RAIDS ON THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 189 



1. Without a special permit or license from the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, foreign 

 vessels are not allowed to carry on trading, hunting, fishing, etc., on the Russian coast or islands in 

 the Okhotsk and Bering Seas or on the northeastern coast of Asia, or within their sea-boundary line. 



2. For such permits or licenses foreign vessels should apply to Vladivostok, exclusively. 



3. In the port of Petropaulovsk, though being the only port of entry in Kamtchatka. such 

 permits or licenses shall not be issued. 



4. No permits or licenses whatever shall be issued for hunting, fishing, or trading at or on the 

 Commodore or Robben islands. 



5. Foreign vessels found trading, fishing, hunting, etc., in Russian waters without a license or 

 permit from the Governor-General, and also those possessing a license or permit who may infringe the 

 existing by-laws on hunting, shall be confiscated, both vessels and cargoes, for the benefit of the. 

 Government. This enactment shall be enforced henceforth, commencing with A. D. 1882. 



6. The enforcement of the above will be intrusted to Russian men-of-war, and also to Russian 

 merchant vessels, which for that purpose will carry military detachments and be provided with 

 proper instructions. 



(Signed) A. Pelikan, 



His Imperial Bussian Majesty's Consul. 

 Yokohama, November 15, 1881. 



This proclamation was distributed to all outgoing vessels, and evidently had 

 some effect, as the raids during the years following fell off very considerably. A few 

 skippers, more desperate than the others, however, were still taking chances. Thus, 

 on August 12, 1883, the schooner Otome, of Yokohama, with a Japanese crew, but 

 European officers, raided the North Eookery on Bering Island, though with disastrous 

 results. After having tried the watchfulness of the natives during dark and foggy 

 nights for more than two weeks, three boats were sent ashore from the Otome on the 

 12th of August after dark. At Tizikof, the southern extremity of the rookery, about 

 350 bachelor seals were clubbed, and the skinning was already far advanced when 

 the natives crept up to the pirates and captured the mate. The next morning the 

 schooner was seized by Mr. Grebnitski on board the steamer Aleksander II. The 

 Otome was finally taken to Vladivostok and condemned. The captain was charged 

 with piracy, but Mr. Snow, who had passage in the schooner, was allowed to go, as 

 there was no proof of his connection wi|}h the affair as owner or supercargo. 



The fact that the proclamation did not entirely stop the raiding, induced the 

 Russian authorities in 1884 to station a detachment of soldiers on the islands for their 

 protection, as related elsewhere in this report, and the schooner Saghalien, raiding the 

 South Eookery on Bering Island, fell the first victim to the regulars. She had 216 skins. 



But even the presence of the soldiery could not deter the more daring of the 

 raiders. Thus, in 1885, the Nemo secured 278 seals on Bering Island, according to 

 Captain Snow's own statement, but when in the same vessel he tried to raid the 

 Copper Island sea-otter rookery in 1888, it nearly cost him his life. (Fur Seal Arb. II, 



p. 188.) 



The captains of most of the schooners were becoming wary, however, and, to 

 avoid being captured within the 3-mile limit of the territorial waters, adopted the 

 tactics of keeping some distance at sea, only sending their boats or canoes to kill the 

 seals on or oif the rookeries, as the case might be. 



The first schooner caught in this practice seems to have been the British vessel 

 Araunah, Captain Siewerd, which was seized off Copper Island on July 1, 1888, by 

 Grebnitski, in the AleJcsander II. The significant point was that while the schooner 

 itself was not nearer than 6 miles, two of its canoes were hunting seals within half a 



