Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-25
THE BEHR1NG SEA QUESTION.

| From the Youths Companion.
When Senator Sumner, in speech in
| the United States senate in 1867, advo-
eating the purchase Of Russian America,
summed up all the advantages of the
purchase which were apparent, he did not
mention the seal fisheries, which have,
almost from the time of the purchase,
returned to the government very fair
| rate of interest on the money which was
paid for Alaska.
The value of these seal fisheries was
hardly recognized by any OF our states
men at the time. Immediately after the
purchase, however, there was a great
development in the business of catching
the seals of the region, which yield the
best furs of the kind known to COM
merce. So many were taken that it was
conjectured, in 1868, that unless some
thing were done to protect them another
season would see the last of these valua-
bic animals.
The fur-bearing seals of the Antarctic
regions, including those once found in
innumerable quantities in the islands be-
longing to Great Britain. to the south
west of Australia and New Zealand,
and in the Falkland and South Georgia
islands off the coast of South
America, also British possessions, have
long since been practically exterminated.
No effort to protect them by limiting the
number which might be taken, or guard
ing the.waters inhabited by them, had
ever been made.
Fortunately, il was found that there
were certain means by which the seals
in the waters purchased by us of Russia,
which include almost the whole of
Behring Sea, could be, to great extent,
projected, The seals from nearly the
entire sea congregate every summer, in
little Pribvloy Islands, called St. Georges
and st. Paul's, which are in Behring Sea,
in latitude sc degrees north, and about
800 miles from the Alaska shore.
By leasing to single company the
sole privilege to take seals from these
islands and other shores, and limiting
this company to the taking of 100, 200
bachelors or young male seals, per
year, which is at least one-fifth of the
number which resort to these islands,
chance is given even for an increase of
the number.
In the protection of the seal fisheries
in the open waters of the Behring sea,
away from the shores and islands,
another question is involved, and it is
here that the dispute evoked by the seiz-
ure of the British vessel Black Diamond
by the United States revenue cutter
Rush has arisen.
Behring Sea is a great body of water
which is almost entirely hemmed IN by
shores and bv chains OF islands belong
ing to the United States and Russia. The
Aleutian islands extend from near the
Alaska mainland to within 125 miles of
the Asiatic mainland, and to within 80
miles of the nearest Russian island. To
the east is Alaska: to the west KAN
tchatka, and to the north, Behring
Straits.
Over this sea Russia had exercised
sway since it took possession of these re-
gions i'll the middle of the last century.
Our government had, indeed, in mes
sage written by President John Quincy
Adams, denied the right Of Russia to
exercise jurisdiction over either the
waters of the territory on the American
side of the sea south of the Goth degree
of north latitude. This limit included
the greater part of Behrng Sea.
No reference. however, was ever
made to the Russian jurisdiction over
this sea, by name, III any
protest by our governments
Russia continued to exercise authority
over the whole sea, treating it as mare
ciausum, or closed sea; and the United
States formally recognizes what Presi-
dent Adams had once protested against
when it bought Russias American pos
sessions in 1867.
1t is claimed by our government that
the United States succeeded to all the
right that Russia possessed in Behring
sea, the exclusive control of the fisheries
in this ''closed sea- among them. The
last congress passed an act directing the
president to enforce this authority, and
to prevent the taking OF seals by uu-
authorized vessels.
1t was in obedience TO this act that the
seizure Of the Black Diamond was made.
The taking of seals in the Behring sea
had already become SO considerable as to
threaten the value of the seal fishing
grounds on the Pribylov Islands.
1t has been proposed by the govern
ment of the United States that the prin-
cipal governments of the world which
are interested in the seal fisheries, to-
wit: The United States, Great Britain,
Sweden and Norway, Russia, Japan and
Denmark-shali unite in convention
for the protection Of the seals and the
prevention OF unauthorized fishing.