KEPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 317 



our iudo-ment were necessary and sufficient to App ication of 



J ^ ^ J ^ Article IX. 



secure the proper protection and preservation of 

 seal life. With questions of international rights, 

 treaty provisions, commercial interests, or polit- 

 ical relations we had nothing- to do. It was our 

 opinion that the considerations of the Joint 

 Commission ought to have been restricted to 

 this phase of the question, so clearly put forth 

 in the agreement under which the Commission 

 was organized, and so evidently the original 

 intent of both Governments when the investiga- 

 tion was in contemplation. 



Had the preservation and perpetuation of seal ^?.^"\*^. ^^ •'^"'^^ 



'- i i appucatiou. 



life alone been considered, as was urged by us, 



there is little doubt that the joint report would 



have been of a much more satisfactory nature, 



and that it would have included much more 



than a mere reiteration of tlie now universally 



admitted fact that the number of seals on and 



frequenting the Pribilof Islands is now less than 



in former years, and that the hand of man is 



responsible for this diminution. 



That our own view of the nature of the task Article ix inter- 

 preted dillereiitly 



before us was not shared by our colleag-ues rei)- ^-X i^iit'^ii ^^m- 



«^ ox nussiouers. 



resenting the other side was soon manifest, and 

 it became clear that no sort of an agreement 

 sufficiently comprehensive to be worthy of con- 

 sideration and at the same time defiinite enough 



