112 



of raiment and food. The race has only four breedingplaces : Commander 

 Islands, in the western part of Bering Sea, near the coast of Asiaj llobben 

 lleef, in the Sea of Okhotsk ; the Kurile Islands, on the west side of 

 the Pacific Ocean, near the coasts of Japan and Asia ; and the islands 

 of St. Paul and St. George, part of the Pribilof group in Bering Sea. 

 The Pribilof seals so far differ from others of the Northern Fur Seal 

 species that their pelage can readily be distinguished by experts from 

 that of the seals of other herds. 



2. The taking or killing of fur seals, for commercial jiurposes, at the 

 islands of St. Paul and St. George, during the eighty years of Kussia's 

 ownership of the Pribilof Islands, was conducted under the license 

 or authority of that nation. And the exclusive right of Eussia, dur- 

 ing that period, to control that business, so conducted, for its exclusive 

 benefit or for the advantage of its subjects, was not disi^uted by any 

 other country. 



3. By a joint resolution of the Congress of the United States, apjjroved 

 March 3, 1869, providing for the more effective protection of the fur 

 seal in Alaska, the islands of St. Paul and St. George — which, with 

 other islands in Bering Sea, became the property of the United 

 States by virtue of the cession from Russia of March 30, 18G7 — were 

 declared to be "a special Eeservation for Government purposes;" and 

 it was made unlawful for any person to land or remain on either of the 

 two islands named, except by the authority of the Secretary of the 

 Treasury; any person found on either island without such authority 

 being liable to be summarily removed. 



Subsequently, by an act of Congress, entitled "An act to prevent 

 the extermination of the fur-bearing animals in Alaska," approved 

 July 1, 1870, it was made unlawful to kill any fur seal upon the islands 

 of St. Paul and St. George, or in the waters adjacent thereto (except 

 during certain named months), or to kill such seals at any time with 

 firearms, or to use any means that tended to drive the seals from the 

 islands; the natives on the islands being, -however, allowed the priv- 

 ilege (sul)ject to regulations prescribed by the Secretary of tlie Treas- 

 ury) of killing, during other months, such young or old seals as were 

 necessary for food and clothing. By the same statute it was made 

 unlawful to kill any female seal, or any seal less than one year old, at 

 any season of the year (except as provided in the case of natives), or 

 to kill any seal in the waters adjacent to the islands, or on the beaches, 

 cliffs, or rocks where they hauled up from the sea to remain ; any per- 

 son violating the above provisions or either of them being made liable 



