PROTECTION AND PROPERTY RIGHTS. 39 



diction over the high seas, or as to the rights of Case of the 



Harriet. 



protection or property in seals when found on 

 the high seas. Seals were never taken at the 

 Falkland Islands otherwise than on land, and the 

 Harriet was not charged with the offense of tak- 

 ing them on the high seas. 



Second. The real question in the dispute was 

 whether the Republic of Buenos Ayres owned 

 the coasts upon which sealing had been in- 

 dulged in by the captured schooner, and upon 

 this point issue was actually joined by the two 

 Governments. The position assumed by the 

 American Charge' was that the Falkland Islands 

 were unoccupied and under the sovereignty of 

 no nation, and that, therefore, sealing on them 

 was open to all. 



Third. It is true, the American Charge' asserts 

 that "the ocean fishery is a natural right, " and 

 that "every interference with it by a foreign 

 power is a natural wrong ;" and these assertions 

 appear to be relied on at page 137 of the British 

 Case to defeat the claims of protection and prop- 

 erty now put forward by the United States. The 

 context 1 shows, however, that, so far as sealing is 

 concerned, the Charge' was merely laying a foun- 

 dation for the proposition that, granting the title 

 of Buenos Ayres to the coast in question to be 



1 Post, p. 190. 



