WHALES, SEALS. 27 



they were led to do this not by artificial, but by natural causes. 

 As they resembled in this respect many other wild animals, 

 there was no reason, he contended, why the same rule of law 

 should not apply to them, and according to that rule of law 

 such animals remain the property of the owner so long as they 

 continue on his domain. The arbitrators appear to have been 

 convinced by this reasoning, since they have decided that the 

 United States has no right of property in the fur-seals when 

 they are found outside of our territorial waters. The rules 

 and distinctions of the common law on this subject have thus 

 been transplanted into the domain of international law, and 

 the decision of the arbitrators supports the further inference 

 that there is no such thing in international law as a national 

 right of property in a herd or body of wild animals as a whole, 

 apart from the ordinary right of property in each individual 

 animal inherent in its custodian during the time that his pos- 

 session of it lasts. The decision of the arbitrators estab- 

 lishes the further proposition of international law that beyond 

 the limits at which its property right in a wild animal ceases, 

 a nation has no authority to enforce any measures for its pro- 

 tection, even though such measures are necessary to preserve 

 the species. ... If the right of national protection to wild 

 animals and other marine products does not extend for any 

 purpose beyond a nation's territorial waters, then it follows 

 that all the fishery legislation of the world, so far as it relates 

 in any degree to fisheries which are more than three miles 

 from land, is, as regards nations not parties to such legisla- 

 tion, illegal and void." ^'"' 



In a Newfoundland case it was held that where the crews 

 of vessels, distributing themselves over large areas of the ice- 

 fields, indiscriminately slaughter seals as they go, leaving 

 them around, taking no heed to collect or mark or pan them, 

 no right of property is acquired in the seals. The Chief Jus- 

 tice said : "I hold that the killing must be accompanied by 



^°° Russell Duane, Esq., in 32 Am. Law Reg. 901. 



