Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-15
THE MECHANICS, COURSE.

MT. J. Stanley Brown of Washing-
 ton. D- O.. Delivers the First Lecture
 of the Course on "Fur Seals and the
 Seal Isla Rds of Behring Sea-"
 The twenty seventh annual course of mechanics' lectures in the Sheffield Scien- tiic school opened at North Sheffield hall last evening, Mir. J. Stanley Brown of Washington, D. O., featuring on the "Fur Seals and the Sesl Islands of Behring Sea-" Mir Brown was private secretary to Presi- dent Garfield and married his daughter, Molly Garfield. He was introduced by few fitting remarks by President Dwight, | who alluded to MT. Browns student days here and also to his subsequent career at
 the national capital. MT. r.Brown then spoke in part as follows
 | On the 30th of March, 1867. 6 treaty of
 sale was agreed upon between the United
 States and Russia whereby upon the pay
 ment of s7,2O0,O0 by the United States the territory of Alaska became the
 property of the United States gov
 ernment. The Pribylov islands are a
 small group of rocky islets near the shores
 of Alaska 60 yelled in mists that 1t took all
 the ingenuity of the Russian mariners to
 discover them. These little islets, which
 were at first thought to be of TO value,
 have yielded the government more than
 the price paid for the whole territory.
 They have been veritable treasure islands.
 Most of these islands are of volcanic ori-
 gin. They bear no trees, but an abund-
 ance of flowers The islands-two in
 number, St. George and St. Paul-aIe iD
 the parallel of Scotland, and the climate is
 much the same as northern Scotland. This is the seals breeding ground, and If ii
 were not for the ruinous attacks of the
 Pacific sealers they would increase rapidly. For every mother killed in the Pacific
 ocean seals must perish. Early in October
 the annual migration of the seals to the Pa
 cific begins and before December they are all gone. Up to this time in their lives
 they have lived entirely on the Pribylov , islands, and have been under the immedt-
 ate protection of the officers of the United States government. When they go forth on their annual migration they immedi , ately become the prey of the pelagtc sail
 ors, who are making such tremendous in roads on the numbers of seal. The hero , goes down through the passes and straits { of the Aleutian islands and spreads out ovel ] the Pacific ocean, always drifting toward the American coast and finally they all ! COuEIe&ht6 tucTo Cu Gu6 CdilIOTul6 SuO1c and go in solid rank up the coast ant
 back to their birthplace on the Pribylo' , islands. It is most peculiar fac that these islands form the one breed , ing place for this herd of sesls There is no apparent reason for this. Ye , here they have bred and multiplied b! : thousands from time immemorial. Th' 3 inroads which have been made on the seal 7 by the pelagic sealels since 1886 have bsel , something terrible If the tribunal whicl , meets at Paris on the 23d of Februar does not take some imn mediate and effectiv s action they will be commercially exter minated. The tribunal, which will b composed of two representatives from tn United States, one from Canada and on A from Great Britain, with three others fror ! France, Italy and Sweden respectively, a f neutral countries, will probably make
 decision. What the policy of the Unite
 States commissioners will be has not bee ? made public. The fact of the ownershi ? of the property right of the seals by tn a United States seems to be apparent. The
 are all born on United States soil. and rs a turn there every year, which is the : home.
 After he had finished speaking, a nun | ber of interesting stereopticon views of tt i, Pribylov islands were thrown on the csI e vae.