422 ORAL ARGUMENT OF FREDERICK R. COUDEKT, ESQ. 



After the Tribunal lias heard it read, the Tribuual can decide. 



It is an implied threat that if the United States do not -so conduct 

 the killiug on land that pelagic sealing will be prosperous, the stream 

 of these animals may be diverted to some other place by the ingenuity 

 and skill of man, just as a water course is tapped and I get the water, 

 from your farm and put it upon mine. Thus these ingenious British 

 Commissioners have threatened us, in covert and scientihc and polite 

 language with taking all the seals away and putting them on British 

 territory; and all because the seals have such a keen sense of smell. 

 It is section 524 of the British Commissioners report. 



This is particularly worthy of consideratiou iu the case of the Aleutian Islands, 

 where, in consequence of the now very small and still decreasing number of natives, 

 it would not be difficult to set apart reserves for tliis purpose, as well as for the 

 propagation of the sea-otter. The greatest difficulty iu the case of the fur-seal 

 would doubtless be found in the matter of inducing the first colonization of such 

 new rookery gronnds. 



To that I fully agree. Cest le premier pas qui coilte, as St. Denis said 

 when his head Avas taken off. So it would be, I undertake to say, if 

 you can get the Pribilof herd to stop at a half way house and rest and 

 refresh themselves there and be happy, the rest would be compara- 

 tively easy. 



But as it has been shown that the smell of the formerly occupied rookeries is one 

 of the chief — if not the chief — attraction to the tirst-arriving seals, and as this smell 

 is inherent chiefly in the soil of these rookeries, it is perhaps not iinAvorthy of con- 

 sideration whether the transfer of portions of this seal-impregnated soil, and its 

 scattering over suitable places — particularly such as lie near the migration-route of 

 the seal — might not lead to their occuiiation. In any case, such reservations would 

 soon be colonized by the more widely wandering sea-lions and hair-seals, and the 

 security and increase of these, would probably aiter a time have the elfect of pro- 

 ducing a sense of safety which might induce the fur-seal to take np its abode there 

 at the breeding season. The principal objection to experiments of this kind would 

 be the cost of atfording the necessary proteition, but i f such islands were also stocked 

 with and preserved for the blue-fox, the sale of the skins of this animal might 

 alone, iu the course of a few years, be sufticieut to cover a large part of this cost. 



Similar measures wovild, of course, be also worthy of consideration iu the case of 

 various places on the shores of British Columbia, or on the Asiatic coasts of the 

 Pacitic. 



Science has made such progress that I do not think, pursuing this, 

 that it is necessary even to raid our island to get our soil. Of course 

 the United States, if this be so, would not be willing to have ship loads 

 of its soil transferred for the purpose of colonizing foreign countries 

 ■with seals; but after all, chemistry can do almost anything, and I sup- 

 pose that chemically this might be imitated, and the sense of smell, 

 however acute, of these animals, might not detect the difference. 



But whether this is meant seriously or not, I leave the court to deter- 

 mine. I confess I am very much puzzled about it. It is ingenious. 

 Jules Verne might enjoy it very much, and write a book upon it. I am 

 sure he miglit succeed in populating the islands to his entire satisfaction. 



My time is so short that I shall call the attention of the Court in 

 conclusion only to some of the opinions of the naturalists. On pages 

 411, 412, and following, of the Appendix to the Case of the United 

 States are the letters of naturalists. First, we have a statement by 

 Professoi* Huxley. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Will you read the paragraph before that? 



Mr. CouDERT. — I would read it with great pleasure if I did not 

 intend to close the argument this evening. I will leave it to you to read. 



