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tliis race of uiiiinals can only be properly protected and preserved by 

 tbe absobite cessation, during tbe sealing season, of tbe bunting and 

 taking of tbese fur-seals in tbe waters botb of Bering Sea and tbe 

 JSTortb Pacific Ocean traversed by tbeni outside tbe jurisdictional limits 

 of tbe respective governments. 



Tbese two contentions are opposed by tbe United States, wbicb 

 insists tbat, according to tbe evidence, tbe continuance of pelagic seal- 

 ing in tbe oj)en waters either of Bering Sea or of tbe Nortbern Pacific 

 Ocean, during tbe montbs of tbe year wben tbese seals may be taken, 

 is absolutely certain to bring about tbe extermination of tbe race in 

 the course of a few years ; and tbat nnder tbe power to determine tbe 

 rights of the citizens or subjects of the two governments, as regards 

 tbe taking of fur seal in, or babitually resorting to, Bering Sea, and 

 to prescribe concurrent regulations for tbe i^roper protection and i)re- 

 servation of sucb seals, and to declare over wbat waters such regula- 

 tions sbould extend, it is competent for this Tribunal, and is its plain 

 duty, nnder tbe treaty, to prescribe regulations looking to a prohibi- 

 tion of pelagic sealing in any waters outside tbe jurisdictional limits 

 of tbe resi)ective governments wbicb are traversed by these seals in 

 tbeir regular semiannual migration from and to the Pribilof Islands. 



In harmony with tbe views upon regulations wbicb the connsel for 

 Great Britain present, regulations have been submitted in behalf of 

 Her Britannic Majesty, which, if approved, would establisb a zone 

 of -0 miles around tbe Pribilof Islands within wbicb no seal bunt- 

 ing shall be permitted at any time, nor rifles nor nets nsed by sealers, 

 and a closed season from tbe 15tb September to the 1st July for 

 Bering Sea. Under sucb regulations pelagic sealing could be car- 

 ried on witbout restraint, and -with sbotgun.s — confessedly a destruc- 

 tive, if not tbe most destructive mode of taking seals — not only in the 

 ll^ortb Pacific Ocean during the entire season, wben seals can be taken 

 in tbat ocean, but in Bering Sea outside the proposed zone of 20 miles 

 around Pribilof Islands between July 1 and September 15. 



The regulations suggested, in behalf of the United States, call for a 

 prohibition, during the entire year, of pelagic sealing in all the waters 

 of Bering Sea and of tbe ISTortb Pacific Ocean, outside tbe jurisdic- 

 tional limits of tbe two Governments, nortli of the thirty-fifth degree 

 of nortb latitude, and east of the one hundred and eightieth meri- 

 dian of longitude from Greenwich. These regulations, it is admit- 

 ted, cover all the waters babitually traversed by tbese fur seals in 



