REPORT OF AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS. 375 



executed. If the radius of this protected area is a zone of prohi- 

 bition inadecxuate. 

 great enough to insure the exclusion of pelagic 



sealers from Bering Sea and the North Pacific 

 Ocean it would be entirely acceptable. But 

 when a radius of ten miles or of thirty or even 

 fifty miles is suggested, the impression is strong 

 that such a proposition is not intended to be seri- 

 ously considered. An examination of the chart 

 showing the location of sealers when warned 

 in the summer of 1891 will show that they are 

 widely distributed. On the occasion of our \^sit 

 to the Pribilof Islands in July and August of that 

 year seals appeared in considerable numbers 

 while we were from one hundred and fifty to one 

 hundred and seventy-five miles from the islands, 

 and many were seen up to the time of our reach- 

 ing the islands. 



The possibility of properly executing- any pro- , ^discrimination 



^ J ir L J o J 1 by pelaigic sealers 



posed scheme of protection must also have great I'^possibie. 

 weight in determining its value. For instance, 

 a proposal to permit pelagic sealing with the con- 

 dition that only barren females were to be hunted 

 and killed would be quite free from objection, 

 for if all such were destroyed the herd would 

 not suffer. But the absurdity of such a proposi- 

 tion is at once evident to all who are familiar 

 with the elements of the problem. The difficulty 



