CONCURRENT REGULATIONS. 213 



direct inquiry into the question of property. It fully establishes the 

 conclusion that the only "concurrent regulation" which can preserve 

 the seal herds from practical extermination is one simply and absolutely 

 prohibitive of pelagic sealing, and that this therefore is necessary. And 

 this is tantamount, in its effect, to the recognition of a property inter- 

 est in the proprietors of the breeding islands. 



If a bona fide effort were made to allow pelagic sealing under condi- 

 tions which would reduce its destructive effect to a point where it 

 might be neglected as unsubstantial or insignificant, real, not pretended, 

 restriction would be secured. The effort would be to taJce away, not 

 to add, inducements to embark in it. The method would be to discour- 

 age it, to throw difficulties in the way of it, to so restrict it in place or 

 time, or both, that little chance for profit would remain. To this end 

 a prohibition during March and April would be wholly useless. It 

 could not be safely allowed even for a single month in the period from 

 April to October. The privilege must be limited to stormy weather 

 which repels enterprise. And this is to prohibit. If we mean to pre- 

 serve the seals, we must .submit to be governed by those natural laws 

 upon an observance of which their preservation depends. These teach, 

 with a directness and certainty which can not be misunderstood, two 

 things. 



First. In the case of animals over whom man has no control, such as 

 most wild animals are, if they are in danger of destruction from too eager 

 pursuit, restrictions in the nature of game laws, which operate simply 

 to diminish the destruction, without changing its character, are the 

 only preventive measure which society can apply. And it can not ab- 

 solutely prohibit destruction, for this would be to prohibit the use of 

 nature's gift. This remedy is apt to be insufficient, from the difficulty 

 of enforcement, but it tends to preserve, and sometimes succeeds in pre- 

 serving, that which it is designed to save. 



Second. But where some men have such a control over the animal 

 that they can by abstinence, art, and industry reap its full natural in- 

 crease and make it available for human wants, and at the same time 

 preserve the stock, society can, as it does, preserve the animal, and at 

 the same time secure the full benefit of its natural increase by permit- 

 ting them to kill at discretion, and prohibiting killing by all others. 



The United States stand upon the assertion of their property inter- 

 est, and if that is recognized, they couceive that they have the ability 

 to protect it on every sea. It is not usual for one nation to voluntarily 



