THE FUR-SEALS AND THE BERING SEA AWARD 29 



the date of the treaties, was understood by the three signa- 

 tory powers to be a separate body of water, and was not 

 included in the phrase 4 Pacific Ocean,' then the American 

 case against Great Britain is complete and undeniable." 



Further argument was useless. Both powers stood firmly 

 by their respective positions, and the case, stripped of non- 

 essentials by the exhaustive pleadings of the English pre- 

 mier and the American Secretary of State, had been 

 narrowed down to comparatively simple issues. The ques- 

 tion called for an immediate settlement. That same year, 

 1890, the twenty-year lease of the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany expired, and the North American Commercial Company 

 succeeded with a fresh twenty-year lease. The seal herd 

 had by this time become greatly reduced in numbers, and 

 ample evidence was furnished by the alarming annual de- 

 crease of the size of the herd to demonstrate that the total 

 extinction of the species was already a promise of the near 

 future, unless some arrangement with England could be 

 made to prevent pelagic sealing. Canadians were deter- 

 mined to exercise their right of catching seals upon the high 

 seas, and the United States Government had become equally 

 determined to seize and condemn any vessel found " poach- 

 ing " in Bering Sea. It was feared that the following sea- 

 son's operation in Alaskan waters might bring the dreaded 

 clash between the two great powers. Their interests in the 

 North Pacific seemed hopelessly to conflict ; their determina- 

 tions to protect their own subjects in the exercise of their 

 so-believed respective rights were firmly fixed, and their 

 patience and good will were already sorely tried. It was 

 at this critical stage of the controversy the two nations 

 happily agreed to submit the matter to a tribunal of arbi- 

 tration. 



Owing to this rapid decline in numbers of seals resorting 

 to the islands, the North American Company was restricted 

 by a Treasury order to a catch of only 20,000 pelts for the 

 year 1890, and pending the negotiation of a treaty of arbi- 

 tration, the following agreement with England was effected 

 June 15, 1891 : 



