ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 23 



Mr.Bayard having received that cominniiicatioii, was evidently jriati- 

 fied at the prospect of an amicable solution of the difficulty, and he 

 addressed this note to Mr. Pheli^s on the 25th of November, 1887 : 



Na. 733.] DEPAUTiMKNT OF State, Washington, November 23, 1SS7. 



Sir: Your No. 618, of the 12th instant, statin,!^ the result of your interviews with 

 Lord Salisbury on the subject of the seal lisheries in Behriuji; Sea, is received. 



The favorable response to our suggestion of mutually agreeing to a code of regu- 

 lations is very satisfactory, and the subject will have immediate attention. 

 I am, etc., 



T. F. Bayard. 



You will remember that Mr. riielps requested of Mr. Bayard a pro- 

 posed Code of Ivcoulations. On the 7th of February, 1888, Mr. Bayard 

 again addresses Mr. Phelps, and in his communication gives the prin- 

 ('i])al features of a ])roposed Code, and it is somewhat important to con- 

 sider them. I read from the note: 



Mr. Baijard to Mr. Fhelps. 



No. 782.] Department oe State, Wnshinr/ton, Fehrnary 7, 1SS8. 



Siu: I have received your No. 618, of the 12th of November last containing an 

 account of your interview with Lord Salisbury of the preceding day, in which his 

 lordship expressed ac(|uiescence in my proposal of an agreement t)etween the United 

 States and Great Britain in regard to tlie adoption of concurrent regulations for the 

 preservation of fur-seals in Behring Sea- from extermination by destruction at 

 improper seasons and by improper methods by the citizens of either country. 



In response to his lordship's suggestion that this Government submit a sketch of a 

 system of regulations for the purpose indicated, it may be expedient, before making 

 a delinite i»ro])Osition, to describe some of the conditions of seal life; and for this 

 purpose it is believed that a concise statement as to that jiart of the lil'e of the seal 

 which is spent in Behring Sea will be sufticient. 



All those who have made a study of the seals in Behring Sea are agreed that, on 

 an average, from five to six months, that is to saj^, from the middle or townrd the end 

 of spring till the middle or end of Octol)er, are spent by them in those waters in 

 breeding ainl in reaiing their young. During this time tliey have their rookeries on 

 the islands of St. Paul ;ind St. George, which constitute the I'ribilof group and belong 

 to the United States, and on the Comnuiiuler Islands, which belong to Russia. But 

 the numl)er of animals resorting to the latter group is small in comparison with that 

 resorting to the former. The rest of the year they are supposed to spend in the ojien 

 sea soiith of the Aleutian Islands. 



Their migration northward, which has been stated as taking place during the 

 sjiring and till the middle of June, is made through the numerous passes in the long 

 chain of the Aleutian Islands, above which the courses of their travel converge chiefly 

 to the Pribilof group. During this migration the fenuile seals are so advanced in 

 pregnancy that they generally give birth to their young, which are commonly called 

 pups, within two weeks aftcu- reaching the rookeries. Between the time of the birth 

 of the pups and of the emigration of the seals from the islands in the autumn the 

 females are occu])ied in suckling their young; and by far the largest part of the seals 

 found at a distance from the islands in Behring Sea during the summer and early 

 autumn are females in search of food, which is made doubly necessary to enable them 

 to suckle their young as well as to support a condition of renewed pregnancy, which 

 begins in a week or a little more after their delivery. 



The male seals, or bulls, as they are commonly called, require little food while on 

 the islands, where they remain guarding their harems, watching the rookeries, and 

 sustaining existence on the large amount of blul)ber which they have secreted beneath 

 their skins and which is gradually absorbed during the five or six succeeding 

 months. 



Moreover, it is impossible to distinguish the male from the female seals in the 

 water, or pregnant fenuxlcs from those that are not so. When the animals are killed 

 in the water with firearms nuiny sink at once and are never recovered, and some 

 authorities state that not more than one out of three of those so slaughtered is ever 

 secured. This may, however, be an overestimate of the numlier lost. 



It is thus apparent that to permit the destruction of the seals by the use of fire- 

 arms, nets, or other mischievous means in Behring Sea would result in the speedy 

 extermination of the race. There appears to be no difterence of o])inion on this 

 subject among experts. And the fact is so clearly and forcibly stated in the report 

 of the ins]iector of lisheries for British Columbia of the olst of December, 1886, that 

 I will quote therefrom the following pertment passage: 



