1898;] The Final Treaty 



i special monographs on the animals and plants of Fut Sed 

 the Pribilof and Commander islands. The American '■^^°''' 

 commission, as such, was now dissolved, further dis- 

 cussion being turned over to the Department of 

 State under (successively) Hay, Root, and Knox. 



j Meanwhile Charles Nagel, the efficient Secretary of 

 Commerce under Mr. Taft, organized a Fur Seal 

 Advisory Board serving without pay and composed 

 of all the scientific experts who had ever been sent 

 to the Pribilofs, an arrangement which lasted 

 through the Roosevelt and Taft administrations. 



The final treaty, that of 191 1 (in which I had no Treaty of 

 direct part), provided, in brief, that up to 1926 the ^^^^ 

 United States and Russia, in return for the abandon- 

 ment of pelagic sealing by Canada and Japan, 



' should each pay yearly to each of the just-named 

 countries, 15 per cent of their receipts from land- 

 killing. For the protection of Robben Island, al- 

 ready ceded by Russia to Japan, the latter was to 

 yield to the former 10 per cent of her receipts — 

 the same also to Canada and the United States. 

 The provisions of this treaty were, I believe, equi- 

 table, everything considered. Through their opera- 

 tion the herd was preserved safe for fifteen years 

 at least, and 1 trust permanently — a renewal 

 in 1927 being to the interest of all legitimately 

 concerned. 



Credit for the negotiation of the treaty should be Credit 

 given primarily to Secretary Nagel, who was, how- ^'^^J^^^ .^ 

 ever, ably assisted by Evermann and Clark, and in due 

 some degree by all the members of the scientific 

 committees of investigation. In a recent personal 

 letter to me, Mr. Nagel himself lays special stress 

 on the help received from Mr. Knox, then Secretary 



C 607 -J 



