X FUK-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



These are " the limits of Alaska Territory," as laid down in the treaty, 

 our title deed ; the boundary of the territory referred to in the act ap- 

 propriating the purchase-money, and repeated in section 195G, Revised 

 Statutes, which prohibits the killing of fur seals '^ within the limits of 

 Alaska Territory." 



It seems clear to the committee that the act prohibiting the killing 

 of fur seals '' within the limits of Alaska Territory " was intended to 

 apply to all the acquired territory, laud and water, embraced within 

 " tbe limits " specified in the treaty of cession, just as the laws relating 

 to customs, commerce, and navigation, and to trade aud commerce witli 

 the Indian tribes were, by the acts just referred 'to, extended over "all 

 the main-land, islands, and waters of the territory ceded to the United 

 States" by the Emperor of Russia. 



The Territory of Alaska consists of laud and water. Exclusive of 

 its lakes, rivers, harbors, and inlets, tbere is a large area of marine ter- 

 ritory which lies outside of the 3-mile limit from the shore, but is within 

 the boundary lines of the territory transferred by Russia to the United 

 States. 



The rivers, lakes, harbors, and inlets, as well as the 3-mile belt of 

 water contiguous to the shore, are part of the territory of the United 

 States, and come under the operation of their laws witliout being spe- 

 cially named; and if the statutes extending the laws of the United 

 States over Alaska had omitted the word " waters," and had used the 

 words " main-laud and islands of the territory ceded," instead of the 

 phrase " main-laud, islands, and waters " of the territory ceded, there is 

 no question but that the lakes, rivers, harbors, inlets, and the 3mile 

 belt would have been included as part of the territory of the United 

 States. 



While it is true that an act of Congress relating to Alaska or any 

 other Territory applies to its entire area, yet, in this case, out of abun'^- 

 daut caution, and in order that there might be no room for doubt or 

 question, the law-makers used the words " all the main-land, islands, and 

 waters," having direct reference to the large area of marine territory 

 on the west, which Mr. Sumner, speaking for the treaty, told the Sen- 

 ate was *' our part of Bering Sea." 



National territory consists of water as well as laud. (Halleck's International 

 Law, section -13,) 



The object of the act of July 1, 1870, was (as expressed in the title) 

 " to prevent the extermination of fur-bearing animals in Alaska," and 

 the title would be a misnomer if its operation were restricted to the 

 main-land, islands, and the 3-mile belt of water. 



When this act was passed it was known to Congress that the Priby- 

 lov group of islands were the only seal islands in Alaska, and that there 

 were not only no other seal rookeries in Alaska, but that there was no 

 other place in the Territory, on the main-land, or on any other island 

 where fur seals haul up or are ever to be found, except in the waters of 

 Bering Sea; therefore the only places where they could be killed in 

 Alaska were on the seal islands and in the waters of Bering Sea, and 

 the prohibition necessarily applies to those two localities ; for it would 

 be idle to prohibit seal-killing in localities where these animals are 

 never to be found. By the same act the Secretary of the Treasury M^as 

 directed to lease the privilege of taking fur seals for their skins on said 

 islands at a fixed tax and rental for a period of twenty years, thereby 

 removing the prohibition as to one of the localities frequented by these 

 animals, viz, the islands of St. Paul and St. George, and leaving the 



