early as the year 1870, designed to protect the seal and other furbearing animals in Bering Sea and the other possessions recently acquired from Russia. At a later period, this statute, with others that had been subsequently passed, was revised, I think in the year 1873, when a general revision of the statutes of the United States was made. They were revised and made more stringent. It was made a criminal offense to kill any female seal; and the taking of any seals at all, except in pursuance of the authority of the United States and under such regulations as it might adopt, was made a criminal offense. Any vessel engaged in the taking of female seals in the waters of Alaska, according to the phrase used in the statute, was made liable to seizure and confiscation; and in this way, it was hoped and expected that the fur seals would be preserved in the future as completely as they had been in the past, and that this herd would continue to be still as productive as before, and if possible, made more productive. That system thus initiated by the United States in the year 1870 produced the same result as had followed the regulations established by Russia. The United States Government was enabled, even, to take a larger draft than Russia had prior to that time, made upon the herd. Russia had limited herself at an early period to the taking of somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 seals annually, not solely, perhaps, for the reason that no more could be safely taken from the herd, but also for the reason, as I gather from the evidence, that at that time, the demand for seals was not so great as to justify the putting of a larger number of skins upon the market.

At a later period of the occupation by Russia, her drafts were increased. At the time when the occupation was transferred to the United States, I think they amounted to somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 annually. The United States, as I say, took 100,000 from the beginning, and continued to make those annual drafts of 100,000 down to the year 1890. That is a period of something like nineteen years. The taking of this number of

100,000 did not, at first, appear to lead to any diminution in the numbers of the herd; and it was only in the year 1890, or a few years prior to that time, that a diminution in the numbers of the herd was first observed. This diminution was at that time attributed to causes of which I shall presently say something.

Such was the industry established by the United States. It was a very beneficial industry-beneficial, in the first instance, to herself. She had adopted the practice of leasing these islands upon long terms-twenty years to a private corporation; and those leases contained an obligation to pay a large annual sum in the shape of a revenue tax and a gross sum of some $60,000 as rent. In addition to that, the lessees were required by the terms of the lease to pay to the United States Government a certain sum upon every seal captured by them, which, of course, resulted in the enjoyment by the United States of a still larger revenue. It was beneficial to the lessees, for it is to be supposed, and such is the fact, that they were enabled to make a profit notwithstanding the large sums they were compelled to pay to the United States Government upon the seal skins secured by them. But while it was profitable to the United States and profitable to the lessees, I may say—and this is what at all times I wish to impress upon this Tribunal-it was still more important and beneficial to the world at large. The fur seal is one of the bounties of Providence, bestowed, as all the bounties of Providence are, upon mankind, in general, not for the benefit of this particular nation or that particular nation, but for the benefit of all; and all the benefit, of course, which mankind can get from that blessing is to secure the annual taking, use, and enjoyment of the increase of the animal. That is all they can obtain from it. If they seek to obtain more, it is an abuse of the blessing, involving destruction—necessary destruction—and they soon deprive themselves of the benefit altogether.

This, therefore, was the benefit to mankind which was made pos

sible, and which was enjoyed by mankind by this particular mode of dealing with the fur seals which had been established and carried on upon the Pribilof Islands. Mankind received the benefit of the entire annual increase, and at the same time, the stock was perpetually preserved and kept from any sort of peril; and in that benefit the citizens of the United States enjoyed, of course, no advantage over the rest of the world. The whole product of the herd was contributed at once to commerce, and through the instrumentality of commerce was carried all over the world to those who desired the sealskins, and those who desired sealskins, wherever they might be on the face of the globe, and whatever nation they might inhabit, got them upon the same terms upon which the citizens of the United States enjoyed them. This contribution of the annual product to the purposes of commerce, to be dealt with as commerce deals with one of its subjects, of course amounted substantially to a putting it up at auction, and it was awarded to the highest bidder, wherever he might dwell.

