APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 281 
to submit a Report as to the proceedings in the House which took 
place in regard to it, on account of its connection with the Act passed 
on the 2nd March for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 
The first section of Mr. Dunn’s Bill related to the leasing to any per- 
son or Company, by the Secretary of the Treasury, of the right to take 
fur-seals on certain islands. 
The second section extended to all the waters of Behring’s Sea. The 
prohibition contained in section 1956 of the Revised Statutes to kill 
fur-bearing animals (except to those authorized), and calls on the Presi- 
dent to issue a Proclamation every year warning all persons against 
entering the waters of the Behring’s Sea for that purpose; and to cause 
vessels of the United States to police those waters, to arrest all found 
in such illegal hunting, and to seize their vessels, We. 
The other sections referred to the protection of salmon in Alaska 
waters. 
The Bill was referred to the Committee on Merchant Marine and 
Fisheries, and reported back by Mr. Dunn. The Report, copy of which 
is herewith inclosed, is most interesting, and gives the result of inves- 
tigation into the subject of the fur-seal fisheries of Alaska, and of the 
leases granted by the Government to persons or Companies for the 
rights of taking fur-bearing animals in those parts, We. 
Mr. Dunn opened the discussion on the Bill by reviewing the rights 
of the United States in the waters of Alaska, which were acquired by 
the Treaty with Russia in 1867. Every right, every privilege, every 
immunity which, he said, Russia had had in the territory of Alaska, the 
United States now have. Chief among the interests acquired by the 
United States by their purchase from Russia was the seal rookery of 
the Pribyloff Islands. 
He then went on to give an account of the lease held by the 
253 Alaska Commercial Company of the amount of seals allowed to 
be killed under its provisions, and of the amount of revenues 
obtained by the United States from this territorial acquisition. 
It was most important, he said, that the seas should be patrolled by 
United States vessels. and that unlawful hunters should know that if 
found they will be arrested and their vessels seized. 
Several vessels had thus been seized last season, the legality of the 
seizure being contested on the grounds that the United States Govern- 
ment had no jurisdiction over that sea. The Courts had sustained the 
right of jurisdiction of the Government over the sea, and their right 
to protect the fisheries. If there had been any leniency in releasing 
the seized vessels on the part of the Executive, it was pending some 
negotiations about the Eastern Fisheries question. 
However, in no case have the rights of the United States been 
waived. The State Department has taken no decision conceding that 
the Behring’s Sea is an open sea. The Committee have been satisfied 
that the policing of the sea must be more rigid, and that no indulgence 
must be shown to violators of the law. The existence of the inhabit- 
ants of the Aleutian Islands and of other parts in the United States 
possessions in those latitudes depends on the continuation of the legit- 
imate killing of seals. They get all their means of existence from those 
employed in it. The Committee have therefore considered it advisable 
that the President should issue a Proclamation yearly, warning all per- 
sons from entering Behring’s Sea with the intention of violating the 
existing laws; and, moreover, he should be called upon to see to the 
closer patrolling of that sea. 
