50 



whicli tliis Govenimeiit rests its justification for tlie action complained 

 of by Her Majesty's Government. It cannot be nnknown to Eer 

 Majesty's Government tliat one of the most valuable sources of revenue 

 from tlie Alaskan possessions is tlie far seal fisLeries of the Bering 

 Sea. These fisheries had been exclusively controlled by the Govern- 

 ment of Eussia, without interference or without question, from their 

 original discovery until the cession of Alaska to the United States in 

 18G7. From 1867 to 1886 the possession in which Russia had been 

 undisturbed was enjoyed by this Government also. There was no 

 interruption and no intrusion from any source. Vessels from other 

 nations passing from time to time through Bering Sea to the Arctic 

 Ocean in pursuit of whales had always abstained from taking part in 

 the capture of seals. 



"This uniform avoidance of all attempts to take fur seal in those 

 waters had been a constant recognition of the right held and exercised 

 first by Russia and subsequently by this Government. It has also been 

 the recognition of a fact now held beyond denial or doubt that the tak- 

 ing of seals in the opeu sea rapidly leads to their extinction. This is 

 not only the well-knowu opinion of experts, both British and American, 

 based upon prolonged observation and investigation, but the fact has 

 also been demonstrated in a wide sense by the well nigh total destruc^ 

 tiou of all seal fisheries except the one in Bering Sea, which the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States is now striving to preserve, not altogether 

 for the use of the American people, but for the use of the world at large. 



"The killing of seals in the open sea involves the destruction of the 

 female in common with the male. The slaughter of the female seal is. 

 reckoned as an immediate loss of three seals, besides the futuie loss of 

 the whole number which the bearing seal may produce in the succes- 

 sive years of life. The destruction which results from killing seals in 

 the open sea proceeds, therefore, by a ratio which constantly and rap- 

 idly increases, and insures the total extermination of the sjjecies within 

 a very brief i)eriod. It has thus become known that the only proper 

 time for the slaughter of seals is at the season w^hen they betake them- 

 selves to the land, because the land is the only place where the neces- 

 sary discrimination can be made as to the age and sex of the seal. It 

 would seem, then, by fair reasoning, that nations not possessing the 

 territory upon which seals can increase their numbers by natural growth, 

 and thus aftbrd an annual supply of skins for the use of mankind, should 

 refrain from the slaughter in open sea, where the destruction of the 

 species is sure and swift. 



