26 



and preserve nil fnr seals tliatliubiliially resorted to tlie islands of the 

 United States in Bering Sea, althougli tliey might not remain during the 

 whole of each year in that sea. And the mod ideation which the United 

 States made of the sixtli question brought it into harmony with the 

 fifth question, previously assented to, wliich involved an inquiry as to 

 whether the United States has "any right, and if so what right, of 

 l^rotection or property in the lur seal frequenting the islands of the 

 United States in Bering Sea when such seals are found outside the 

 ordinary three-mile limit?" These seals do not the less frequent those 

 islands, nor the less habitually resort to Bering Sea, because their 

 habit — as both Governments well knew — was, in the fall of every year, 

 at about the same time, to leave their breeding grounds at the Pribilof 

 Islands and go to the south of the Aleutian Islands into the North 

 Pacific Ocean, from which ocean, each year and at the same time, they 

 returned to Bering Sea and to their established breeding grounds on 

 the islands of St. Paul and St. George. 



But this is not all that is suggested by the modification made of the 

 sixth question. Recurring to the words of that question, in its original 

 form, it will be seen that one of the matters to be determined in the 

 event the concurrence of Great Britain was necessary in prescribing 

 regulations for the ''killing" of fur seals in the waters of Bering Sea 

 was whether a "closed season (during which the killing of fur-seals in 

 the waters of Bering Sea outside the ordinary territorial limits shall 

 be j)rohibited) is necessary to save the seal-fishing industry, so valuable 

 and important to mankind, from deterioration or destruction." Here 

 we have the suggestion by the United States of a closed season, dur- 

 ing which the taking of those seals might be entirely inohibited. What 

 was the reply of the Marquis of Salisbury to this suggestion? It was 

 that if the reference to arbitration did not contain "words which 

 attribute special and abnormal rights to the United States," Her 

 Majesty's Government had " no objection to refer the general question of 

 a closed time to ai'bitration, or to ascertain by that means how far the 

 enactment of such a provision is necessary for the preservation of the 

 seal species." In other words, he did not object to a prohibition of 

 pelagic sealing during such closed time as was found to be necessary 

 for the preservation of the species. And it is a fact of much signifi- 

 cance that while the sixth question referred to the concurrence of 

 Great Britain in prescribing regulations for the "killing" of the fur 

 seals in the waters of Bering Sea that question, as finally propounded, 



