123 STATEMENTS MADE BY CERTAIN WITNESSES IN THE 

 UNITED STATES CASE RESPECTING THE PRIBYLOFF 

 ISLANDS, &C., COMPARED WITH THOSE PREVIOUSLY MADE 

 BY THE SAME PERSONS IN OFFICIAL REPORTS. 



Professor J. A. Allen, a Curator in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, whose acquirements and credentials will be found very fully 

 set forth on p. 365 of the Appendix to the United States Case, and who 

 is the author of the well-known " Monograph on the North American 

 Pinnipeds," furnishes, at the request of the Secretary of State of the 

 United States, a Special Report on the pinnipeds, with particular refer- 

 ence to the fur-seals. This forms part of Vol. I of the Appendix, and 

 is frequently quoted in the Case. Without entering into minor points 

 of criticism on this article, which, in so far as it related to the habits, 

 &c., of the fur-seal, is practically a replica of the Report of the United 

 States Commissioners, it may be of interest to place side by side a few 

 parallel statements derived from this Report prepared by request, and 

 the previously written " Monograph" of the same author. The date of 

 the "Monograph" is 1880. 



Monograph of 1880. 



1. "The pinnipeds, or Finnipe- 

 dia, embracing the seals and wal- 

 ruses, are commonly recognized by 

 recent systematic writers as con- 

 stituting a sub order of the order 

 Ferae, or carnivorous mammals. 

 They are, in short, true Carnivora, 

 moditied for an aquatic existence, 

 and have consequently been some- 

 times termed "Amphibious Car- 

 nivora." Their whole form is mod- 

 ified for life in the water, which 

 element is their true home. Here 

 they display great activity, but on 

 land their movements are confined 

 and laboured. They consequently 

 rarely leave the water, and gener- 

 ally only for short periods, and are 

 never found to move voluntarily 

 more than a few yards from the 

 shore. Like the other marine 



Article in Appendix I to United 

 States Case, 1892. 



1. "The common seals, the eared 

 seals, and the walruses form a well- 

 marked group of the carnivorous 

 mammalia, constituting a sub- 

 order {Finnipedia) of the order 

 Carnivora. They are carnivores 

 specially modified for aquatic loco- 

 motion and sub-aquatic life. Their 

 ancestors were doubtless land ani- 

 mals, probably more nearly allied 

 to the bears than to any other 

 existing mammals. They are still 

 dependent on the land or on fields 

 of ice for a resting-place, to which 

 they necessarily resort to bring 

 forth their young. They are thus 

 very unlike the sea-cows, and the 

 whole tribe, which are strictly 

 aquatic, bringing forth in the 

 water, and entirely unfitted for 

 locomotion on land" (p. 308). 



471 



