ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. 353 



limit it by ten thousand. It is important to note liow far tbe cows go 

 out to feed for two reasons: In the first place to note how likely it is 

 that the pelagic sealers will lind a nursing cow when they are outside 

 of 20, 30, 40 or a hundred miles; because that is a most material con- 

 sideration; and in the second place to determine whether the sugges- 

 tion of a twenty mile zone deserves even iiassing attention. 

 Kow I read liom the Case, page 115. 



Necessarily after a few days of nursing her pup the cow is compelled to seek food 

 in order to provide sufficient nourishment for her ofl'spring. Soon after coition she 

 leaves the pup on the rookery and goes into the sea, and as the pup gets older and 

 stronger these excursions lengthen accordingly until she is sometimes absent from 

 the rookeries for a week at a time. 



This is what the learned President spoke of as the process of weaning. 

 It is gradual. 



The food of all classes of fur-seals consists of squids, fishes, crustaceans, and mol- 

 luscs, bixt squids seem to be their principal diet, showing the seals are surface feeders. 

 On account of the number of seals on the islands fish are very scarce in the neigh'oor- 

 jug waters; this necessitates the cow going many miles in search of her food. 



And now is the important statement as to the distances : 



They undoubtedly go often from one hundred to two huTulred miles from the rook- 

 eries on these feeding excursions. This fact is borne out by the testimony of many 

 experienced sealers, who have taken nursing females a hundred miles and over from 

 the islands, and Capt. Olsen, of the steam schooner J?) »rf Beck, states through the 

 Victoria Daily Colonist, of August 6,1887 (which is published in the British Blue 

 Book, 1890, C-6131, p. 84), that anyone who knows anything of sealing is aware that 

 such a charge (catching seals in Alaskan waters within three leagues of the shore) is 

 ridiculous, as we never look for seals within twenty miles of shore. 



This may explain why that twenty mile zone was adopted by the 

 Commissioners : 



They are caught all the way from between twenty and one hundred and fifty miles 

 off the land. Capt. Dyer, of the seized sealing schooner Alfred Adams, confirmed 

 the above statement. 



The Tribunal thereupon adjourned until Friday, May 5, at 11 :30 a. m. 

 B s, PT XII 23 



