THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 125 



the proof that the Willie McGowan aud Ariel, or their boats, had been sealing- inside 

 the Smile limit was considered insntiflcient. The findings of the commission are 

 rendered in detail in the Twenty-sixth Annual Eeport of the Canadian Department 

 of Fisheries. 



The experience of 1892 was conclusive proof that it was feasible for the schooners 

 to stay 20 miles away from the islands and yet send in their boats to the rookeries to 

 prey upon the breeding seals going to and fro. It was also made plain that there would 

 be very little chance of stopping the trattic by means of large cruisers patrolling the 

 sea. The Itussian authorities, therefore, were very anxious to establish a prohibitive 

 zone around the islands wide enough to make it impossible for the boats to raid the 

 rookeries inde|)endeutly, the mere presence of the schooner inside of this limit being 

 evidence of illegal sealing. Negotiations were progressing during the winter of 1892 

 and ]89,'5 between the two governments, and finally, in Jlay, 1893, a provisional agree- 

 ment was entered into between Russia and Great Britain establishing a protective 

 zone of 30 miles ai-oand the Commander Islands and Robben Island. It is evident 

 that the Russian authorities at that time were unaware of the fact that the great 

 bulk of the skins taken by the British Columbia sealing fieet were obtained on the 

 feeding-grounds of the breeding females, and were also ignorant of the exact location 

 of these grounds, or they would not have rested satisfied wirh the zone of 30 miles, 

 which has been of but very little protective value to the seals. In view of the role 

 which the Russian acc^eptance of this 30-mile zone played in the establishment of 

 the GO-mile zone around the Pribylof Islands, it is imi)ortant to remember that in 

 accepting the 30-mile zone the Russians liad a much more limited oliject in view, viz, 

 to make H imponsihle for the pelafjic sealers to raid the rooTceriv.s. 



THE PROVISIONAL AGREEMENT OF MAY, 18'J3. 



The provisional arrangement, which was to be entirely without retroactive force 

 as regards the British vessels seized in 1892, is as follows: 



I. During the year endiug December, 1893, the English Government will prohibit their subjects 

 from killing or hunting seal within a zone of 10 marine miles on all the Russian coasts of Behring Sea 

 and the North Pacific Ocean, as well as within a zone of 30 marine miles around the Komaudorsky 

 Islands and Tulcnew (Robben Island). 



II. British vessels engaged in hunting seals within the aforesaid zones, beyond Russian terri- 

 torial waters, may be seizi'd by Russian iTuisers. to be handed over to British cruisers or to the nearest 

 British authorities. lu case of impediment or difliculty, the commander of the Russian cruiser may 

 coufine himself to seizing the papers of the aforementioned vessels, in order to deliver them to a 

 British cruiser or to transmit them to the nearest British authorities on the first opportunity. 



III. Her Majesty's Government engage to bring to trial before the ordinary tribunals, offering 

 all necessary guaranties, the British vessels which may be seized as having been engaged in sealing 

 within the jirohibited zones beyond Russian territorial waters. 



IV. The Imperial Russian Government will limit to .30,000 the number of seals which may be 

 killed during the year 1893 on the coasts of the islands of Komandorsky and fulfcuew (Robben 

 Island). 



V. An agent of the British Government may visit the aforementioned islands (Komaudorsky 

 and Tulenew) in order to obtain from the local authorities all necessary information on the working and 

 results of the agreement arrived at, but care should be taken to give previous information to these 

 authorities of the place and time of his visit, which should not bo prolonged beyond a few weeks. 



VI. The present arrangement has no retroactive force as regards British vessels captured pre- 

 viously by the cruisers of the Imperial Russian Marine. 



