16 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



the temptation and assumed jurisdiction over the entire 

 stretch of its waters (east of the imaginary line designated as 

 the boundary line of Alaska), claiming it to be a merfermSe, 

 or closed sea, in the same category indeed as any coastwise 

 harbor, notwithstanding the fact that Bering Sea is of vastly 

 greater geographical extent than any harbor. While believ- 

 ing herself justified in so doing, the United States made no 

 actual captures of sealing vessels at that time. Pelagic sealing 

 nevertheless continued. In 1886 Mr.. Manning, Secretary 

 of the Treasury, addressed a letter to Collector Hagan of 

 the port of San Francisco, affirming the ruling of Acting 

 Secretary French, as follows : 



I transmit herewith for your information a copy of a letter 

 addressed by the Department on the 12th of March, 1881, to D. A. 

 d'Ancona, concerning the jurisdiction of the United States in the 

 waters of the territory of Alaska and the prevention of the killing 

 of fur-seals and other fur-bearing animals within such areas as 

 prescribed by chapter 3, title 23, of the Revised Statutes. The 

 attention of your predecessor in office was called to the subject on 

 the 4th of April, 1881. This communication is* addressed to you, 

 inasmuch as it is understood that certain parties at your port con- 

 template the fitting out of expeditions to kill fur-seals in these 

 waters. You are requested to give due publicity to such letters, 

 in order that such parties may be informed of the construction 

 placed by this Department upon the provision of law referred to." 



Fortified by this further statement of the government's 

 position regarding United States control of the waters of 

 Bering Sea, the Treasury officials on the Pacific coast deter- 

 mined to take a stand against further poaching in what had 

 been declared by their chief to be American waters. Accord- 

 ingly the United States revenue cutter Convin proceeded to 

 Bering Sea, and in August of that year (1886) seized three 

 British vessels, the Omvard, Carolina, and Thornton, all 

 being at the time of their seizure considerably more than 

 three miles from shore. They were engaged as alleged, in 

 capturing seals in violation of Section 1956 of the Revised 

 Statutes of the United States, which made it unlawful to kill 

 seals " within the limits of Alaska territory or in the waters 

 thereof." These three vessels were taken to Sitka, tried 



