288 CHAPTER XVI. 



Management of the FribyJoff Islands by Russia and hy tlie United 



States — (continued). 



INADEQUACY OF PROTECTION: RAIDS. 



The United States Contentions. 



(1.) United States Case, p. 174— 



"Raids upon the rookeries, or the unlawful killing of seals on the islands hy unau- 

 thorized persons, though injurious to seal life, have played no important part in 

 the history of the rookeries, and the few thousand skins thus secured never 

 affected thie number of the seal herd to any extent." 



(2.) United States Case, pp. 174, 175— 



"The 'raid theory,' therefore, may he dismissed as unworthy .... of seri- 

 ous consideration. .... If other raids had taken place besides these, the 

 fact would have certainly been known on the islands." 



(3.) United States Case, p. 175— 

 "A further evidence of the infrequency of such marauding is further shown by 

 the affidavit of Mr. Max Heilbronuer, Secretary of the Alaska Commercial Com- 

 pany, as compiled from the records of said company, and the statement compiled 

 by the Treasury Department from the reports of their agents during American 

 occupation, there being but sixteen such invasions reported. If other raids had 

 taken place besides these, the fact would have certaiuly have been seen on the 

 breeding-grounds in the shape of dead carcasses of pups and other seals." 



Summary of British Reply. 



The protection of the Pribyloif Islands against the operations of " raiders," unlaw- 

 fully killing seals upon the islands, has been inadequate, if not wholly inef- 

 ficient; and the consequent damage to seal life upon these islands has been very 

 great. 



The Reports of Agents, whether those of the Government or the Company leasing 

 the islands, are practically unanimous to this effect. Thoifgh vessels were known, 

 Jit least as early as 1873, to be engaged in raids, no Government vessel was sent 

 to protect the islands from raids till 1877; and, thereafter, as lately as 1888, it is 

 shown that a single vessel was charged with the whole patrol duty in Behring 

 Sea, and that this vessel spent most of the time hundreds of miles to the north 

 of the Pribyloif Islands, looking after the whaling interests. 



The Pribyloif Islands have throughout been utterly defenceless, and Captain Abbey, 

 U. S. R. M., reported in 1886 that twenty men might carrv away the whole catch 

 of seal-skins from the islands, and similar evidence exists of the inadequate pro- 

 tection of the rookeries iip to the year 1892. 



The defective knowledge as to the number and character of such "raids" possessed 

 by the Company leasing the islands and by the Government of the United States, 

 in itself affords proof of the insufficiency of protection. 



246 



