122 



Vivendi for those years excluding pelagic sealers only from Bering 

 Sea. 



Daring the breeding season of 18GS, before the United States bad 

 established regulations for the taking of fur seals at the Pribilof 

 Islands, and before its authorities had acquired any knowledge as to 

 the necessity of imposing restrictions upon the number to be killed for 

 commercial purposes, seal liunters took on those islands alone about 

 2()S,()00 of all ages and sexes. The evil was, of course, remedied as soon 

 as the act of 18GS was passed. From 1809 to 1871, inclusive, the aver- 

 age number killed annually on the islands for commercial purposes 

 (taking for this estimate the report of the British commissioners) was 

 G9,258, and from 1872 to 1889, inclusive, 98,211, exclusive, in each 

 period, of the pups killed by natives for food and raiment. In 1890, 

 when the disastrous effects of pelagic sealing began to be more distinctly 

 felt, only 20,995 young males suitable for taking could be found on the 

 islands, and in 1891 only 12,071, including the 7,500 allowed by the 

 modus Vivendi of thai year. By tlie modus vivendi of 1892 only 7,500 

 were allowed to be taken on the islands. In the present year, under the 

 operation of the latter arrangement, only 7,500 can be taken by the 

 United States or its licensees on the islands, while pelagic sealers are 

 at liberty to take all they can in the North Pacific Ocean. It is not 

 doubted that they will take at least 80,000 this season in those waters. 



12. The Commissioners appointed by the United States and Great 

 Britain agree that "since the Alaska purchase a marked diminution of 

 the seals on, and habitually resorting to, 'the Pribilof Islands, has 

 taken i)lace; that it has been cumulative in effect, and that it is the 

 result of excessive killing by man." They also agree that ''for indus- 

 trial as well as for other obvious reasons, it is incumbent upon all 

 nations, and particularly those having direct commercial interests in 

 fur seals, to provide for their proper protection and preservation." 



13. But for the protection given to these seals while on the islands of 

 St. Paul and St. George, first by Eussia, and, subsequently, by the United 

 States, the entire herd, frequenting the Ishmds of St. Paul and St. 

 George since the discovery of those islands (how uuich longer can not be 

 now known), would long ago have been destroyed by raiders and seal 

 hunters. If the care, supervision, and self-denial practiced by the 

 United States on the islands were withdrawn, the race would be swept 

 out of existence within a very few years. 



It is common knowledge that, at the close of the last century fur seals 



