MANAGEMENT. 65 



MANAGEMENT OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS AS THE AL- 

 LEGED CAUSE OF THE DECEEASE OF THE ALASKAN 

 SEAL HEED. 



The British Commissioners at several places in The methods ad- 



1 nutted to be al- 



their Report admit that the regulations in force most P evfect » 

 and the methods employed in taking- seals on the 

 Pribilof Islands are the best that could have been 

 adopted, having been founded on the long expe- 

 rience of the Russian Government after nearly 

 a century of occupation (see Sees. 659, 676). 

 The Report further states that "from a tran- 

 scendental point of view the methods proposed 

 were appropriate, and even perfect, but in prac- 

 tical execution, and as judged by the results of 

 a series of years, they proved to be faulty and 

 injurious" (Sec. 662). It is, therefore, not the 

 methods, but the manner of their execution, which 

 is the subject of criticism by the Commissioners. 

 Other than this general charge of faulty execu- Excessive kill 

 tion, the one variation from the Russian methods 

 made by the United States which is disapproved 

 of in the Report is the number of seals allowed 

 to be taken (Sec. 659). 



In establishing their assertion that the number rroof mnst ho 



° limited to penod 



of seals annually killed on the Islands was excess- 187 °- 1880 ' 

 ive, it is insisted by the United States that the 

 Commissioners should be confined to the first 

 decade of the lease of the Pribilof Islands to tho 

 Alaska Commercial Company (1871-1880), be- 

 12364 5 



