ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 347 



All these measures relate exclusively to fur-seal hunting on the high seas, since 

 hunting on land in Russian territory, viz, on the Commander Islands and Fulenien, 

 is under strict inspection, and the number of seals that are allowed to be killed is 

 strictly limited. 



SEPTEMBER 18, 1895. 



SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the communication of the 

 Acting Secretary of State, dated August 26, 1895, inclosing transla- 

 tions of two notes from the Eussian charge d'affaires ad interim at this 

 capital, presenting the views of his Government on the subject of the 

 note of your Department of January 23 last, to the British embassy 

 at Washington, concerning the regulations governing seal hunting in 

 Bering Sea. 



The first note inclosed in your communication states that the Eussian 

 Government accepts in principle the suggestion of an international 

 commission, and agrees to the extension of the Paris award regulations 

 along the line of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude to the shores 

 of Asia, but that it disagrees with our proposition to close Bering Sea 

 to sealers pending a report of said commission. 



The second note incloses a report of a Eussian commission, to which 

 the whole matter of regulations of fur-seal hunting was submitted. The 

 commission in its report states that the diplomatic conference of nations, 

 obligatory upon all, for the purpose of regulating the fur-seal fisheries, 

 would be preferable to an international commission; that a zone of 200 

 miles should be established around the Commander Islands within 

 which no sealing should be permitted, and that the use of firearms 

 should be prohibited north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude. 

 The said commission further reports that " as the fur seals that winter 

 on the Eussian islands leave their winter lairs earlier than those on the 

 Pribilof Islands, the time during which sealing on the high seas is pro- 

 hibited should be made to last for the former not until the 1st of May, 

 but until the 31st of March, or, strictly speaking, until the 1st of April." 



I have carefully considered said notes, and have the honor to reply 

 that I do not quite understand the proposition contained in the first, 

 to the effect that to Bering Sea should be applied the same law as to 

 the North Pacific Ocean north of the thirty-fifth degree of north lati- 

 tude. I would respectfully ask that you request of the Eussian Gov- 

 ernment an expression of opinion whether it desires the prohibition of 

 all sealing north of the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude pending 

 the report of a commission, or simply that the regulations of the Paris 

 award and the closed season thereof be extended to Bering Sea on the 

 western as well as the eastern side. Nor do I understand the last sug- 

 gestion in the second note quoted in full above that the closed season 

 should last until the 1st of April. At first sight it would seem that 

 the translator employed by your Department is in error, and that the 

 word "after" should be subsituted for the word "until," as under the 

 Paris regulations the open season lasts from August through April. 



I would further state that it appears from the note of Lord Gough to 

 you, dated August 19, of which a copy was sent to nte by you on August 

 28 last, that the British Government refuses to recognize that Eussia 

 and Japan have any interest in the seal fisheries regulated by the Paris 

 award, and that it can not take part iu any inquiry on the Pribilof 

 Islands in which these powers are associated. I would respectfully 

 suggest that the Eussian Government be informed of this refusal. I 

 can not see any objection to a diplomatic conference such as is sug- 

 gested by the Eussian Govern ineut as to the fur-seal hunting in the 



