THE FUR-SEALS AND THE BERING SEA AWARD 47 



which had been framed to protect the seals from threatened 

 extermination, ^a strong appeal was made by Secretary 

 Gresham for English assent to a revision of the regulations. 

 His desire was to enlarge the closed season and also to 

 prohibit all pelagic sealing in Bering Sea^ 



The statistics of the year's catch, gathered from Canadian 

 sources, differed from the American estimates, making the 

 total somewhat less; the English Government, seeing no 

 immediate cause for alarm for the future welfare of the 

 herd, were not favorably inclined to making any changes in 

 the existing laws governing sealing operations. While still 

 engaged, however, in discussing the situation, (the spring 

 months advanced, the sealing fleets cleared from their winter 

 ports, and the season of 1895 opened without any modifica- 

 tion of the regulations^ 



The statistical returns from the North Pacific and Bering 

 Sea at the end of the season of 1895 (the second under the 

 award), were not of a character to relieve apprehension ; they 

 served only the more firmly to convince the American Gov- 

 ernment that its fears for the future of the seal herds were 

 well grounded, and that appeals for British consent to a 

 modification of the regulations were reasonable and proper. 

 Mr. Olney wrote Sir Julian Pauncefote, March 11, 1896. 



... I desire also to call your attention to the unprecedentedly 

 large catch of seals in Bering Sea during the past season. The 

 total was 44,169, as compared with 31,585 during the season of 

 1894. This is by far the largest catch ever made in Bering Sea, and 

 it is believed that another catch of similar size for the coming sea- 

 son will almost completely exterminate the fur-seal herd. I am 

 advised that the greater portion of the seals killed at sea were 

 females. 



The total catch during the last season in the North Pacific 

 and Bering Sea from the American herd was 56,291, as compared 

 with total for 1894 of 61,838, the small falling off being due to 

 the inclemency of the weather between January and May along 

 the northwestern coast, and also to the diminution of the seal 

 herd. . . . 



In the spring of 1896 Russia again displayed some anxiety 

 for the welfare of her own sealing industry on the Asiatic 



