322 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Article 2. Any perBon engaging in liunting seals and sea otters shall, on arrival in Hokkaido 

 report the name and tonnage of his vessel and the names of her crew to the branch office named by 

 the Hokkaido Cho, and shall at all times exhibit, fixed to the mast or some other conspicuous part of 

 the vessel, a sign specially adopted by the Hokkaido Cho for vessels engaged in hunting seals and sea 

 otters. 



Article 3. Any person desiring to sell the raw skins of seals and sea otters shall produce the 

 same to and have them stamped (or branded) by the branch office mentioned in article 2. No skins 

 without this official stamp shall be permitted to be sold. 



Article 4. Whenever it is found that any person is importing raw skins of seals and sea otters 

 not stamped as provided in the foregoing article, into, or is staying with such skins on board his 

 vessel in any port of the Empire, or is selling, or attempting to sell such skins in the market, the 

 customs or police officers shall seize the same and shall immediately make complaint to the competent 

 authorities, provided, however, that raw skins of seals and sea otters caught within the territory of 

 Russia, or of the United States of America, with the permission of the Governments of those countries, 

 respectively, may be imported into the Empire, upon the owner or master of the vessel producing a 

 certificate issued by a competent authority of the Russia or the United States, or by a Russian or 

 United States consul residing in the Empire. 



Notification No. 35, May 10, 2Ut year of Meiji {1888), {promulgated hy the Hokkaido Cho). 

 details of procedijkb to carry out the regulations controlling the seal and sea ottek 



HUNTING. 



Article 1. The open season for seal and sea otter hunting shall he from the 15th April to the 

 31st October in each year. 



Article 2. The area of huuting shall be all the islands situated eastward of Iturup, and 

 southward of Shimshu, of the Kurils, and it will be divided into three sections, and every year only 

 one of these sections shall be opened for hunting. 



The first section includes seven islands, i. e., Iturup, Chirihoi, Butettchelboa ( ?), Broughton, 

 Raikoke, Mushir, and Chirinkotan. 



The second section includes six islands, i. e., Shimishir, Shiritoi, Ushishir, Sredneva, Rashua, and 

 Matsua. 



The third section includes twelve islands, i. e , Shaunekotan, Yekarma, Karrenkotan, Onekotan, 

 Avos, Makanrushi, Shurenwa (?), Paramnshir, Holt, Cocksar, Alaid, and Shimshu. 



Article 3. When a vessel is going out for hunting, her name, tonnage, and the names of her 

 crew shall be reported for inspection to the branch office of seal and sea otter hunting superintending 

 authorities, either at Nemuro, in the county of Nemuro, or at Shikotan, in the county of Chishivna. 



Article 4. When the branch office of seal and sea otter hunting superintending authorities find 

 the report mentioned in article 3 in due form on inspection, it will give to the vessel a flag as 

 hereinafter shown. 



Article 5. Any person who wishes to export and sell the raw skins of his catch shall produce 

 them to the Shikotan branch of the seal and sea otter hunting superintending authorities, and shall 

 have them stamped. 



It will be seen how utterly unsuitable these regulations were for the protection of 

 the fur seals, however effective they might have been in preserving the sea otter, had 

 they been carried out at all, but we are assured that they never were. M. de Bunsen, 

 secretary of the British legation at Tokyo, wrote in November, 1891 (Fur Seal Arb., 

 VI, p. 236), that these regulations "have remained entirely inoperative." ''A Japanese 

 guardshipwas told off this year to watch over their observance, but she never left her 

 station at li^^emuro, and except the Japanese Marine Products Company, now rapidly 

 approaching bankruptcy, no one dreams of applying for the regulation license, or of 

 limiting his operations to the group in which the fishery is legally permissible." 



This supineness of the Japanese authorities is the more surprising since we are 

 credibly informed that one of the chief raiders of the Kuril rookeries, before they 



