THE BERING-SEA CONTROVERSY. 81 



and perhaps in the end really in the interests of the country they 

 represented, although, in their judgment, in the end equally in the 

 interests of the great nation represented by their colleagues. 



A lengthy discussion followed this presentation, filling much of 

 the time of the seventeen sessions of the conference, which extended 

 through February and a part of the first week in March, 1892. 

 The British commissioners were unwilling to admit that pelagic 

 sealing was the main or even a principal cause of the diminution 

 of seal life, for which they argued that killing on the islands was 

 most largely responsible. It was even asserted that if taking on the 

 islands was entirely discontinued all the pelagic sealing that could 

 or ever would be carried on in Bering Sea and the North Pacific 

 would never lead to the commercial extinction of the seal herd. 

 Such an assertion made necessary others of an equally extraor- 

 dinary character, such as that the killing of females at sea to the 

 extent of furnishing one half of the pelagic catch, as they were 

 compelled to admit, should be considered as a desirable and whole- 

 some treatment of the herd, not tending in any way to reduce the 

 total available product. They affirmed that the percentage of seals 

 lost in pelagic sealing was very small, being much less than that by 

 improper killing on the islands. They accounted for the very large 

 excess of skins of females in the pelagic catch by declaring that 

 during the past few years frequent raids upon the islands had been 

 made, in which crews of sealing vessels descended upon the breeding 

 rookeries at night and captured the females in large numbers. The 

 small size of the islands and the presence of numerous guards near 

 the principal rookeries rendered such an assumption practically im- 

 possible, and, although occasional raids have occurred, the poachers 

 have always preferred the hauling grounds of the male seals, whose 

 skins are more valuable than those of the females. It was generally 

 believed by residents of the islands and Government inspectors that 

 the number of skins obtained by this kind of poaching was extremely 

 small. The presence of large numbers of dead " pups " or young 

 seals, which was attributed by the American commissioners to starva- 

 tion owing to the death of their mothers at the hands of pelagic 

 sealers, was charged by the British commissioners to other causes, 

 some form of disease or epidemic being the favorite. 



Differences so radical as to causes were naturally accompanied 

 by equally radical differences as to remedies. On the one hand, it 

 was contended that as pelagic sealing was in the largest measure 

 responsible for the evil, its entire suppression ought to be recom- 

 mended; on the other, that pelagic sealing had comparatively little 

 to do with it, and that severe restriction on the number killed on 

 the islands, with perhaps a small closed area surrounding each, would 



TOL. LII. 8 



