Your  proposition  is  that  i>elagic  sealing  should  be  ])rohibited  in  the
Behring  Sea  during  the  months  of  May,  »Iune,  ()ct4)ber,  Xovemb(»r,  an<l
December,  and  that  there  should  be  no  i)rohibition  <luring  th(»  months
of  July,  August,  and  Si»]>tember.  Your  ])roi>osition  involved  the  con-
dition that  British  vessels  shouhl  be  allowed  to  kill  seals  within  10
miles  of  thec^)ast  of  the  Pribilof  Islands.  Lord  Salisbury's  propositicm
of  1888  was  that  during  the  same  months,  for  which  the  10 mile  privilege
is  now  demanded,  no  British  vessel  hunting  s(»als  should  vinxw  nearer
t4>  the  Pribilof  Islands  than  the  47th  i>arallel  of  north  latitude,  about
GOO  miles.
The  open  sea^m  which  you  thus  sele<'t  for  killing  is  the  one  when  the
areas  around  the  breeding  islands  arc  most  crowded  withs<'ids,  and  ea-
X^'ially  crowded  with  female  seals  going  forth  to  secun*  food  for  the
hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  young  of  which  tlH\y  have  rt»ceiitly  b(»en
delivered.  The  destruction  of  the  females  which,  according  to  expert
testimony  would  l)e  05  per  cent  of  all  which  the  sealing  vessels  might
readily  capture,  would  intlict  dca<lly  lossujjon  the  rookeri(»s.  The  de
struction  of  the  femjiles  would  be  tbllowed  by  the  destrmtion  of  their
yoangon  the  islands^  and  the  herds  would  l)c  diminished  the  next  year


216  DIPLOMATIC   CORRESPONDENCE.
by  this  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  producing  females  and  their  off-
spring.
