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154

Who, after having communicated to one another their respective full powers, which were found to be in due and proper form, have agreed upon the following articles : — Article 1. The high contracting parties mutually and reciprocally agree that their citizens and subjects respectively, and all persons subject to their laws and treaties, and their vessels shall be prohibited while this convention remains in force from engaging in pelagic sealing in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean north of the 30th parallel of north latitude and including the seas of Behring, Kamchatka, Okhotsk, and Japan, and that every such person and vessel offending against such prohibition may be seized, except within the territorial jurisdiction of one of the other Powers, and detained by the naval or other duly commissioned officers of any of the parties to this convention, to be delivered as soon as practicable to an authorized official of their own nation at the nearest point to the place of seizure, or elsewhere, as may be mutually agreed upon; and that the authorities of the nation to which such person or vessel belongs aline shall have jurisdiction to try the offence and impose the penalties for the same; and that the witnesses and proofs necessary to establish the offence, so far as they are under the control of any of the parties to this convention, shall also be furnished with all reasonable promptitude to the proper authorities having jurisdiction to try the offence. Article 2. Each of the high contracting parties further agrees that no person or vessel shall be permitted to use any of its ports or harbours, or any part of its territory, for any purposes whatsoever connected with the operations of pelagic sealing in the waters within the protected area mentioned in Article 1. Article 3. Each of the high contracting parties further agrees that no sealskins taken in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean within the protected area mentioned in Article 1, and no sealskins identified as the species known as Callorhinus alascanus, Callorhinus ursinus, and Callorhinus kurilensis, and belonging to the American, Russian, or Japanese herds, except such as are taken under the authority of the respective Powers to which the breeding-grounds of such herds belong, and have been officially marked and certified as having been so taken, shall be permitted to be imported or brought into the territory of any of the parties to this convention. Article J f . It is further agreed that the provisions of this convention shall not apply to Indians, Amos, Aleuts, or other aborigines dwelling on the coast of the waters mentioned in Article 1, who carry on pelagic sealing in canoes not transported by or used in connection with other vessels, and propelled entirely by oars, paddles, or sails, and manned by not more than five persons each, in the way hitherto practised and without the use of firearms; provided that such aborigines are not in the employment of other persons, or under contract to deliver the skins to any person. Article 5. Each of the high contracting parties agrees that it will not permit its citizens or subjects or their vessels to kill, capture, or pursue beyond the distance of three miles from the shore-line of its territories sea-otters in any part of the waters mentioned in Article 1 of this convention. Article 6. Each of the high contracting parties agrees to enact and enforce such legislation as maybe necessary to make effective the foregoing provisions, with appropriate penalties for violations thereof. Article 7. It is agreed on the part of the United States, Japan, and Russia that each respectively will maintain a guard or patrol in the waters frequented by the seal herd in the protection of which it is especially interested, so far as may be necessary for the enforcement of the foregoing provisions. Article 8. Al the high contracting parties agree to co-operate with each other in taking such measures as may be appropriate and available for the purpose of preventing pelagic sealing in the prohibited area mentioned in Article 1. Article 9. The term " pelagic sealing " is hereby defined for the purposes of this convention as meaning the killing, capturing, or pursuing in any manner whatsoever of fur seals at sea. Article 10. The United States agrees that the total number of sealskins taken annually under the authority of the United States upon the Pribilof Islands, or any other islands or shores of the waters mentioned in Article 1 subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to which any seal herds hereafter resort, there shall be delivered at the Pribilof Islands at the end of each season 15 per cent, gross in number and value thereof to an authorized agent of the Canadian Government, and 15 per cent, gross in number and value thereof to an authorized agent of the Japanese