490 APPENDIX TO COUNTER- CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



No. 2. 

 Mr. Macoun to the Earl of Rosebery. 



roREiGN Office, January 14, 1893. 



My Lord: I have the honour to report to your Lordship that, in 

 accordance with instructions contained in a letter dated the 13th May, 

 addressed to me by the Marquis of Sahsbury, I, on the 5th June, 1892, 

 embarked on Her Majesty's ship " Nymphe" at Victoria, British Cohim- 

 bia, and proceeded to Unalaska. I at that place joined Her Majesty's 

 ship "Melpomene," and was taken to St. Paul Island, one of the Priby- 

 loif group, where I landed on the 30th June. 



In accordance with Article IV of the Convention between Great 

 Britain and the United States of America, permission to land on the 

 islands had been sent me by the Secretary of the Treasury Department 

 of the United States. Quarters were assigned me in the house occu- 

 pied by the agents of the North American Commercial Company, and 

 during my stay on the Pribyloff Islands both the agents of the United 

 States Government and of the Company gave me much valuable infor- 

 mation and assisted me in many ways in the ju^osecution of my work. 



During the months of July and August several short cruizes 

 135 were made by me on Her Majesty's ships "Melpomene" and 

 "Daphne" either between St. Paul and St. George Islands, or 

 between these islands and Unalaska, and one cruize of a week was 

 made for the especial ])urpose of studying the habits of seals at sea; 

 but the greater part of these two months was spent on the Pribyloff 

 Islands in studying the habits of the seals and in making observations 

 and inquiries upon jioints upon which further information was required 

 for the preparation of the British Case in the Behring Sea Arbitration. 



The last week of August and first weeks of September were spent in 

 a cruize to the westward on Her Majesty's ship " Meliiomene," during 

 which I visited the Commander Islands and procured information to 

 supplement that obtained by the British Commissioners in 1891. 



After another visit to St. Paul Island in September I returned to 

 Victoria, reaching that place on the 25th September. 



Before leaving the Pribyloff Islands the Special Agents of the United 

 States Treasury Department prepared for me Tables showing the num- 

 ber of seals that had up to the date of my departure been killed for 

 natives' food. These Tables I have the honour to inclose for your 

 Lordship's information. 



During the whole season it was important that when the work had 

 been done in one place I should be at once conveyed to another, and 

 though Captain A. Chase Parr, Her Majesty's ship "Melpomene," the 

 Senior Ofhcer detailed for seivice in Behring Sea, had no definite 

 nstructions to that effect, he was good enough to consult my wishes 

 on this and other nnitters, and arranged that there should be at no 

 time any delay. Without his active co-operation much valuable infor- 

 mation would have been lost, and it wouhl have been impossible to 

 carry out my instructions as fully as I was enabled to do. Whatever 

 success may have attended my inquiries is due in great measure to 

 the assistance rendered me by Captain Parr. 



In regard to the inquiries I was instructed to make, I have the 

 honour to transmit my Eeport herewith for your Lordship's information. 



I have, &c. 



(Signed) Jas. M. Macoun. 



