Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-08

the seals pass IN going to and from their
feeding grounds and rookeries, and their
annual passage to the islands for breed
ing, That when We passed the Act TO
protect fur-bearing seals in Alaska and It's
waters, we expressly asserted the exclusive
rights that are now challenged, and clearly
set forth our claim to the waters in ques-
ton as marias TERRITORY, as fully as to the
land purchased.
The islands of St. Paul and st. George
frequented by the seal are special Govern
ment reservations, and are in about the
center of the waters in dispute. The east
line OF our purchase is the line between
Russian and British possessions, and the
western bound is a line from the Arctic
Ocean through Behring Straits bear
ing southwesterly TO the North Pacific
Ocean. This cuts Behring Sea into
two parts. The northern boundary is the
Arctic water commonly known in diplo-
matte correspondence as the frozen
ocean," the south boundary is the south
shore line of the Aleutian islands,
and these bounds, we claim, compass the
" Alaska" we purchased from Russia
What We propose to do now is to prevent
the destruction of that for which we paid
a good many millions of dollars-the
fisheries; and TO that end we prohibit seal
taking by our own people within certain
exceptions, and especially do We provide
that the seals shall not be exterminated by
the indiscriminate taking that would re-
suit should Behring Sea be declared open
waters, or all our own people be given
liberty TO fish therein. We now prohibit
the killing of the females, and limit the
taking to certain classes of males, else the
fisheries in very few seasons would cease
TO be of any value, and would presently be
wholly destroyed.
If there were Unrestricted sealing in the
Behring Sea, there would be, as we have
sad, an indiscriminate slaughter of bulls,
COWS and calves. The hunters would have
bat to follow the strong warm current that
flows from the Aleutian Isles toward the
main land 10 keep in the very midst of the
course the seals take in their annual MI
grations. They would kill whatever d
them came in their way, and thus cows
would be slaughtered and these valuable
sea animals soon become extinct. If. there.
fore, England does insist upon the open sea,
it viii mean that she is willing that the
most valuable fur species of seal may be
exterminated.
Mr.. Bayard was wise when he asked the
great maritime powers to cooperate with
the United States in preventing the ex-
termination of the seals, which must re-
suit from unregulated taking. In that in
vitation he expressly set forth that we
neither raised nor waived the question OF
our jurisdiction over the marine territory
involved. All the powers accepted the IL
vitation, even England asserting, though
she subsequently withdrew from activity
in the matter
1t amounts to this, therefore, that our
claim is, after all, not so much territorial
as It IS the right to prevent the total de-
struction of valuable fisheries belonging to
US indisPutably, and the preservation OF
which is Of high value to all nations
President Harrison's Administration is
proceeding wisely and with due caution,
and yet with frmness, in this matter, and
we DO not entertain any fear that the
country will be led by reason of the facts
stated, into any warlike complications with
England. Diplomacy viii settle the whole
dispute, and it viii be settled in mainten-
ance Of our claim of Jurisdiction over that
part Of Behring Sea that We have de-
scribed.