The effect of this was, also, as we shall have occasion to see in the course of this discussion, to build up and maintain an important industry in Great Britain. It was there that the sealskins were manufactured and prepared for sale in the market, and thousands of people were engaged in that industry, many more, indeed, than were engaged in the industry of gathering the seals upon the Pribilof Islands. That particular benefit was secured to Great Britain in consequence of this industry.

In the few years preceding 1890, the Government of the United States was made aware of a peril to the industry which had thus been established and which it was in the enjoyment of, a peril to the preservation of this race of seals, a peril not proceeding from what may be called natural causes, such as the killing by whales and other animals which prey upon the seals in the water, but a peril proceeding from the hand of man. It was found that the practice of pelagic sealing, which had for many years, and indeed No. 86-4

from the earliest knowledge of these regions, been carried on to a very limited extent by the Indians who inhabited the coasts for the purpose of obtaining food for themselves and skins for their clothing, and which had made a limited draft upon the herds in that way it was found that this practice was beginning to be extended so as to be carried on by whites, and in large vessels capable of proceeding long distances from the shore, of encountering the roughest weather, and of carrying boats and boatmen and hunters, armed with every appliance for taking and slaughtering the seals upon their passage through the seas. That practice

began, I think, in the year 1876, but at first, its extent was small. The vessels were fitted out mostly from a port in British Columbia, and confined their enterprise to the North Pacific Ocean, not entering Bering Sea at all; and their drafts upon the seals even in the North Pacifie Ocean were at first extremely small, only a few thousands each year. But the business was found to be : profitable one, and, of course, as its profit was perceived, more and more were tempted to engage in it, and a larger and larger investment of capital was made in it. More and more vessels prosecuted the fishery in the North Pacific Ocean, and in 1883, for the first time, a vessel ventured to enter Bering Sea.

The learned arbitrators will perceive that up to this time, during the whole of the Russian and the whole of the American occupation of these islands, there had been no such thing as pelagic sealing, except in the insignificant way already mentioned by the Indians. Those two nations had enjoyed the full benefit of this property, the full benefit of these herds of seals, in as complete a degree as if they had been recognized as the sole proprietors of them, and as if a title in them, not only while they were ashore and upon the breeding islands, but while they were absent upon their migrations, had been recognized in them during that whole period, or as if there had been some regulation among the nations absolutely prohibiting all pelagic sealing. Up to the period

when pelagic sealing began to be extended, those advantages were exclusively enjoyed by Russia and the United States; and at first, as I have said, this pelagic sealing did not extend into Bering Sea, but was carried on in the North Pacific Ocean, and south and east of the Aleutian chain.

It

Why Bering Sea was thus carefully abstained from it may perhaps be difficult at the present time altogether to say. It may be for the reason that it was farther off, more difficult to reach. may be for the reason that the pelagic sealers did not at first suppose that they had a right to enter Bering Sea and take the seals there, for it was well known that during the whole of the Russian occupation Russia did assert for herself an exclusive right to all the products of that region of the globe; and it was also, of course, well known to all Governments, and to these pelagic sealers, that the United States had, when they acceded to the sovereignty over these islands, asserted a similar right, and made the practice of pelagic sealing, in Bering Sea at least—perhaps farther, but in Bering Sea at least-a criminal offense under their law. But from whatever cause, it was not until the year 1883 that any pelagic sealers ventured into Bering Sea. During that year, a single vessel did enter there, took a large catch, was very successful, and was not called to any account; and this successful experiment was, of course, followed during the succeeding years by many repetitions of the same enterprise.

The extent to which pelagic sealing was thus carried on in Bering Sea, its probable consequences upon the herds which made their homes upon the Pribilof Islands, was not at first appreciated either by the United States or by the lessees of the islands. There was no means by which they could easily find out how many vessels made such excursions, and they did not at first seem to suppose that their interests were particularly threatened by it. Consequently, for the first two or three years, no notice seems to have been taken of these enterprises by the Government of the United