STATEMENTS AND LETTERS OF NATURALISTS. 



STATEMENT -BY PROF. T. H. HUXLEY. 



Tlio following- stnteinoiit by Prof. T. H. Huxley, v. u. s., i?tc., tlie 

 eiiuuoiit iiatnrnlist, was prepared at tlie recinest <»f the counsel for tlie 

 United States. As appears fr(Mn tlie statement itself, it was given by 

 Professor Huxley as a scientist, not as a retained advocate. 



1. The problem of the fur-seal fishery appears to me to be exactly 

 aimlogons to that whicli is presented by salmon fisheries. ThePribilof 

 Islands answer to the upper waters of a salmon river; the Bering Sea 

 south of them and ttie waters of the northwest Pacific from Califoruia 

 to the Shumagin Islands to the rest of the course of the river, its estu- 

 ary, and the adjacent seacoast. The animals breed in the former and 

 feed in the latter, migrating at regular periods from the one to the 

 other. 



(The question whether the fur-seals have any breeding places ou the 

 northAvest coast outside of Beiing Sea maybe left open, as there seems 

 to be no doubt that the main body breeds at the Pribilofs.) 



2. An im])<)rtant dificrence is that the females, bachelors, and year- 

 ling fur seals feed largely within a radius of, say, 50 miles of thePrib- 

 ilol Islands, while the adult sahnon do not feed (sensibly, at any rate) 

 in the ui^per waters. 



3. It is clear in the case of fur-seals, as in that of the salmon, that 

 man is an agent of destruction of very great x)otency, probably out- 

 weighing all others. It would be possible in the case of a sahnon river 

 to fish it in such a fashion that every ascending or descending fish 

 should be caught and the fishery be in this way surely and completely 

 destroyed. All our salmc.n-fisliery legislation is directed towards theeud 

 of prcseivijig the breeding- grounds on the one hand and, on the other, 

 of preventing the lo-vser- water fisheimen from capturing too large a 

 projiortion of the ascending fish. 



4. Our fishery regulations are strict ar^d minute. Every salmon river 

 has its fishery board, composed of representatives of both the u])per and 

 the lower water fisheries, whose business it is to make by-laws under 

 the acts of Parliament and to see that they are carried out. A Govern- 

 ment inspector of fi.sheries looks after them and holds inquiries under 

 the authority of the home secretary in case of dis]vutes. On the whole, 

 the system works well. The fisheries of rivers, which have been pretty 

 nearly de])Oi)ulated, have been restored, and the yield of the best is 

 maintained. But the upper-water and lower-water pro]>riet(U-s are 

 everlastingly at war, each vowing that the other is ruining the fisheries, 

 and the inspector has large opportunities of estimating the value of 

 diametrically opposite assertions about matters of fact. 



5. In the case of the fur-seal fisheries, the destructive agency of man 

 is j)rei)otent on the Pi ibilof Islands. It is obvious that the seals might 



411 



