THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
127 
Wise by experience, tlie sealing tleet kept pretty well outside tbe 30-inile zone, 
though the followi::g seizures of British vessels were made: 
(1) Minnie, of Victoria, British Columbia, seized by the Yakut, duly 17, 21 miles 
southeast of Copper Island. 
(2) Ainoko, of Victoria, British Columbia, seized by the Yakut, July 22, IG miles 
south of Copper Island. 
(3) Maud S., of Victoria, British Columbia, seized by tlie Yakut, August 29, 22 
miles southwest of Copiier Island. 
(4) Arctic, of Shanghai, seized by the Zahiaka within the 30-mile zone. 
Of these, only tlie Minnie was afterwards condemned. 
The provisional agreement as given above was renewed in 1894 and 1895 for 
those years. Owing to the threatening political aspects, as a consequence of the 
Japanese-Chiuese war, the Eussian Government had only one ship patrolling the 
30-mile limit in 1895. The British cruiser Caroline did patrol duty early in the season, 
and was relieved by the Porpoise, Captain Francis E. Felly, commanding. No seizures 
were made in that year. 
As schooners flying the flag of the United States were also among the fleet 
preying upon the Commander Islands herd, it was found necessary to establish a 
modus vivendi with the United States similar to the provisional agreement with Great 
Britain. An arrangement, differing only in a few verbal changes from the latter, was 
drawn up by the Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Giers, and signed in Wash- 
ington by the representatives of the respective governments on May 4, 1894. The 
exact text of this arrangement, which “■ shall only be in force until further orders,” 
is found in Executive Document No. G7, Senate, Fifty-third Congress, third session, 
being the President’s Message regarding the Enforcement of Eegulations respecting 
Fur Seals, p. 82. 
The Twenty-seventh Annual Eeport of the Canadian Department of Fisheries 
contains an account of the Canadian pelagic sealing operations on the Asiatic side 
during 1894, by Mr. E. N. Venning, from which we quote the following abstracts: 
The vessels this year operating in the vicinity of the Russian Seal Islands are rej)orted to have 
kept well outside the protective zone, principally working al)ont 100 miles southeast of Copper Island. 
As a consequence, the present year’s oiierations are marked hy an almost total absence of interference 
with the Canadian fleet l>y Russian authorities. 
The only instance reported is that of a sealing boat of the schooner Afai/ Belle, of Victoria, B. C., 
manned by .Toseph Morrell, Ch.arles K. Leclaire, and James Costin, which lost the vessel in a fog, and 
after remaining out all night and failing to find the schooner on the following morning, the occupants, 
fearing a storm which was threatening, made for the shore of Copper Island for shelter. They were 
discovered and arrested before landing. 
The boat and her equipment were retained at Copper Island and the three men were taken to 
Petropaulovski, on the mainland of Kamchatka, where, after a detention of 32 days, they were 
handed over to Her Majesty’s ship Daphne, taken to Yokohama, Japan, and delivered to Her Majesty’s 
consul at that port. 
They were imprisoned, Imt released some four hours later, and infonued by the consul that the 
charge against them was not suflicieut for their detention. They were accordingly sent by Her 
Majesty’s consul to Victoria, B. C., by Chuadian Pacific Railway steamship, Avhere they arrived on 
the 20th November, 1894. 
Claims for damages have been filed by the x'arties and by the owners of the sealing boat, and 
representations have been made to Her Majesty’s government on the subject. 
