30 PERIOD FOLLOWING THE TREATIES. 



Russia's action anticipating that her seal herd would be thus 



in 1892. 



preyed upon, had dispatched to those waters in 

 the early part of the season two cruisers, which 

 seized six vessels, five of them British and one of 

 them American, carrying' them in from a distance 

 greater than three miles from any land. 1 

 Final observa- In conclusion, and by way of final observation 



tioiis upon histori- 

 cal and juiis.iic- U p 011 this branch of the controversy, the United 



tional questions. x J 



States Government has only to say that in its 

 view the whole subject of the character and ex- 

 tent of the Russian occupation and assertion of 

 right in and over Bering Sea, and all the diplo- 

 matic discussion which has taken place in refer- 

 ence thereto, is of secondary and very limited 

 importance in the consideration of the case sub- 

 mitted to the Tribunal, and it relies upon the 

 evidence submitted in respect to that subject as 

 showing only : 



First That soon after the discovery by Russia 

 of the Alaskan regions, and at a very early pe- 

 riod in her occupancy thereof, she established a 

 fur-seal industry on the Pribilof Islands and 

 annually killed a portion of the herd frequenting- 

 those islands for her own profit and for the pur- 

 poses of commerce with the world; that she car- 

 ried on, cherished, and protected this industry 

 by all necessary means, whether on land or at 



1 Post, p. 201. 



