4PPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 469 
the number of seal in the aggregate is not apparently diminished, and, in fact, there 
is undoubtedly an increase, yet if you take any greater number of seal than is taken 
now, this ratio of cows to one bull would be ereater, and for that reason there would 
bea ‘less number of young seals, undoubtedly. I look upon the breeding of the seal 
as something like the breeding of any other animal, and that the same care, and 
restriction, and judgment should be exercised in this breeding. 
The same witness testified as follows: 
Q. What will be the etfect upon the seal rookeries if this surreptitious and unlaw- 
ful killing in the Belhring’s Sea is to be permitted ?—A. In my judgment, it would 
eventually exterminate the seal. 
Mr. C. A. Williams, of Connecticut, before referred to, testified as follows: 
Q. I wonld like to know—I do not know that it is just the proper time—but I 
would like to get the idea of those conversant with the habits and nature of the 
seal, as to what their opinion is upon the effect of the indiscriminate killing of them 
while they are coming to and going from the islands ?—A. That is a question which 
I think most any of us here can answer. If you note the conformation of 
428 the Aleution Islands, which form a wall, and note the gaps through which the 
seals come from the Pacific Ocean seeking the haunt on these islands, that is 
the whole point. When they come through these various passes, generally through 
the Oomnak Pass, the sea is reasonably shallow, and the cows come laden with pups, 
waiting until the last moment in the water to go ashore to deliver, because they can 
roll and seratch and help themselves better than if they haul out when heavy with 
pup, so they stay in the water playing about until their instinct warns them it is 
time to go ashore, and during that time they are massed in great quantities in the sea. 
Q. Now, in that view of it, the destruction of them there is almost practically the 
same as the destruction on the islands?—A. Yes, Sir. 
Q. And the conditions are as bad?—A. Yes, Sir; and often worse, for this reason: 
If you kill a pup you destroy a single life, but in killing a cow you not only destroy 
the life that may be, but the source from which life comes hereafter, and when they 
are killed there in the water by a shot-gun or a spear the proportion saved by the 
hunters is probably not one in seyen. That was their own estimate; that out of eight 
shots they would save one seal and seven were lost. If they were killed in the land, 
those seven would go towards filling out their score. 
The same witness also testified as follows 
Q. Have you instructed your agents to eomply strictly with the Laws and Regula- 
tions of the Treasury Department 2—A. In every case; yes. 
Q. Do you kill seals with fire-arms at the islands, or do you prohibit that?—A. No, 
Sir, never; it is not allowed by the Act. 
Q. Do you kill the female seals or allow them to be killed?—A. Never with our 
knowledge. 
Q. Do you kill any during the month of August for their skins ?—A. Not a seal; no. 
Q. Do you kill any seals under 2 years old?—A. Not that we are aware of. 
The same witness further testified: 
Q. Now, I would like to have your opinion as to the insufficiency of the present 
Measures taken by the Government for the protection of the rookeries, and your 
opinion as to whether any additional safeguards are necessary for their protection.— 
A. That the present measnres are somewhat insufficient is shown by the fact that 
for the last three or four years there have been increased depredations annually upon 
the rookeries. More seals are taken within the limits of Behring’s Sea. Formerly 
seals were only taken outside of Behring’s Sea as they passed up to British Columbia, 
and off the mouth of Puget Sound, in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. That was a 
legitimate place to take them, and one against which no objection could be raised. 
Seals which come up that way enter through the passages of the Aleutian Islands 
nearest to the mainland, and it has always been the custom in British Columbia 
and our Sound to intercept the seals and get what they could. Within the last two 
or three years marauders have followed them through the passages into Behring’s 
Sea, and have with guns and spears taken the seals as they lay upon the water, as I 
stated before, waiting to haul ashore and have their pups. The cows are heavy with 
pup, and they do not like to go ashore until the last moment, and so they lie there 
in the water, and this affords an opportunity for these marauders to shoot and spear 
them. This is done by gangs of Indians which they have. They hire gangs of 
Indians and take them with them. The effects of this shooting is not alone upon 
the seals which are at that point, but also upon those all around, and it startles 
them and raises a suspicion in their minds, and there is a general feeling of disturb- 
ance such as you notice among cattle when bears are about or something of that 
kind. 
And again: 
Q. Now, Mr. Williams, should it be finally ascertained and considered by our Gov- 
ernment that, under the Treaty of Cession by which we acquired Alaska from Russia, 
and under the law of nations, the United States does possess and has absolute domin- 
