ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 345 



United States Fish Commission that the seals were skinned in canoes 

 by Indians and the pelts thrown on board, and that under the circum- 

 stances they had no time to bother with inspecting skins minutely as to 

 sex. The Department is of opinion that under such circumstances 

 reports of British sealers are unreliable, and that the proportion of 

 female skins taken by the Canadian fleet is much greater than that 

 returned. 



This would seem to be corroborated by sworn statements, now in the 

 possession of the Department, of experts who personally inspected in Lou- 

 don some of the largest consignments of seal skins taken in 1894, and 

 found that from 85 to 90 per cent of them were females. 



The Department is therefore of the opinion that examination by 

 inspectors of all skins landed at British Columbian ports would greatly 

 assist in arriving at a more thorough knowledge of seal conditions, and 

 I would therefore ask that the British Government be urged to reply 

 as soon as possible to the request as above already transmitted. 

 I have the honor, etc., 



C. S. HAMLIN, Acting Secretary. 



The SECRETARY OF STATE. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, August 26, 1895. 



SIR: I have the honor to inclose for your information translations of 

 two notes from the Russian charge d'affaires ad interim at this capital, 

 presenting the views of his Government on the subject of Department's 

 note of January 23 last to the British ambassador at Washington con- 

 cerning the regulation of fur-seal hunting in Bering Sea. 

 J have the honor, etc., 



ALVEY A. ADEE, 



Acting /Secretary. 

 The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 



[Incloatire.] 



IMPERIAL LEGATION OF RUSSIA, 



Washington, August 7-July 26, 1895. 



Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE : The contents of the note of Mr. Gresham, late Secretary 

 of State, to the ambassador of Great Britain at Washington, bearing date of the 23d 

 of January last, concerning the regulation of fur-seal hunting, has been submitted to 

 the examination of a special commission, which recognized the necessity of a uniform 

 regime for fur-seal hunting on the higb seas for all the northern portion of the Pacific 

 Ocean, from the coasts of America to those of A'sia. To this end the Federal Govern- 

 ment proposes the appointment of a mixed commission, to be composed of the repre- 

 sentatives of the United States of America, of Russia, of Great Britain, and of Japan, 

 whose duty it shall be to examine this question. The Federal Government further 

 proposes to secure the enforcement of the decisions of the Tribunal of Arbitration 

 which sat at Paris relative to fur-seal hunting as far as 35 north latitude in the 

 Pacific Ocean, and to prohibit hunting in Bering Sea until the commission shall have 

 finished its labors. 



While accepting, in principle, the suggestion concerning the appointment of the 

 aforesaid commission, the Imperial Government attaches much greater importance 

 to the modus vivendi, whereby the decisions of the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris 

 are to be enforced in all waters of the Pacific Ocean situated north of the thirty -fifth 

 parallel of north latitude, including the Sea of Okhotsk. 



The spirit of equity which actuates the Federal Government does not permit me to 

 doubt that Your Excellency will bo pleased to agree that the present state of things, 

 in which the decision of the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris is enforced only in the 

 eastern part of the Bering Sea, the fur seals in the western part of the same sea being 



