ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 303 



a short time before. The conversation then turned on other matters, 

 and soon after the commissioners returned to their ship. 



A few days later the British commissioners spent the evening on 

 shore in company with myself and several others, and after they put on 

 their overcoats and got to the door to leave, Sir George said, Major, I 

 have a letter for you. We thought you would like to have our views 

 on the subject we were conversing about the other day. Of course, you 

 will be guided by your instructions and not by anything we might say. 

 He then handed me the letter and immediately left, and early next 

 morning sailed for St. George Island. 



A copy of the letter referred to is herewith transmitted. It will be 

 observed that the commissioners express the "opinion, based upon the 

 information in our possession, that the intention of the two Govern- 

 ments as conveyed by Article II of the modus viveudi was that, on the 

 part of the United States, the stipulation would be strictly observed to 

 limit the catch this season to 7,500 seals, and to stop the killing when 

 that number had been taken." 



These gentlemen did not intimate to me during the conversation 

 referred to that they were in possession of any information as to the 

 intention of the two Governments, as expressed in the modus viveudi, 

 but only stated their imi)ression of what was such intention, and were 

 surprised upon reading the proclamation to find that it did not sustain 

 their views. 



I must confess my surprise to receive such a letter from them after 

 the conversation referred to, especially as I was aware that tliey had no 

 opportunity after that conversation to receive further information on 

 the subject. 



It appears from the communication of the British minister to Secre- 

 tary Blaine of August 2(3 that in reporting to their Government the 

 commissioners assumed that "this year's catch of seals" should not 

 exceed 7,500, while in their conversation with me they referred to the 

 killing season to which the limit of 7,500 was to be applied. Certainly 

 the two periods are not identical. The word season as used in connec- 

 tion with the killing of seals upon the islands of St. George and St. 

 Paul covers the time within which the lessees kill seals for commercial 

 purposes, and, as the records on the islands for the last twenty years 

 show, commences early in June and endsthe last of July. My decision 

 that Article II of the modus viveudi permitted the killing of 7,500 seals 

 between the dates of June 15, 1801, and May, 1892, was not adopted 

 hastily nor without careful consideration by myself and the other offi- 

 cers of the islands. I submitted the proclamation and my instructions 

 to Special Agent J. Stanley-Brown, Assistant Agents Murray, Lavender, 

 and Nettletou, Special Inspector Milton Barnes, Captain Cotton, of the 

 Mohican, Captain Reiter, of the Thetis, Captain Hooper, of the Corwin, 

 and to the Uuited States commissioners, Professor Meudenhall and Dr. 

 Merriam, and all concurred in my interpretation of the agreement that 

 seals killed prior to June 15 did not form part of the 7,500 named in the 

 modus Vivendi. It was urged in the discussion that the true meaning 

 and spirit of Article II was that 7,500 seals might be killed for the sub- 

 sistence and care of the natives after June 15, and that 4,471 seals 

 killed by the lessees as part of their quota subsequent to June 15, and 

 before I received the President's i^roclamation, should not be deducted 

 from this number; and had it not been that the matter was a subject of 

 international agreement, and that I was extremely desirous that by no 

 possible action of mine should there be cause of complaint on the part 



