were true, which we deny, — and we claim to use their expres- 

 sion that the evidence is "overwhelming in amount" — even if it were 

 true that there is an occasional running into each other, and out, on the 

 borders of each of them, the two herds are distinct; they all follow their 

 own migrations; they each have their own home; and, in the true sense 

 of the word, there is no intermingling. Secondly, there is no constautj 



