icers, and most of them were
British vessels.

This opened the way for the dispute between Great Britain and the United
States, which has been going on ever since, and has been one of the most
troublesome questions our rulers have had to deal with.

Great Britain claimed that she had a perfect right to fish in Bering Sea,
and the United States insisted that she had bought all the rights to the
fishing when she bought Alaska.

After the quarrel had dragged on for five years, it was finally, in 1892,
decided to arbitrate it.

The Committee appointed for this purpose met in Paris, France, in 1893,
and finally decided that Russia had never had any rights in the Bering
Sea, beyond the usual rights which all countries have of controlling the
seas for three miles out from their borders.

Beyond the three-mile limit, the ocean becomes the "high seas," and is
then open to anybody.

It was decided that Russia could not sell the Bering Sea to the United
States.

The matter being thus decided, the question of caring for the seals was
left as unsettled as ever, and it was most necessary that some arrangement
should be made, unless the seals were to be totally destroyed.

The decision at Paris made it necessary that Great Britain should be
willing to agree to any plan that should be adopted.

It was therefore shown to the Committee that the seal flocks were in
danger of being destroyed, and a set of laws was made that proper care
might be taken of the seals. England and the United States agreed to obey
these laws, and it was decided that they should go into effect at once.

As it was supposed that in course of time it might be wise to alter these
laws, it was further agreed between England and the United States that
they should be looked over every five years, and changed if it was
necessary.

The five years has still sixteen months to run, but the American
Government has thought it advisable to ask that the two countries meet and
talk the subject over once more, as the laws are not strong enough to
protect the seals.

The United States complains now that Canadian and British fishers are
killing the seals in the same careless, ignorant way that they did before
the Treaty of Paris, and that unless they are stopped there will be no
seals in Alaska in a very few years.

The Government says that the habits of the seals must be studied and
understood, so that they may be protected, in order that all the fur
necessary for