COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. 179 



In the event of an adverse decision for the United States on these legal 

 questions, the final proposition provided that the court of arbitration should take up 

 a consideration of the rules and regulations necessary for the proper protection of 

 the herd when at sea and beyond the jurisdiction of the United States. These 

 propositions, after amendment and discussion, were finally accepted as the basis of 

 an arbitration and were embodied in a treaty between the United States and Great 

 Britain, signed on February 29, 1892, and duly ratified. This treaty is printed in 

 Appendix II of this report. 



THE MODUS VIVENDI. 



While the discussion of the treaty was under way, and in view of its probable 

 consummation, a modus vivendi was agreed to in June, 1891, which closed Bering Sea 

 to pelagic sealing and limited the land catch on the islands to a nominal figure for 

 the support of the natives depending upon the fur seals for food. The promulgation of 

 this measure was too late in the season to make it possible of enforcement, the pelagic 

 fleet having already gone to sea. After the signing of the treaty in the following year 

 this modus vivendi was renewed and continued in force until the conclusion of the 

 labors of the arbitration convention. The text of the agreement will be found in 

 Appendix II. 



THE JOINT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. 



In the progress of the discussion leading up to the convention of February, 1892, 

 it was decided that a commission of experts representing each Government should 

 visit the seal islands and report on the habits and condition of the fur-seal herd with 

 a view to the information of the arbitration convention. To expedite matters this 

 commission was tentatively designated and entered upon its work in the summer of 

 1891, being officially recognized after the treaty was finally agreed to in the spring of 

 1892. 



THE TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION. 



In accordance with the provisions of the treaty of 1892 the Tribunal of Arbitration 

 duly convened at Paris in February, 1893, and concluded its labors on the 15th of 

 August. Its decision of the legal questions involved being adverse to the United 

 States, the Tribunal proceeded to formulate regulations for the protection and 

 preservation of the fur seals. 



JOINT REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 



Before taking up a detailed consideration of these regulations it will assist us in 

 our understanding of them to consider briefly the results of the investigations on 

 which they were based. The joint commission of investigation representing the 

 United States and Great Britain, after its visit to the islands in the summer of 1891, 

 met at Washington in the spring of 1892, and after much discussion found itself 

 unable to agree upon any facts of importance beyond the general proposition that 

 the fur-seal herd had largely declined and that man was responsible for the decline. 

 Accordingly, each commission of investigation submitted a separate report to its 

 Government. These reports became the basis of each nation's contention before the 

 Tribunal regarding the condition and habits of the fur seals. 



