THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
121 
3. Ill the port of Petropanlovsk, though being the only port of entry in Kaintchatka, sneli per- 
mits or licenses shall nod be issued. 
4. No permits or licenses whatever shall be issued for hnuting, tishing, or trading at or on the 
Commodore or Roiiben Islands. 
5. Foreign vessels funnd trading, iishing, 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 Ijy-laws on hunting, shall bo conlisrated, both vessels and cargoes, for the beneiit of the 
Government. This enactment shall be enforced henceforth, commencing with A. D. 1882. 
(1. The enforcement of the above will be intrusteil to Russian men-of-war, and also to Russian 
merchant vessels, which for that ]>urpose will carry military deta.chments and be provided with ]iroper 
instructions. 
(.Signed) A. Pelikan, 
His Imperial Ilussian Majesty’s Consul. 
Yokohama, November 15, 1881. 
This p»rochuaatiou was distributed to all outgoing vessels, aud evidently bad 
some eftect, as tbe raids during the years following fell off veiy considerably. A few 
skippers, more desperate than the others, however, ivere still taking chances. Thus, 
on August 12, 1882, the schooner Otome, of Yokohama, witli a Japanese erew, but 
European officers, raided the North llookery 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 
J2th of August after dark. AkKisikof, tlie southern extremity of the rookery, about 
350 bachelor seals were clubbed, and the skinning was already far advanced Avhen 
the natives crept ui> to the pirates and captured the mate; the next morning the 
schooner was seized by Mr. Grebuitski on board the steamer Alelcsander II. The 
Otome was finally taken to Vladivostok and condemned. The captain was charged 
Avith piracy, but j\lr. Snow, who had passage in the schooner, was allowed to go, as 
there tvas no proof of his connection with the affair as owner or supercargo. 
The fact that the proclamation did not entirely stop the raiding, induced the 
Kussian authoiities in 1884 to station a detachment of soldiers on the islands for their 
lirotection, as related elsewhere in this report, and the schooner SalhaUeii, raiding the 
South llookery on Bering Island, fell the first virtim to the regulars. 
The captains of the schooners were becoming wary, and, to avoid being captured 
within the 3-mile limit of tlie territorial Avaters, adoi>ted the tactics of keeping some 
distance at sea, only sending their boats or canoes to kill the seals on or olf the rook(*ries, 
as the case might be. 
The flrst schooner caught in this practice seems to have been the British vessel 
Araunah, Captain Siewerd, Avhich was seized off' Copper Island on July 1, 1888, by 
Grebuitski, in the Alelcsander II. The significant poiiit Avas that Avhile the schooner 
itself was not nearer than G miles, tAvo of its canoes Avere hunting seals within half a 
mile of the shore, and, in spite of the diplomatic remonstrances by Great Britain, IMr. 
Grebuitski was fully sustained by Mr. Giers, the Eussian minister for foreign affairs, 
in his letter of August IG, 1889. HoweAmr, although caught as a raider, the, Araunah 
was in reality a regular pelagic sealer from British Columbia, with Indian hunters 
and Indian canoes. 
