66 MANAGEMENT. 



Proof must be cause pelagic sealing was then too insignificant 



limited to period 



1870-1880. to perceptibly affect seal life, and that any con- 



sideration of the management subsequent to the 

 introduction of pelagic sealing, which is admit- 

 ted to be a factor "tending towards decrease" 

 (Sec. 60), is irrelevant to the question at issue, 

 unless it can be shown that there was a sufficient 

 increase in the number of seals killed on the 

 Islands, or sufficient changes in the methods 

 employed in taking the quota, to materially affect 

 and deplete the seal herd, even without the intro- 

 duction of pelagic sealing. 

 Admission as to The United States admit that, after a decided 



period alter de- 

 cided decrease, decrease in the birth rate of the seal herd has 



been caused by pelagic sealing, the number al- 

 lowed by the lease to be killed was more than 

 the reduced herd could properly endure; but 

 they assert that any evil effects resulting from 

 the management on the Islands is directly charge- 

 able to the conditions established by pelagic 

 sealing. 



It was not until the year 1889 that the decrease 

 in the birth rate of the seal herd (which decrease 

 had been augmented annually by an ever in- 

 creasing fleet of pelagic sealers) became suffi- 

 ciently evident among the young male portion 

 of the herd to seriously attract the notice of and 

 to alarm the Government agents on the Islands. 1 



1 Case of the United States, p. 184. 



