380 CHAPTER XI. 



Allcf/afions made in Ihe Case of the United States a(jainst Pelagic Sealing, 



and Replies thereto. 



Thk United States Contkntions. 



(1.) United States Case, p. 174 — 



" It has also been shown that the decrease in the seals took place primarily among 

 the female porticm of the herd." 

 (2.) United States Case, p. 177 — 

 " The sole cause of the present depleted condition of the Alaskan seal herd is 

 open-sea sealing." 

 (3.) United States Case, p. 187 — 



" Open-sea sealing, the sole cause of the enormous decrease noted in the Alaskan 

 seal herd in the last few years, and which threatens its extermination in the 



near future " 



(4.) United States Case, p. 188— 

 "About 1885 a new method of hunting was introduced which has been the great 

 cause of makiug pelagic seal hvmting so destructive and wasteful of life — the 

 use of tire-arms." 

 (5.) United States Conclusions, p. 296 — 

 "That this decrease began with the increase of such pelagic sealing, and that the 

 extermination of this seal herd will certainly take place in the near future, as 

 it has with other herds, unless such slaughter be discontinued." 

 (6.) United States Case, p. 218 — 



"The indiscriminate slaughter of seals in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and 

 liering Sea cannot fail to produce a result similar to that observed in the southern 

 hemisphere, where the fur-seals have, except at a I'eAv localities, become, from a 

 commercial point of Aaew, practically extinct." 

 (7.) United States Case, p. 196 — 

 "When the estimate, therefore, is placed at sixty-six seals unsecured out of every 

 100 killed with fire-arms, the probability is that the percentage lost is even 

 more." 

 (8.) United States Case, p. 197— 



"From 80 to 90 per cent, of the seals killed in the open sea are females, the 

 majority of which are either pregnant, or having been delivered of their pups, 

 are the sole means of sustenance for their offspring. " 

 (9.) United States Case, p. 209— 

 "They (the cows) go into the water in search of food, in order that they may be 

 able to supply their offspring with nouiishment. And as has been shown, they 

 often go from 100 to 200 miles from the islands on these excursions. It is while 

 absent from the rookeries feeding that they fall a prey to the pelagic seal 

 hunter." 

 (10.) United States Case, p. 212— 



"When sealing vessels began to enter Bering Sea in pursuit of the seal herd 

 (1884-85), at that same period dead pup seals on the rookeries first drew the 

 attention of the residents of the Pribilof Islands." 

 (11.) United States Case, p. 216— 

 "Between 80 and 90 per cent, of the seals taken are females; of these at least 75 

 per cent, are either pregnant or nursing." 

 181 (12.) United States Case, p. 297— 



"That pelagic sealing is an illegitimate, improper, and wasteful method of 

 killing, is barbarous and inhuman in its inuueuse destruction of the pregnant 

 and nursing female, and of the helpless young thereby left to perish." 



157 



