ALASKAN HEED. 239 



The British and American Bering- Sea Com- The Joint Com- 



missiou. 



missioners, although they do not assert in their 



joint report that protection is necessary, give, as 



a conchision reached, the following: "We are in 



thorough agreement that for industrial as well 



as for other obvious reasons, it is incumbent upon 



all nations, and particularly upon those having 



direct commercial interests in fur-seals, to provide 



for their proper protection and preservation."^ 



The British Government also has recognized Britisii recogni- 

 tion, 

 the necessity of protecting this seal herd from 



destruction, in its correspondence with the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, and has advocated 

 certain methods of preservation through a close 

 season and prohibition of sealing within certain 

 limits.^ Lord Salisbury, in 1888, so far recog- 

 nized the need of protection to the seal herd as 

 to suggest that a close season from April 15 to 

 October 1 be established in the whole of Berino- 

 Sea and those portions of the Sea of Okhotsk 

 and of the Pacific Ocean north of north latitude 

 47°, and that this limitation should be enforced 

 by international agreement between the United 



1 Joint Report of British and American Bering Sea Com- 

 missioners. Fost, p. 309. 



- Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. Blaine, April, 1890; Marquis of Salis- 

 bury to Sir L. West, April 16, 1891; Sir J. Pauncefote to Mr. 

 Wharton, Juno 11, 1891. 



