'44 REPORT OP BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



additional advantage of rendering it possible to put down 

 the veiy destructive raids u])on the rookeries, wliicli have, 

 almost from the time of the Alaska purchase, been prac- 

 tised with comjiarative impunity by certain unscrupulous 

 sealers (§ 727 et seq.). It has ahvays been easy, under cover 

 of darkness or fog, to slip iu under the land across an 

 imaginary line drawn at only three miles from the shore; 

 but by extending such a limit to ten or twenty miles, it can 

 be^made an effective safeguard, so long as any cruizer is 

 retained about the islands ou police duty. The advantages 

 , of such a widened zone of protection will be quite obvious 



to any sailor, and its ])ractical.elfect would be to keep the 

 sealers, from ordinary i)rudential motives, very far from the 

 shores of the breeding islands. A 60-mile zone was reported 

 by Mr. lilaine (in December 1890) to be, in the opinion of 

 the President, an " effective mode of preserving the seal 

 fisheries for the use of the civilized world." 



144. To render such reserved area an efficient protection, 

 however, it would be necessary to provide that between 

 certain dates no vessels, whether under pretext of whaling 

 or fishing of any kind, should enter the protected area 

 except iu making a passage, and that any vessel lowering 

 boats, or hovering within this area, would be subject to 

 penalties. It is already known that vessels ostensibly 

 engaged iu whaling and other pursuits in Behring Sea, have 

 really occupied themselves or aided in sealing or raiding, 

 and any less strict measures of preservation could only 

 result in increasing this evil. 



' (C.) — Hummary of General Conditions hearing upon Regu- 

 lation. 



145. From the foregoing review of the various facts and 

 circumstances of seal-life in the North Pacific, the follow- 

 ing may be stated to be the governing conditions of i>roper 

 protection and preservation : 



(fl.) The facts show that some such protection is emi- 

 nently desirable, especially in view of further expansions 

 of the sealing industry. 



(&.) The domestic protection heretofore given to the fur- 

 seal on the breeding islands has at no time been wholly 

 satisfactory, either in conception or in execution, and many 

 of its methods have now become obsolete. 



{e.) Measures of protection to be effective must include 

 both the summer and winter homes, and the whole migra- 

 tion ranges of the fur-seal, and control every place and all 

 methods where or by which seals are taken or destroyed. 



(f7.) Although primarily devised for the protection and 

 perpetuation of the fur-seal itself and of the sealing in- 

 dustry as a whole, any measures must be such as to inter- 

 fere as little as jiossible with established industries, and 

 such as can be instituted under existing circumstances. 



{e.) Equitable consideration must therefore be given to 

 the several industries based upon the taking of seals, and 

 especially to the number of persons dependent on these for 



