40 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



mutual consent and agreement of the parties concerned arid 

 by treaty stipulation. 



Having thus disposed of the legal question involved in the 

 dispute in a manner adversely to American interests, the com- 

 missioners took up the report of the scientific experts upon 

 the conditions of seal life in the North Pacific and upon the 

 Pribyloff Islands. They sought diligently through the laby- 

 rinth of conflicting testimony for a solution of the practical 

 question which was to preserve the seal herds. 



Their deliberations finally took form in a set of regulations 

 which, by the terms of the treaty authorizing the tribunal, 

 should be binding equally upon the United^States and Eng- 

 land. Briefly, the regulations were, first, there shall be no 

 killing of seals at any time or season within a zone of sixty 

 miles around the Pribyloff Islands ; secofllT," from May 1 to 

 July 31 shall be considered a closed season, within which 

 time subjects or citizens of neither power shall engage in 

 pelagic sealing in Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean 

 within the area described as " the high part of the sea in that 

 part of the Pacific Ocean, inclusive of Behring Sea, situated 

 north of the 35th degree of north latitude, or eastward of the 

 180th degree of longitude from Greenwich until it strikes 

 the water boundary described in Article 1 of the treaty of 

 1867 between the United States and Russia, following that 

 line up to Behring Straits ; " third, at other times, or during 

 the open season, only sailing vessels shall be permitted to take 

 part in sealing operations within such area ; fourth, these ves- 

 sels shall be provided with a proper license, etc. ; fifth, mas- 

 ters will record all catches in a log ; sixth, the use of nets, 

 fire-arms, or explosives are positively forbidden, though the 

 use of shotguns in the Pacific Ocean south of Bering Sea is 

 permissible. The regulations were to remain in force until 

 wholly or in part abolished through common consent of the 

 United States and Great Britain, and "Said concurrent 

 regulations shall be submitted every five years to a new ex- 

 amination in order to enable both governments to consider 

 whether in the light of past experience there is occasion to 

 make any modification thereof." The method of enforcing 



