82 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



coasts for food, and by the natives of the Pribilof Islands for necessary 

 food, fuel, and clothing, as was done during the last modus vivendi. 



(4) That Congress shall be asked for an appropriation to defray the 

 expenses of a commission of at least three competent and disinterested 

 men, whose duty it shall be to visit all the seal islands and breeding 

 rookeries in the Bering and Okhotsk seas, and any others whose seals 

 range in either of those seas or in the North Pacific Ocean; to make a 

 thorough investigation of fur-seal life, and to collect testimony bearing 

 on the habits of the animal on land and at sea, and all data that it is 

 possible to secure regarding the effect of driving and killing on land, 

 and of pelagic sealing, and such other information as may be deemed 

 necessary to a thorough understanding of the seal problem. 



(5) That the said commission shall be appointed by the President of 

 the United States, and that Great Britain, Kussia, and Japan be invited 

 to appoint similar bodies for similar purposes, who, at the completion 

 of their joint investigations, shall jointly report the result thereof and 

 suggest regulations for the proper and adequate protection, of the fur 

 seals on land and water. 



In making these suggestions I have kept in view the fact that with- 

 out concurrent action, which shall be mutually satisfactory to the 

 nations directly interested, there can be no adequate protection given 

 to the seals; for so long as pelagic sealers can operate freely in Japa- 

 nese or Russian waters during a "close time" on the American side, and 

 vice versa, the herds will eventually be exterminated. 



The question has been asked, " Suppose Great Britain will not consent 

 to a modus vivendi or a change in the regulations before the expiration 

 of the five years' term established by the Tribunal of Arbitration: what 

 then?" 



It must be borne in mind that the regulations do not extend to the 

 seal islands, nor have they anything whatever to do with our work 

 thereon. 



Let Congress at the present session repeal all laws which limit the 

 numbers or designate the sex to be killed on the islands, and enact 

 laws empowering the Secretary of the Treasury to kill without limit 

 whenever it may appear that adequate protection to the herds has been 

 sought for in vain. That this last resort is our right and our duty was 

 plainly shown by the United States counsel at Paris, who said: 



The whole herd owes its existence not merely to the care and protection, but to 

 the forbearance of the United States Government within its exclusive jurisdiction. 

 While the seals are upon the United States territory during the season of reproduction 

 and nurture, that Government might easily destroy th<9 herd by killing them all at a 

 considerable immediate profit. From such a slaughter it is not bound to refrain ii 

 the only object is to preserve the animals long enough to enable them to be extermi- 

 nated by foreigners at sea. I? that is to be tbe result, it would be for the interest oi 

 the Government, and plainly within its right and powers, to avail itself at once 

 of such present value as its property possesses if the future product of it can not be 

 preserved. (Argument of the United States counsel, p. 134.) 



And yet, wbile admitting our right, and asking for the enactment oi 

 a law conferring the authority to kill every seal on the Pribilof Islands, 

 should the necessity arise to demand it, I abhor the thought of the pos- 

 sibility of such a dreadful contingency. 



While it is well to befuJly prepared, let us use all honorable means to 

 avert it if possible. 



Eespectfully submitted. 



JOSEPH MURRAY, Special Agent. 



Hon. JOHN G. OA.RLTSLE, 



Secretary of the Treasury. 



