48 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



side of Bering Sea, and broached the subject of an agreement 

 to extend the provisions of the Paris award to her side of the 

 Pacific Ocean. The Secretary of State eagerly seized this 

 opportunity to gain an ally, and Mr. Bayard, the American 

 Ambassador to Great Britain, was instructed to cooperate 

 with and aid the Russian representative in London in his 

 endeavors to secure England's consent to such legislation. 

 These laudable efforts on the part of Russia were not destined 

 to meet the success they deserved. Lord Salisbury received 

 the overtures with indifference and proposed to send two scien- 

 tific experts to the Bering Sea to make further investigations 

 into the conditions of seal life as affected by the regulations 

 and award, and incidentally to extend their researches to the 

 Commander and Robin islands. Accordingly Mr. D'Arcy 

 Thompson and Mr. Macoun, on the parts of England and 

 Canada, proceeded to Bering Sea, to remain throughout the 

 season of 18g6. Professor David Starr Jordan, a biologist of 

 great ability, was sent on the part of the United States to 

 cooperate with these English scientists and to make with 

 them a thorough and exhaustive study of the subject. 



It was sincerely hoped in Washington that/this scientific 

 commission^ unlike the former one of 1892, would be enabled 

 to agree upon findings of fact, and that it might also reach 

 harmonious conclusions in relation to proper remedial legis- 

 lation. By proofs furnished through her own experts it was 

 expected, as it was greatly desired, to convince the English 

 Government of the necessity of a revision of the rules gov- 

 erning pelagic sealing, and to overcome, if possible, their stolid 

 determination to stand for the full five years on the letter 

 of the law regardless of consequences. 



The season of 1896 opened with no changes in the regula- 

 tions; the mixed Canadian and American scientific commis- 

 sion were at the Pribyloff Islands, and several American and 

 British armed vessels patrolled the seas in search of violators 

 of the sealing laws. 



Professor Jordan's report appeared early the following win- 

 ter, disclosing facts truly alarming to the government that had 

 struggled so earnestly to protect the herd. After noting 



