January 7, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



19 



were placed in the hands of the Secretary of 

 Commerce and Labor: 



Recommendations. — Agreed on by the Ad- 

 visory Board Fur-Seal Service (Dr. David 

 Starr Jordan, chairman; Dr. Leonhard Stej- 

 neger, Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, Mr. Edwin A. 

 Sims and Dr. Charles H. Townsend), in con- 

 ference with the Fur-Seal Board (Dr. Barton 

 Warren Evermann, chairman; Mr. Walter I. 

 Lembkey and Mr. Millard C. Marsh), the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries (Hon. Geo. M. 

 Bowers), the Deputy Commissioner of Fish- 

 eries (Dr. Hugh M. Smith), Assistant Fur- 

 Seal Agent, H. D. Chichester, and Special 

 Scientific Expert, Mr. Geo. A. Clark, at a 

 meeting held at the Bureau of Fisheries, No- 

 vember 23, 1909, all the above-mentioned per- 

 sons being present, and the action on each 

 recommendation being unanimous. 



1. It is recommended that the agent in 

 charge, fur-seal service, shall, under the direc- 

 tion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 

 have full power to limit or restrict the killing 

 of fur-seals and blue foxes on the Pribilof Is- 

 lands to any extent necessary and that no 

 specified quota be indicated in the lease. 



2. It is recommended that, for the present, 

 no fur-seal skin weighing more than 8^ 

 pounds or less than 5 pounds shall be taken, 

 and that not more than 95 per cent, of the 

 three-year-old male seals be killed in any one 

 year. 



3. It is recommended that there be adopted 

 a system of regulations similar to those in 

 force on the Commander Islands, the govern- 

 ment to assume entire control in all essential 

 matters pertaining to the fur-seals, blue foxes, 

 natives and the islands in general, and the 

 lessee to be restricted to the receiving, curing 

 and shipping of the skins taken. 



4. It is recommended that there shall be 

 added to the personnel of the fur-seal service 

 a chief naturalist who shall have charge of aU 

 matters pertaining to the investigation, study 

 and management of the fur-seal herd, the 

 blue foxes, and all other life on the islands, 

 and who shall give advice to the agent in 

 charge regarding the number of seals and 

 foxes to be killed each season. The chief nat- 



uralist should be a man of recognized stand- 

 ing and experience, and his salary should be 

 not less than $3,000. 



It is also recommended that there be at 

 least one assistant naturalist whose salary 

 should not be less than $1,800. 



5. It is recommended that the agent in 

 charge shall have control of all administrative 

 matters, and in case of a difference of opin- 

 ion between the chief naturalist and the 

 agent in charge, the decision of the latter shall 

 govern, pending an appeal to the Secretary of 

 Commerce and Labor. 



6. It is recommended that there be arranged 

 a conference of scientific men and diplomats 

 of Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Russia and 

 the United States, for consideration of the 

 question of pelagic sealing as well as of an 

 international game law to protect whales, 

 walrus, sea-otter and other mammals of the 

 sea, the agreement reached by these nations 

 to be submitted to the other maritime nations 

 for their concurrence. 



In addition to the above, the conference 

 unanimously adopted the following resolution : 



Resolved, That we thoroughly approve of 

 the sentiments set forth in the letter of the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries, dated ISTovember 

 17, 1909, addressed to the honorable. The Sec- 

 retary of Commerce and Labor, in which was 

 urged the necessity of early action which will 

 result in the stopping of pelagic sealing. 



THE EU8ER ASIATIC EXPEDITION 

 On December 29 Mr. C. William Beebe, 

 Curator of Birds in the New York Zoological 

 Park, sailed on the Lusitania for London, ac- 

 companied by Mrs. Beebe. Mr. Bruce Hors- 

 fall, artist, will follow on a later steamer. 

 After several weeks' study of the pheasants in 

 the British Museum, Mr. Beebe will proceed 

 direct to Ceylon and India, where field studies 

 will be made of the wild pheasants and jungle 

 fowl. The object of the expedition is to obtain 

 data, both written, photographed and painted, 

 concerning the ecology of the Phasianidse. 

 The tentative itinerary includes the Hima- 

 layas, Burma, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Cochin 

 China, Palawan, Formosa, eastern China and 



