COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 115 



132 opinion in previous scientific writings on the fur-seal 

 and its congeners. On this occasion, however (and 

 it is this ])assag'e wliich is incorporated with the Case of 

 the United States), he Aviites further as follows: 



The Commander Islauds herd is evidently distinct and separate United States 

 from the Pribilof Islands herd. To suppose that the two herds min- Case, p. 96. 

 {•le, and that the same animal may at one time be a member of one 

 Jierd and at another time of the other, is contrary to what is known 

 of the nabits of migrating animals in general 



HE ENDEAVOURS TO SUPPORT THIS BY AN APPEAL TO 

 GENERAL PROPOSITIONS, BI^T DOES NOT CONSISTENTLY 

 APPLY THESE IN OTHER CASES. 



It would thus appear that Professor Allen endeavours 

 to reinforce arguments derived from the trade classifica- 

 tion of skins by an api)enl to a certain so-called established 

 principle of Natural History. But elsewhere in the previ- 

 ous scientific writings of the same author, am])le evidence 

 is found that the principles which he seeks now to apply 

 so rigorously to the fur seal of the North Pacific, did not 

 prevent him from supi)0sing that this animal frequented 

 the coast of California for breeding purposes, as well as the 

 Pribyloff Islands. In like manner he does not seek, even 

 in the special article annexed to the Case of the United 

 States, to prove that the walrus, the harbour-seal, or the 

 sea-lion frequenting opposite sides of Behring Sea do not 

 intermingle; nor does the application of any such jmnciple 

 lead him to deny that Steller's sea-lion equally resorts to 

 Behring Sea and the coast of California, there overlapping 

 the range of a totally distinct species of sea-lion; and 

 breeding in both places, as well as on intermediate stations 

 of a suitable character. This is, however, a well-known 

 fact, which may be verified by reference to Allen's Mono- 

 graph . 



THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS LIKEWISE ADDUCE 

 THEORETICAL ARGUMI 

 SONAL OBSERVATIONS. 



THEORETICAL ARGUMENTS, NOT THE RESULT OF PER- 



The United States Commissioners are also referred to on ibid., p. oc. 

 this point in the Case of the United States. They write: 



The fur-seals of the Pribilof Islands do not mix with those of the ibid., pp. 323, 

 Commander and Kurile Islands at any time of the year. In summer 324. 

 the two herds remain entii'ely di.stinct, separated by a water interval 

 of several hundred miles; and in their winter migrations those from 

 the Pribilof Islands follow the American coast in a south-easterly 

 direction, while those from the Commander and Kurile Islands follow 

 the Siberian and Japan coasts in a south-westerly direction, the two 

 herds being separated in winter by a Avater interval of several thou- 

 sand miles. Tills regularity in the movements of the different 

 133 herds is in obedience to the well-known law that migratory ani- 

 mals follow definite roKtes ill migration, and return year after year 

 to the same place to breed.'* \\'ere it not for this law there would be no 

 such thing as stability of species, for iijterbreeding and existence under 

 diverse physiographic conditions would destroy all specific characters. 



*The italics are in the orijxinal. 



