128 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



These show, iu regard to temijerature, that during the 

 moTiths May to October, iiichiding the period for 



148 which the fur-seals resort to the Aarious breeding- 

 islands, the Pribylotl" Islands are from G to 15 de- 

 grees cooler than Robben Island; while the Commander 

 Islands, Avith the whole of the Aleutian Islands, are inter- 

 mediate in this resi)ect. The Kurile Islands generally 

 closely resemble Kobben Island in temperature. 



It is also shown, from observaticms at Sitka and Port 

 Simpson, that the mean temperature of the whole west 

 coast of America south of the Aleutian Islands, as far as 

 latitude 54° 30', during the months of July, August, and 

 September, lies between those of thePribyloff and Ilobben 

 Islands; Avhile during May, June, and October, it ranges 

 only from 4 to 8 degrees higher than that of Robben Island. 



As to the number of cloudy or clear days, nnd the 

 amount of precipitation and humidity, the available data 

 are very incomplete; but still sufticient to show that the 

 Commander, Pribylofif, and Aleutian Islands, with the 

 west coast of America to the south of these islands, are all 

 notably characterized by cloudy skies and frequent rain; 

 though the actual amount of precipitation is nuich larger 

 along the continental coast to the south of the Aleutian 

 Islands. 



POSITION TAKEN BY PROFESSOR ALLEN AND CITED IN 

 UNITED STATES CASE NOT TENABLE. 



In further support of the fact that the fur-seal is tolerant 

 of very considerable diversity of climatic conditions, and 

 in order to show that the point now insisted on by Pro- 

 fessor J. A. Allen as to the necessary limitation of the 

 breeding-places of the fur-seals of the eastern side of the 

 North Pacific to the Pribyloft" Islands is not well taken, 

 the analogy in this respect of the closely-allied animal, 

 Steller's sea-lion, may be noted. Respecting the fur seal, 

 this Avriter says, referring to breeding-places of this animal 

 in California: 



Such au assumption is entirely opposed to what is known of the 



United States liabits and distribution of marine life, and to Avell-fijrounded ]iriuci- 



Case, Appendix, pjgj^ yj.- oeonraphic distribution, namely, that a fur-seal brfcdiu"- on 



vol.1, p. 400. ^ <-■ ■ r 1 1 • 1 -4. 11 .t 'i .11 1 r -1 t I 



an arctic islaml, which it annually travels thousands ot miles to leach, 

 would also choose for a breeding-station an island iu subtropical 

 latitudes. 



HE CONTRADICTS IT BY HIS OWN STATEMENTS. 



But on another page of the same Annex to the Case of 

 the United States, he gives the habitat of Steller's sea- 

 lion as — 



Ibid., p. 372. shores and islands of the North Pacific from Bering Strait southward 

 to California and Japan. 



149 And writes further as fodows: 



Formerly (eighteenth century) abundant along the coast of Kam- 

 chatka from the Kurile Islands northward. There is still a small 

 colony at the Farallon Islands, olf the coast of California and other 

 considerable colonies at the Pribiiof, Commandei. and other small 

 islands in Bering Sea. It is also found in greater or less numbers in 

 some of the Aleutian Islmuls, and at a lew points on the Alaskan 

 coast, princially of the Aleutian chain. 



