BERING SEA TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION. 



81 



leave tin- Mit>j<-<-t in such position that the eonciir- 



n n< I'luvat IJritain is ncce.-sary to the ewtablinh- 



meiit of ivtrulatioim for tin- proper |imlccti<ia and 



:iti( I 1 tin- I'lii-Mal in. <>r habituall >' resorting 



to, tin' Ui-riinr s.-u. tin- arbitrator* thai! then deter- 

 mine \vhut eoneimviit regulations outside the juriH- 

 dietioiuil limits of tin 1 respective governments are 

 UN, ami <.vcr what waters such regulations 

 should extend. 



Tu enable the arbitrators to deal with the al- 

 ternative point, the treaty provided for the ap- 

 pointment of a joint commission to make an 

 investigation, and report, if the arbitrators 

 should call for it. Lord Salisbury proposed to 

 add ;i clause for the determination and award of 

 damages by the arbitrators to persons who have 

 been injured, in case it should be decided that 

 " the action of the United States in seizing Brit- 

 ish vessels has been without warrant in interna- 

 tional law." The United States Government 

 did not object to including the question of al- 

 leged damages to English ships, on condition 

 that if, after the issues of the arbitration are 

 joined, the United States should prevail, "all 

 the seals taken by Canadian vessels during the 

 period shall be paid for at the ordinary price 

 for which skins are sold." No agreement was 

 reached as to the reference of the question of 

 damages, and the matter was left for future ne- 

 gotiation, a provision being introduced into the 

 treaty which permitted either party to submit 

 to the arbitrators any facts bearing upon the 

 question. 



Article I of the treaty, as finally arranged on 

 Feb. 29, 1892, recited that the governments of 

 the United States and Great Britain, being de- 

 sirous to provide for an amicable settlement of 

 the questions that had arisen between them 

 concerning the jurisdictional rights of the 

 United States in the waters of Bering Sea, and 

 concerning also the preservation of the fur seal 

 in, or habitually resorting to, the said sea, and 

 the rights of the citizens and subjects of either 

 country as regards the taking of fur seals, agree 

 to submit the questions to a tribunal of arbitra- 

 tion, composed of seven arbitrators, to be nomi- 

 nated : 2 by the Queen of Great Britain, 2 by the 

 President of the United States, 1 by the Presi- 

 dent of the French Republic, 1 by the King of 

 Italy, and 1 by the King of Sweden and Norway. 

 Articles II, III, IV, and V provided for the 

 place and time of meeting and manner of pro- 

 cedure of the Tribunal of Arbitration. Article 

 VI contained the questions as to existing rights 

 of the United States submitted for arbitration. 

 Article VII contained the reference regarding 

 regulations for the protection of the seals. 

 Article VIII provided that either of the con- 

 tracting parties might ask for a finding on ques- 

 tions of fact involved in claims for damages, the 

 question of liability on the facts found to be the 

 subject of further negotiation. Article IX pro- 

 vided for the admission of the report of the 

 joint commission of 2 American and 2 British 

 commissioners who were sent to Bering Sea to 

 study the habits of the seals and the condition 

 of the herd. Articles X, XI, XII and XIII re- 

 late to payment of the expenses of the tribunal 

 and to the time within which a decision should 

 be rendered. Article XIV reads as follows: 



The high contracting parties engrave to consider 

 tin result of the proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbi- 



VOL. xxxiii. 6 A 



trillion as u lull, perfect, and final settlement of all 

 the questions referred to the arbitrators. 



Article XV related to the ratification of the 

 treaty. The arbitrators appointed vs.-i, 

 the United States, Justice John M. liurlan, of 

 the United States Supreme Court, and Senator 

 John T. Morgan, chairman of the Senate Com- 

 mittee on Foreign Relations; for Great Britain, 

 Lord Hannen, of the Judiciary Committee of the 

 House of Lords, and Sir John S. I). Thompson, 

 Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada; for 

 France, Baron de Courcel, former French am- 

 bassador at Berlin ; for Italy, the Marquis 

 Kmilio Visconti-Venosta, a distinguished Italian 

 diplomatist and former Foreign Minister; for 

 Sweden and Norway, Judge Gregers W. W. 

 Gram, a distinguished Norwegian jurist. 



The islands of St. Paul and St. George, form- 

 ing the Pribylov group, are the largest seal 

 rookery in the world, arid the only important 

 one remaining in the north Pacific Ocean except 

 the Commander Islands, belonging to Russia, on 

 the opposite side of Bering Sea, which are in- 

 habited by seals of an inferior variety which 

 never mingle with the American herd. The 

 seals inhabit the Pribylov Islands for eight 

 months of the year, leaving them only for a day 

 or two at a time to find food in the surrounding 

 waters within a radius of 50 or 100 miles. The 

 nursing dams seek the water oftenest, whereas 

 the old bulls do not leave the rookery. The 

 young are born during the summer, feed on 

 nothing but their mothers' milk, which they 

 take every two or three days for about four 

 months, and at the end of that time have 

 learned to swim well enough to seek their own 

 food, though they are still poor swimmers, and 

 for a long time afterward, for the seal is essen- 

 tially a land animal. In the winter the entire 

 herd leaves the islands, swimming southward 

 into the Pacific Ocean, and then dispersing far 

 and wide to the south and east. About May 5 

 the old bulls return to the rookery and seek 

 their positions ; they are followed by the rest of 

 the herd, the cows, heavy with young, being the 

 last to arrive. By the middle of July the entire 

 herd has collected on the islands, the mature 

 animals on the breeding-grounds, and the young 

 males and yearling females on the hauling- 

 grounds, which are remote from the rookeries. 

 When a young bull has attained his growth, at 

 the age of six or seven years, he can win a place 

 in the rookeries by overcoming one of the de- 

 crepit old bulls in combat. For ninety years 

 the seals have been preserved and bred on these 

 islands under the supervision, first, of the Rus- 

 sian, and afterward of the American Government, 

 which assumed by statute the control and man- 

 agement of the business soon after taking pos- 

 session. Young male seals, known as bachelors, 

 are selected for slaughter at the age and season 

 when the fur is at its best. The slaughter takes 

 place between June and October, with an inter- 

 mission during a part of August and September, 

 when the fur is not in good condition. The 

 number that can be killed is fixed by law, and 

 the regulations are carried out by officials of the 

 Government in such wise that there shall be no 

 diminution of the natural increase of the herd. 

 No female is allowed to be killed, for that in- 

 volves the cutting off of one young seal a year 



