APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 433 
may be safely left out of view while the grounds are set forth upon which this 
Government rests its justification for the action complained of by Her Majesty’s 
Government. 
It cannot be unknown to Her Majesty’s Government that one of the most valuable 
sources of revenue from the Alaskan possessions is the fur-seal fisheries of the Beh- 
ring’s Sea. These fisheries had been exclusively controlled by the Government ot 
Russia, without interference and without question, from their original discovery 
unti! the cession of Alaska to the United States in 1867. From 1867 to 1886 the pos- 
session, in which Russia had been undisturbed, was enjoyed by this Government 
also. There was no interruption and no intrusion from any source. Vessels from 
other nations passing from time to time through Behring’s Sea to the Arctic Ocean 
in pursuit of whales had always abstained from taking part i in the capture of seals. 
This uniform avoidance of all attempts to take fur seal in those waters had been 
a constant recognition of the right held and exercised first by Russia, and subse- 
quently by this Government. It has also been the recognition of a fact now held 
beyond denial or doubt, that the taking of seals in the open sea rapidly leads to 
their extinction. 
This is not only the well-known opinion of experts, both British and American, 
based upon prolonged obser\ation and investigation, but the fact had also been 
demonstrated in a wide sense by the well-nigh total destruction of all seal fisheries 
except the one in the Behring’s Sea which the Government of the United States is 
now striving to preserve, not altogether for the use of the American people, but for 
the use of the world at lar ge. 
The killing of seals in the open sea involves the destruction of the female in com- 
mon with themale. The slaughter of a female seal is reckoned as an immediate loss 
of three seals, besides the future loss of the whole number which the bearing seal 
may produce in the successive years of life. ‘The destruction which results from kill- 
ing seals in the cpen sea proceeds, therefore, by a ratio which constantly and 
397 rapidly increases, and insures the total extermination of the species within a 
very brief period. It has thus become known that the only proper time for the 
slaughter of seals is at the season when they betake themselves to the land, because 
the land is the only place where the necessary discrimination can be made as to the 
age and sex of the seal. It would seem then, by fair reasoning, that nations not 
possessing the territory upon which seals can increase their numbers by natural 
growth, and thus afford an annual supply of skins for the use of mankind, should 
refrain from the slaughter in open sea, where the destruction of the species is sure 
and swift. 
After the acquisition of Alaska, the Government of the United States, through com- 
petent agents, working under the direction of the best experts, gave careful atten- 
tion to the improvement of the seal fisheries. Proceeding by a close obedience to 
the laws of nature, and rigidly limiting the number to be annually slaughtered, the 
Government succeeded in increasing the total number of seals, and adding corre- 
spondingly and largely to the value of the fisheries. In the course of a few years of 
intelligent and interesting experiment, the number that could be safely slaughtered 
was fixed at 100,000 annually. The Company to which the administration of the fish- 
eries was intrusted by a lease from this Government has paid a rental of 50,000 dol- 
lars per annum, and, in addition thereto, 2 dol. 624 ¢. per skin for the total number 
taken. The skins were regularly transported to London to be dressed and prepared 
for the markets of the world, and the business had grown so large that the earnings 
of English labourers, since Alaska was transferred to the United States, amounts in 
the aggregate to more than 12,000,000 dollars. 
The entire business was thus conducted peacefully, lawfully, and profitably; profit- 
ably to the United States, for the rental was yielding a moderate interest on the 
large sum which this Government had paid for Alaska, including the rights now at 
issue; profitably to the Alaskan Company, which, under Governmental direction and 
restriction, had given unwearied pains to the care and development of the fisheries; 
profitably to the Aleuts, who were receiving a fair pecuniary reward for their 
labours, and were elevated from semi-sayagery to civilization, and to the enjoyment 
of schools and churches provided for their benefit by the Government of the United 
States; and, last of all, profitably to a large body of English labourers who had 
constant employment and received good wages. 
This, in brief, was the condition of the Alaska fur-seal fisheries down to the year 
1886. The precedents, customs, and rights had been established and enjoyed either 
by Russia or the United States for nearly a century. The two nations were the only 
Powers that owned a foot of land on the continents that bordered, or on the islands 
included within, the Behring’s waters where the seals resort to breed. Into this 
peaceful and secluded field of labour, whose benefits were so equitably shared by 
the native Aleuts of the Pribyloff Islands, by the United States, and by England, 
certain Canadian vessels in 1886 asserted their right to enter and, by their ruthless 
course, to destroy the fisheries, and with them to destroy also the resulting indus- 
BS, PT V: 28 
