CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE OCCASION OF THE INQUIRY. 



The present inquiry iuto the condition and needs of the fur-seal herds of the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea is the outgrowth of a belief on the part of the United 

 States that the regulations formulated by the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration for " the 

 protection and preservation of the fur seal " had failed to accomplish their avowed 

 object. The inadequacy of these regulations was apparent at the close of the first 

 season of their operation, and each succeeding season has only rendered it more 

 conspicuous. Failing to secure the cooperation of Great Britain in the immediate 

 revision of the regulations, the United States in the spring of 1896 accepted the 

 proposal of Great Britain for a scientific investigation of the whole subject, to be 

 made independently by each nation, the results of such an investigation to form the 

 basis. of a reconsideration of the regulations at the end of the specified trial period ot 

 five years. 



THE ACT OF CONGRESS. 



The act of Congress under which the present commission of investigation for the 

 United States was organized is as follows : 



Resolved by the Senate and House of Ileprexentatii-es of the United Slates of America in Congress 

 assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to expend, from any 

 moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sum sufficient to provide for the employment 

 of persons to conduct a scientific investigation, during the fiscal years eighteen hundred and 

 ninety-six and eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, of the present condition of the fur-seal herds on 

 the Pribilof, Commander, and Kuril islands in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, said amount 

 not to exceed for both said years the sum of five thousand dollars. 



The Secretary is also authorized to employ a stenographer in connection with this investigation 

 at a rate of compensation not exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars per annum, and to pay his 

 compensation and expenses out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 



The President is authorized to detail, for the purposes of assisting in this investigation, any 

 officer or officers or employees of the United States Government, their actual expenses and the 

 expenses of the person or persons employed under the preceding paragraph to be paid by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 



The President may detail a vessel of the United States for the purpose of carrying out this 

 investigation. 



THE COMMISSION. 



In accordance with the above act, Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Leland 

 Stanford Junior University, was appointed commissioner in charge of the investiga- 

 tion, and with him were detailed as associates Lieut. Commander Jefferson F. Moser, 

 commanding the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross; Dr. Leonhard 



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