172 DIPLOMATIC COREESPONDENCE. 



Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps. 



No. 733.] Department of State, 



Washington^ N'ovcmher 25, 1SS7. 



Sir: Your l!^o. G18, of the 12th iustant, stating- the result of your 

 interviews with Lord Salisbury on the subject of the seal lisheries iu 

 Beliriug Sea, is received. 



Tiie tavorable resi)onse to our suggestion of mutually agreeing to a 

 code of regulations is very satisfactory, and the subject will have im- 

 mediate attention. 



I iim, etc.j 



T. r. Bayard. 



Mr. Bayard to Mr. Fhclps. 



No. 782.] Department op State, 



Washington, February 7, 1888. 



Sir : I have received your No. 618, of the 12th of November last 

 contairiing an account of your interview with Lord Salisbury of the 

 preceding day, in w^hich his lordship expressed acquiescence in my. 

 proposal of an agreement between the United States and Great Britain 

 in regard to tlie adoi)tion of concurrent regulations ibr the preserva- 

 tion of fur seals in Bchring Sea from extermination by destruction at 

 improper seasons and by improper methods by the citizens of either 

 country. 



In response to his lordship's suggestion that this Government sub- 

 mit a sketcli of a system of regulations for tlie purpose indicated, it 

 maybe expedient, before making a definite proposition, to describe 

 some of the conditions of seal lite; and for this purpose it is believed 

 that a concise statement as to that part of the life of tbe seal Avhich is 

 si)ent in Behring Sea will be sufiicient. 



All those who have made a study of the seals in Behring Sea 9,re 

 agreed that, on an average, from five to six months, that is to say, from 

 the middle or toward the end of spring till the middle or end of October, 

 are spent by them in those waters in breeding and in rearing their 

 young. During this time they have tlieir rookeries on the islands of 

 St. Paul and St. George, which constitute the Pribilof group and l)e- 

 long to the United States, and on the Commander Islands, which belong- 

 to ivussia. But tlie number of animals resorting to the latter group is 

 small in comparison M'ith that resorting to the former. The rest of the 

 year they are supi^oscd to spend in the open sea south of the Aleutian 

 Islands. 



Their migration northwaid, which has l)een stated as taking place 

 during the spring and till the middle of June, is made throngli the 

 numerous passes in thehmg chain of the Aleutian Islands, above which 

 the courses of their travel converge chiefly to the Pribilof giouj). Dur- 

 ing this migration the female seals aie so advanced in pregnancy that 

 they generally give birth to their young, which are commonly called 

 pups, within two weeks alter reaching the rookeries. Between the time 

 of the birth of the ])uj)s and of the emigration of the seals from the 

 islands in the autumn the females are occnjued in suckling their young; 

 and by far the largest part of the seals found at a distance from the 

 islands in Behring Sea during the summer and early autumn are te- 

 males in search of food, which is made doubly necessary to enable them 

 to suckle their yomig as well as to support a condition of renewed preg- 

 nancy, which begins in a week or a little more after their delivery. 



