APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 851 
aid and assistance in our inquiries. But we speedily discovered that 
before the date of our arrival here (28th July), at the lowest estimate 
8,800 seals had been killed this season, and that it was in contemplation 
to kill at least several hundred more. 
We had understood especially from Mr. Wharton’s letter to Sir J. 
Pauncefote of the 6th June, 1891, that the Agents of the Treasury 
Department had been instructed by order of the President to stop the 
killing when 7,500 seals had been taken, and that the Government of 
the United States had taken every precaution to insure the observation 
of the stipulation to limit the catch to 7,500. 
At St. Paul we were informed that the Treasury Agent had 
81 been instructed on the 27th May to keep the quota of skins taken 
by the Company under 7,500, and that en route to the islands he 
was advised by telegraph to interpret his instructions in accordance 
with the United States Proclamation. He arrived at the Pribyloff 
Islands on the 10th June, but the said Proclamation did not reach the 
islands until the 2nd July. In the meantime, we find that when the 
quota of 7,500 seals had been killed (by the 2Uth June), all killing for 
the Company was stopped. 
The Treasury Agent explained to us that he had much difficulty in 
interpreting the Proclamation when it arrived, as he received no sup- 
plementary instructions with it. After full consideration he decided to 
permit killing ‘for food” to continue apparently on the assumption 
that the limit of catch to 7,500 was to commence from the date of sign- 
ing the modus vivendi, that is on the 15th June. 
We have been informed that already 1,400 seals have been killed in 
excess of the above number as “food seals,” and that on the same 
assumption it is contemplated that perhaps 2,000 more will be killed 
this season. 
The agent has given orders that no killing shall take place during 
the coming “stagey” season (which lasts from the beginning of August 
until the end of October), the skins being then of little value, but 
he has explained that the killing would be again resumed after that 
interval. 
We may add that the skins killed for food become the property of the 
Lessee Company, and that therefore the total number of seals to be 
killed and placed to the credit of the Company during this season 
would exceed by 3,000, the 7,500 contemplated under the modus vivendi. 
We may observe that the market value of 7,500 skins would probably 
reach a total of 50,0001. The Lessee Company are bound to provide 
dwellings, church, school accommodation, and 100 tons of coal for the 
natives, and to support the widows and orphans and the aged and 
infirm, but they are under no legal obligation to furnish food for the 
inhabitants generally. We learned, however, that they have made 
every preparation to provide the necessary food, and that the whole 
expenditure on all counts until next spring would not exceed 5,000. 
We examined the stores on the two islands and found ample supplies 
for all demands of the coming winter. Whether the ultimate charge of 
feeding the natives will tall on the Government of the United States or 
on the Lessee Company, it is equally certain that in addition to the 
flesh of 7,500 seals, the value of their skins will far more than repay 
any expenditure incurred in default of the wages earned when the full 
quota of seals is killed. 
We feel it to be our duty, in view of the submission of the whole 
question to arbitration, to take the speediest means of drawing your 
Lordship’s attention to the manner in which we have found that clause 
