COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 183 



IF CORRECT, THE CONTENTION SHOWS THAT THE. 

 OBSERVED DEATHS RESULTED FROM ACTS ON THE 

 PRIBYLOFF ISLANDS. 



There is, therefore, important absence of correspondence 

 between the date above fixed for the first excessive death 

 of pnps as asserted, and that at which the operations of 

 sealers in Behring Sea can possibly be supposed to have 

 exercised any perceptible effect. It will be found, on the 

 other hand, on turning to the chapters of this Counter- 

 Case dealing- with the management of the islands them- 

 selves, that, following the expansion of the area of driving 

 initiated in 1879, the operations of the Company in the 

 efforts to secure their "quota" of skins were pressing with 

 annually increasing severity on the seals there throughout 

 these very years; and it may well be asked whether just gsl! ess, &c'!','^and 

 such results might not naturally be expected to follow from para. ta. 

 such excessive and repeated driving of the seals. 



THE FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OF THE CONTENTION 

 HELD BY THE UNITED STATES ARE NOT PROVEN. 



It must be borne in mind that the possible connection 

 between the death of young seals on shore and the sup- 

 posed killing of their mothers at sea, necessarily depends 

 upon several circumstances which have not hitherto been 

 adequately investigated. 



IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT BREEDING FEMALES GO TO SEA 

 FOR FOOD WHILE THE YOUNG ARE DEPENDENT ON THEM. 



It is, for instance, not known that the mother seals actu- 

 ally go to sea for food during all that part of the early 

 212 life of the pup in which it is absolutely dependent on 

 the mother. But if this be assumed, it has, further, 

 not been shown that at this season the nursing females go 

 to such a distance from the shores as to be taken in any 

 considerable numbers by sea-sealers — always excluding 

 the illegitimate killing by raiders close along the rookery 

 fronts. Some farther reference will be made to these 

 disputed points; but, in the first place, the actual circum- 

 stances bearing on the death of young seals in 1891, in 

 connection with which the claim now made by the United 

 States arose, may be shortly noted. 



ACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE MORTALITY OF "PUPS" 



IN 1891. 



Particular attention, was given to this subject by the 

 British Commissioners during their visits to the Pribyloflf 

 Islands in July, August, and September 1891; for though, 

 as above stated, it had escaped the notice of those in charge 

 of the islands till their attention was directed to it, it ap- 

 peared to the Commissioners to be a matter of importance. 



