126 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



zone, open and free to all the nations of the world ? " they ask. 

 Yes and no ! They are if no evil is worked to the interests of the 

 whole world. They are not, for instance, free to pirates and mur- 

 derers. They are not open and free to a submarine that might go 

 out as a robber of merchant ships conveying international gold 

 settlements from one country to another. 



But there is still another argument in the quiver of Canada. 

 "Why," Canada might ask, "should we allow Hudson Bay to be 

 an open free sea to all traders in whales and peltries from any na- 

 tion in the world — when by international marine law Hudson Bay 

 is not an open sea — why should we allow Hudson Bay to be an 

 open sea to all comers, if we are ruled out of, not only the three-mile 

 zone, but the sixty-mile zone, or for that matter the 6000 miles, 

 where Alaska Seals are known to range for at least six months of 

 the year ? Especially, why are we to be forbidden to seal, if ships 

 from South America can still hoist a South American flag and prey 

 on seal life as soon as it becomes prolific enough for South American 

 poachers to hoist South American flags and go into the game of 

 piratical deep sea sealing?" 



And to that last question, there is no answer. It is the great 

 defect of the treaty stopping pelagic sealing that South American 

 countries were not signatories to the treaty. Up to the present, 

 the contingency has not arisen. When seals are once more prolific 

 as when the American Government took over Alaska, that question 

 will have to be answered ; but we don't need to cross that bridge 

 till we come to it. 



The best answer to Canada's complaint is the simple fact of 

 results. The stoppage of pelagic sealing has saved the Alaska Seal 

 from the fate of the Sea Otter. It has saved the Alaska Seal from 

 extermination. 



Also I don't suppose the London dyers of seal will get over their 

 grievance for another generation. "We perfected the most perfect 

 seal dye ever devised. It could not be imitated or beaten. Came 

 the War, and you lured our dyers away with this secret." Tech- 



