64 PROTOCOLS. 



Mr. Gram tlioiiglit, like Marquis Visconti VeDOsta, that pelagic seal- 

 ing on the high sea during the month of July would attack necessarily 

 a great number of pregnant females and would in consequence be very 

 prejudicial. He voted against the amendment. 



Baron de Courcel declared that he was disposed to accept this amend- 

 ment, because he considered i^elagic sealing in the spring as essentially 

 detrimental to the preservation of the species of fur seals. According 

 to his notion the close season for fnr-seal tishing should extend until 

 July loth, at which time the total number of fenmles, save some unimpor- 

 tant exceptions, had arrived at the Pribilof Islands to deliver their 

 young; but he would cheerfully make the sacrifice of the fifteen lirst 

 days in July to obtain the relinquishment of all pelagic sealing in the 

 spring. 



The second amendment of Sir John Thompsou was consequently 

 negatived by a majority of the arbitrators. 



]]aron de Courcel then moved the following amendment as a compro- 

 mise: 



That tb(3 words : From May 1st to July Slst be rei)l:ic'ed by the words : From Jauuurij 

 1st to July 10th. 



Sir John Thompson declared that as, in his opinion, the Tribunal did 

 not x)ossess sufticient information to determine whether the abandon- 

 ment of the right to fur-seal lishing during the four months of winter 

 and spring, in which it was conceded by the regulatiou previously 

 adopted, ^ould be sufliciently compensated by the addition of the short 

 season formed of the three last weeks of the month of July, he declined 

 to assume any responsibility in regard to this, and abstained from voting 

 for the })r()posed amendment. 



Lord Haiinen abstained for the same reasons as Sir John Thompson. 



Tiie otiier arbitrators maintained their objections against any pelagic 

 sealing during the month of July. 



In conse(|uence the anuMidment was not adopted. 



Lord Ilannen asked that the extent of waters in which fur-seal fishing 

 would be forV)idden each year during the close season, limited to the 

 south by the tliirty-tifth degree of north latitude, be likewise limited to 

 the west by the adoption of a boundary line, in default of which Kussia 

 and Japan would be called upon to benefit gratuitously of the herd of 

 seals frequenting their waters, by the prohibition im])osed upon the sub- 

 jects ami citizens of Great Britain and of the United States. 



He moved in consequence to insert in Article 2, after the words: 

 North of the tliirty-fifth degree of north latitude^ the words : and, eastirard 

 of the one h^mdred and eightieth degree of longliudefrom Greenicieh till it 

 strikes the water boundary described in Article I of the treaty of 1867 

 hetn-een the United States and Russia, and following that line up to Bering 

 Straits. 



Baron de Courcel staled that if the authoi-s of the draft had abstained 

 from indicating a western boundary as claimed by Loi'd Haunen, they 



