PROPERTY IN THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 41 



THIRD. 



THE PROPERTY OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE ALASKAN SEAL 

 HERD AND THEIR RIGHT TO PROTECT THEIR SEALING INTER- 

 ESTS AND INDUSTRY. 



I. — The Property of the United States in the Alaskan 



Seal Herd. 



The subject which, in the order adopted by the treaty, is next to be 

 considered, is that of the assertion by the United States of a property 

 interest in the Alaskan seals. Under this head there are two ques- 

 tions, which, though each may involve, in large measure, the same con- 

 siderations, are yet in certain respects so different as to make it neces- 

 sary or expedient that they should be separately discussed. The first 

 is whether the United States have a property interest in the seals 

 themselves, not only while they are upon the breeding islands, but also 

 while they are in the high seas. The second is whether, if they have 

 not a clear property in the seals themselves, they have such a property 

 interest in the industry long established and prosecuted on the Pribi- 

 lof Islands of maintaining and propagating the herd, and appropri- 

 ating the increase to themselves for the purposes of commerce and 

 profit, as entitles them to extend their protection to such herd against 

 capture while it is on the high seas, and to require and receive from 

 other nations an acquiescence in reasonable regulations designed to 

 afford such protection. 



The material difference between these questions will be perceived 

 from a glance at the consequences which would flow from a determina- 

 tion of each of them respectively in favor of the claims of the United 

 States. If it were determined that the United States had the property 

 interest which they assert only in the industry established on the shore, 

 it might, with some show of reason, be insisted that, if the industry 

 were not actually established, they would have no right to forbid inter- 

 ference with the seals in the open sea; but were it determined that the 

 United States had the property interest which they assert in the seals 

 themselves, it would follow that they would have the right at any time 

 to take measures to establish such an industry, and to forbid any inter- 



