ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDERT, ESQ. * 405 



Then Joshua Strickland, of Victoria, Sealer. 



He has been in the sealing business two years on the British schoouer Umbrina. 



Most of the seals are females with pnp. . . Have killed cow seals that were full 

 of milk over 40 miles from the Pribilof Islands. 



Then Alfred Dardean, of Victoria, Sealer. 



Ho went sealing in 1890. 



We caught over iJOO skins before entering the sea and our whole »atch that year 

 was 2.15y'skins. Of the seals that were caught oft' the coast fully 90 per cent out of 

 every hundred had young pups in them. The boats would bring the seals killed on 

 board the vessel and wo would take the young pu])S out and skin them. If the pup 

 is a good, nice one we would skin it and keep it for ourselves. I had eight such 

 skins myself. Four out of live if caught in May or June, would be alive when wo 

 cut them out of the mothers. One of them we kept for pretty near three weeks 

 alive on deck by feeding it on condensed milk. One of the men tinally killed it 

 because it cried so pitilnTly. We ouly got three seals with pups in them in the Beh- 

 riug Sea. Most all of them were fcmiiks that had given birth to their young on the 

 islands, and the milk would run out of tLe teats on the deck when we would skin 

 them. We caught female seals in milk more than 100 miles oft" the Pribilof Islands. 



This witness had the distinction of being cross-examined by the 

 British Government and we claim he does not deny anything but adds 

 to the weight of our proof. 



Major Williams' Clerk or secretary gave me $2 for the replies I gave to questions 

 asked me by the Major at the Driard Hotel. 



This is produced by the other side. 



Sir Charles Kussell. — There is an earlier statement than that. 



Mr. CouDERT. — Shall I read the whole of it. 



Sir Charles Russell. — If you please. 



Mr. Coudert. — Certainly. 



I consider I know as much about sealing as any of the sealers oiit of this port. I 

 studied the habits of the seals closely while on my sealing voyage. I consider half 

 the seals caught by the schooner E. B. Marvin during the time I was aboard of her 

 were female seals, and a large portion of those female seals, were barren. 



Sir Charles Russell. — That is the point. 



Mr. Coudert. — Yes I beg your pardon. If I had observed it I 

 would have read it: 



Major Williams' clerk or secretary gave me $2 for the replies I gave to questions 

 asked me by the Major at the Driard Hotel. I did not read the evidence which I 

 signed for Major Williams at the Driard Hotel. 



The most that can be said of this is if Dardean was bought he was 

 bought cheap but probably it was as much as he is worth. Out of 

 justice to Major Williams it ought to be said that there is nothing 

 unusual in paying a man a fee lor his time. It is a witness fee, and 

 the mere fact that it was so small a fee given to a man taken away 

 from his business shows that the transaction was highly honorable and 

 creditable. He does minimise his testimony here in the way I have 

 read and my learned friend was quite right in asking me to read it. 



Then Morris Moss, Furrier and Vice-President of the Sealers Association of 

 Victoria, who has bought from ten to twenty thousand sealskins per annum. 



I believe the majority of seals captured by white hunters in Behriug Sea are 

 females in search of food. 



As Vice-President of the Sealers Association his information must 

 have been of the very best; he would not have spoken without full 

 knowledge of the subject he was talking of. 



Then J. Johxson, of Victoria, Sealer and Sailing Master, who has spent six years 

 of his life sealing, and been captain of four difi'erent schooners: 



A large majority of the seal taken on the coast are cows with pups. A few young 

 males are taken, the ages ranging from one to five years. Once in a while an old 

 bull is taken in the North Pacific Ocean. I use no discrimination in killing seals. 



