172 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



P. Carlson. — Kills seals from 10 to 40 yards, and the average is abont 

 15 yards. 



D. A. Lewis says : " I shoot seals at an average distance of 25 yards, 

 and have killed a seal and got him at 75 yards." 



P. Hammel says: "Seals are killed with a shot-gun 10 to 30 yards 

 away." 



198 EXAaGEBATED STATEMENTS ARE MADE IN THE 

 UNITED STATES CASE AS TO NUMBER OF PEMALE 

 SEALS KILLED AT SEA. 



{b.) — That from 80 to 90 per cent, of the Seals Icilled at Sea 

 are Females, and that of these at least 75 per cent, are either 

 pregnant or nursing. 



British Com- 111 respect to this contention, it is not denied that a con- 

 port7*'para8.'^78^ slderable proportion of the seals taken at sea are females, 

 633.' and that some of these are with young; but it is affirmed 



that the statement, as above formulated, is very greatly 

 exaggerated. It is also submitted, that the killing of 

 females, within proper limits as to number, is not in itself 

 more reprehensible in the case of fur-seals than of other 

 animals, whether polygamous or not, and whether wild or 

 domestic, with reference to which it is systematically prac- 

 tised when the females yield skins or other jiroducts of 

 value. 



PELAGIC SEALERS FAVOUR REGULATIONS SUCH AS TO 



MINIMIZE THIS. 



The British Commissioners devoted special attention to 

 this subject, and have ascertained that the pelagic sealers 

 633^048 P*^*^^' themselves favour such regulations as would prevent any 

 unnecessary waste of seal life; and it will be found, on con- 

 sulting their Report, that in the scheme of regulations 

 which is formulated by them as the most appropriate, 

 Ibid., paras. Special carc is taken to provide against the ijossible kill- 

 155-161'. iiig of gravid females. 



THE EXCESS OF FEMALES IN LATE YEARS, THE DIRECT 

 RESULT OF KILLING ON PRIBYLOFF ISLANDS. 



It must be observed that the statements respecting the 

 number of female seals included in the pelagic catch, 

 whether those contained in the Case of the United States 

 and its Appendices, or those made in the Report of the Brit- 

 ish Commissioners, relate to recent years only, during which 

 attention has been particularly called to the seal fishery in 

 consequence of complaints regarding the dearth of killable 

 male seals on the breeding-islands. It has been established 

 by evidence derived from the official Reports of the United 

 States, that for some years past every male seal capable of 

 yielding a merchantable skin which landed upon the Priby- 

 loff Islands has been killed if it could be taken; and that 

 the necessary consequence of the decrease in the number 

 of male seals is the existence of a preponderant number of 

 female seals. 



