COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119 



Thongli affected by other causes as well, tins number may be taken in 

 a very general way as a record of the state of the rookeries as a whole, 

 and the correspondence of the lines in the two diagrams is thus signifi- 

 cant of connection or of cooperating causes. 



CONCLUSIVE LOCAL EVIDENCE SINCE OBTAINED. 



Since the date of tbe Report of the British Commission- 

 ers, information obtained from pelagic sealers and seamen 

 engaged in navigating in various parts of the North Pacific 

 lias resulted in the accumulation of an overwhelming 

 amount of evidence supporting the position that no constant 

 separation exists between the seals frequenting the two 

 sides of this ocean. 



INT.ERMINGLINCf BOTH TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH OF 

 THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 



Many of the sealing- vessels, within the last few years, 

 have sailed through Behring Sea from the vicinity of the 

 Pribyloff Islands to that of the Commander Islands, on the 

 Asiatic side, during the summer months. Their evi- 

 137 dence is, that on such voyages seals have been 

 observed on every fine day during the passage. It 

 would be iuai)propriate to include these statements at 

 length in this place, and reference is therefore made to the 

 Appendix, where the statements of no less than 57 hunters Appendix, vol. 

 and seamen will be found who give evidence ni)on the point. "' ^'^'' "^"^'' 



Further, during the summer, and generally in ^luly, a 

 certain number of sealers have crossed from the American 

 to the Asiatic side, to the southward of the Aleutian chain, 

 particularly in 1892, when the modus rireudi then in force 

 deterred sealers from sailing through Behring Sea. Similar 

 observations proving the presence of seals in all longitudes 

 to the south of the Aleutian Islands are recorded by 

 a number of these men, whose evidence will also be found 

 in the Ap])endix. Reference may also be made to the log ibid., pp.27, 28. 

 of the "Triumph" in this connection, where the seals I'^J'i-p-cs. 

 actually killed each day on the way westward are noted. 



Many of the sealers who have frequented the Asiatic 

 side of the Pacific, and particularly the region in the vicin- 

 ity and to the south of the Commander Islands, returned 

 in the autumn to the eastward, shaping a course parallel to, 

 but south of, the Aleutian Islands, while others made a 

 direct course to Victoria or to San Francisco. These wit- 

 nesses also state that seals were seen by them all the way 

 across the ocean on each of the above courses. Their 

 evidence will be found in the Appendix. ibid., pp. 27-29. 



INTERMINGLING IN SOUTHERN LATITUDES. 



Information has further been obtained showing that dur- 

 ing the winter months, in the latitude of the Sandwich 

 Islands, fur-seals are found very widely distributed in the 

 Pacific. This would appear to indicate that, at this sea- 



