126 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
vessels referred to, and the release of all persons under arrest in connection 
therewith.” Later in this same year other Canadian vessels were seized and 
occasioned a renewal of diplomatic controversy. 
In a circular letter dated August 19, 1887, Mr. Bayard, the American Sec- 
retary of State, proposed international cooperation “for the better protection 
of the fur-seal fisheries in Bering Sea,”’ sending the communication to the Amer- 
ican ministers in France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, and Norway 
and Sweden, for presentation to those respective Governments.* The prelimi- 
nary steps seemed to be viewed favorably by the Governments of France, Great 
Britain, Japan, and Russia, and ‘‘the convention had been virtually agreed on 
verbally, except in its details;”’ but in May, 1888, these were suspended by 
reason of opposition made by the government of Canada, without whose assent 
Great Britain would not act. 
In 1888 no seizures were made of foreign vessels in Bering Sea. But in 
1889 the American Government renewed its activity against the pelagic fishery 
and arrested a number of British Columbian vessels outside the 3-mile limit, 
claiming that ‘‘ the Canadian vessels arrested and detained in the Bering Sea were 
engaged in a pursuit that was in itself contra bonos mores, a pursuit which of 
necessity involves a serious and permanent injury to the rights of the Govern- 
ment and people of the United States,’* the ownership of the fur seals 
resulting from ownership of the islands on which they breed and of the coast on 
which they live. Unfortunately, however, there was no exact precedent in 
international law for treating the fur seals as the subject of property on the 
high seas, and indeed no municipal law of the United States had ever so con- 
sidered them. 
Diplomatic correspondence continued between the two Governments, and 
pending negotiations for the reference of the controversy to a tribunal of arbi- 
tration, a modus vivendi was agreed to on June 15, 1891. By this agreement 
Great Britain undertook to prohibit, until the following May, the killing of fur 
seals by British subjects in that part of Bering Sea lying eastward of the line of 
demarcation described in the treaty of 1867 between the United States and 
Russia, and the United States to prohibit the like killing of seals by citizens of 
the United States in the same part of Bering Sea and on the islands thereof, in 
excess of 7,500 to be taken on the islands for the subsistence and care of the 
natives. 
a‘‘ Without raising any question,” said Mr. Bayard, ‘“‘as to the exceptional measures which the 
peculiar character of the property in question might justify this Government in taking, and without 
reference to any exceptional marine jurisdiction that might properly be claimed for that end, it is 
deemed advisable to attain the desired ends by international cooperation.” (S. Ex. Doc. 106, 50th 
Cong., 2d sess., 84.) 
+ Letter from Mr. Phelps, American minister at London, dated September 12, 1888. 
¢ Letter from Mr. Blaine, Secretary of State, to Lord Salisbury, January 22, 1890. 
