158 . COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



(13.) United States Case, p. 190— 



"The White hunter .... loses a great many seals which he kills or wounds." 

 (14.) United States Case, p. 155 — 



"It is a conservative estimate to say that such hunters lose two out of every three 

 seals shot by them." 



Summary of British Reply. 



Pelagic sealing in the North Pacific is in no way analogous to the methods employed 

 in the Southern Hemisxihere. 



The method of killing seals ashore on the Pribyloff Islands are similar to those by 

 which depletion has been brought about in the Southern Hemisphere. 



The actual loss of seals shot at sea, due to the sinking of the body before it can be 

 recovered, is very small. 



The number of fatally wounded seals which escape capture is also very small. The 

 substitution of the shot-gun for the rifle, by rendering close approach to the 

 seal necessary, has greatly reduced this and other losses. 



The percentage of females alleged in the Case of the United States to be taken at 

 sea, is greatly exaggerated. The statements there made depend chiefly on the 

 examination of cured skins. But it is in general impossible to distinguish the 

 sexes of the animals from which they are taken. 



The killing of animals of the female sex yielding products of commercial value is 

 not per .se reprehensible; and the larger proportion of female seals found at sea 

 in late years is the direct result of the excessive killing of males upon the breed- 

 ing-islands. 



The killing of gravid or nursing females at sea, in common with other sources of 

 loss incident to pelagic sealing, is much exaggerated in the Case of the United 

 States; but the killing of such females can, and should be, obviated as far as 

 possible in any common scheme of Regulations agreed upon for the seal fishery 

 as a whole. 



The contention that young seals have died from starvation upon the Pribyloff 

 Islands, in consequence of the killing of their mothers at sea, is untenable, and 

 it is based upon a considerable mortality of "pups" on St. Paul Island in 1891. 

 The death of young seals upon the islands during the breeding season has long 

 been known to occur, and has always heretofore been explained by other obvious 

 causes. 



The circumstances attending the mortality of young seals in 1891 show that it can- 

 not be attributed to the killing of the mothers at sea. The recurrence of an 

 equal mortality in 1892, when practically no seals Avere killed in Behring Sea, 

 fully confirms this conclusion. 



The theory advanced in the Case of the United States respecting the cause of death 

 of the "pups"; depends on the assumption that the females go to very great 

 distances from the islands in search of food while suckling, which is here dis- 

 proved ; and it is further denied by the best authorities on the fur-seal. 



182 NO PARALLEL CAN LEGITIMATELY BE DRAWN BETWEEN 

 THE SLAUGHTER OF SEALS IN THE SOUTHERN HEMIS- 

 PHERE AND PELAGIC SEALING IN THE NORTH PACIFIC. 



Before discussing' the main contentious of tlie United 

 States as to pelagic sealing, it will be convenient to com- 

 uient upon tlie parallel attempted to be drawn in the two 

 passages last above cited from the United kStates Case, 

 lietween pelagic sealing and the results of sealing in the 

 Southern Hemisphere. 

 United states '^^^ destruction of seals in the south is alluded to repeat- 

 Case,i)i..2i8, 29(5. ecUy and at length in the Case of the United States, as 

 dix,voi.i,p'!393," though connected in some way with i)elagic sealing-. 

 et passim. j,j^ vicw of the attempts thus made to parallel the condi- 



tions and probable results of pelagic sealing in the North 

 Pacific, with the destruction of fur-seals in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, it cannot be too clearly understood that there 



