276 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
and 5 of the House Bill, prohibiting the erection of dams or other obstructions in 
the rivers of Alaska which prevent the salmon from ascending to their spawning 
rounds. 
. The Speaker.—Is there objection to the present consideration of the Bill? 
There was no objection. 
Mr. Dunn.—I ofter an amendment which relates also to the preservation of the 
herd of seals, and I ask the previous question upon the Bill and amendment. 
Mr. Biggs.—I reserve the right to object. 
The Speaker.—The amendment will be read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 
“Section 3. That section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States was 
intended to include and apply, and is hereby declared to include and apply, to all 
the waters of Behring’s Sea in Alaska embraced within the boundary lines 
248 mentioned and described in the Treaty with Russia, dated the 30th March, 
A. D. 1867, by which the Territory of Alaska was ceded to the United States; 
and it shall be the duty of the President, at a timely season in each year, to issue 
his Proclamation, and cause the saine to be published for one month in at least one 
newspaper published at each United States port of entry on the Pacific coast, 
warning all persons against entering said territory and waters for the purpose of 
violating the provisions of said section; and he shall also cause one or more vessels 
of the United States to diligently cruize said waters, and arrest all persons and 
seize all vessels found to be, or to have been, engaged in any violation of the Laws 
of the United States therein.” 
Mr. Taulbee.—I would like to ask the gentleman, in the light of his explanation, 
the necessity for this Resolution at this time. 
Mr. Dunn.—The necessity is that the general Bill, reported by the Committee to 
the House, has been reconmitted for the purpose of considering certain amendments 
relating to the rele tting of the lease and tLe length of its term in future, and in the 
present condition of the House, it is not at all “probable that it will receive final 
consideration in time to pass the Senate. This amendment simply provides for the 
protection to the herd of seals and the salinon until there can be further levislation 
of a permanent character. 
Mr. Taulbee.—Does it have the effect of sending up the vessels named in this 
amendment as patrols to protect the Company which already has the control of that 
business? 
Mr. at all. It is to protect the herd of seals and enforce the Laws of 
the United Sti tes which were enacted in 1870. 
Mr. Taulbee.— Why can not the President do that by existing law? 
Mr. Dunn.—There has been a relaxation of the enforcement of the Law heretofore, 
so that unauthorized persons have concluded that the Government does not intend 
to enforce the Law, and not less that 150 vessels are to-day fitting out to go to Beh- 
ring’s Sea. They will literally cover that sea with unlawful seal-hunters armed 
with guns, and the destruction of seal-life that will take place, and the fusilade of 
fire-arms that will occur in that sea during four months of next summer will drive 
every seal from it that is not killed in the general and indiscriminate slaughter. 
It does not change the Law, but commands the President of the United States to 
enforce it. 
Mr. Buchanan.—And is not this method of getting seals—by shooting them in the 
open sea—the most wasteful method that could be devised, only about one in five 
being recovered? 
Mr. Dunn.—About one out of seven is recovered. The time has come when the 
Government must enforce the Laws for the preservation of our herd of seals with 
firmness and decision, or suffer an absolute destruction of the herd. The danger is 
imminent, and [ hope no gentleman will object to it. It does not involve a dollar of 
expenditure. 
It is useless to protect the seals on the rookeries—the islands of St. Paul and St. 
George—and leave them to their fate in the waters of Behring’s Sea. If they are 
left without protection in the sea, there will soon be none left to go to the rookeries. 
(Cries of “Vote!” ‘‘ Vote!”’) 
The amendment was agreed to. 
The Bill as amended was ordered to a third reading; and it was accordingly read 
the third time, and passed. 
Mr. Dunn moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also 
moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the ‘lable. 
The latter motion was agreed to. 
