CONCURRENT REGULATIONS. 205 



(3) But what would he the cost of this scheme? Some, not indeed 

 very large, additional difficulties would be interposed in obtaining the 

 present pelagic catch of 68,000. It would require a somewhat larger in- 

 vestment of capital in vessels and appliances, and a somewhat greater 

 expenditure in wages. This, as has been shown, would be fully reim 

 bursed to the sealers, with a large additional profit, by means of the 

 subtraction from the market of 50,000 skins now furnished from the 

 Pribilof Islands, and the consequent increase of price. This increase 

 of price must of course be paid by the consumer. We can not well con- 

 jecture the amount of it. It could hardly be less, if we may rely upon 

 the teachings of the table of prices, 1 than $10 per skin, and might 

 amount to much more. This additional cost, increased at every stage 

 in the process of manufacture and exchange, might easily add #30 to 

 the price of the skin when it comes to the consumer, and thus the 

 world would be burdened by an additional charge for 100,000 skins to 

 the amount of the easily possible sum of $3,000,000. And what would 

 it cost to maintain the n<t pal police required to enforce this scheme'? 

 How many armed steamers would be needed to guard effectually 

 against the entrance of a trespasser within a prohibited zone, the cir- 

 cumference of which is upwards of 110 miles, in a region of thick and 

 almost perpetual fogs? A million of dollars annually would be a mod- 

 erate estimate of the expenditure required, and this must be paid by 

 somebody, the Commissioners do not tell us by whom. 



And for ichom and for what is this prodigious tax to be imposed? 

 For the Canadian sealers alone, and in order to enable them to make a 

 profit, for a few short years, by the total destruction of a race of use- 

 ful animals ! If the assumption of such a burden were necessary, in or- 

 der to preserve the seals, the propriety of making it would be worthy 

 of consideration; but it is absolutely no misrepresentation or exaggera- 

 tion to say that it would be a price paid, not for their preservation, but 

 for their more speedy extermination. Not a dollar of this enormous 

 expenditure is needed for any useful purpose. The entire increase of 

 all the herd may be made available at the lowest possible price, without 

 endangering the stock and without imposing any additional burden 

 upon the world, by simply confining the capture of the seals to the 

 methods allowed by natural law. Nor is the expenditure needed even 

 for the mischievous purpose of killing off the seals. It is indeed a con- 

 trivance by which that result would be hastened, but if nothing were 



Case of the Uiiited States, Appendix, Vol. II, p. 561. 



