Prince Cantacuzène to Mr. Olney.
Washington , October 18, 1895.
Mr. Secretary of state: Referring to the note which you were pleased to address to me on the 15th instant, and thanking you for that communication, I hasten to inform you that, by his note of August 7, 1895, the chargé d’affaires of Russia meant to express the view of the Imperial Goverment, which was that in case fur-seal hunting was to be wholly prohibited in Bering Sea for a certain length of time it should likewise be prohibited in the Sea of Okhotsk and around the Kouril Islands—in a word, in all the waters of the Pacific Ocean north of latitude 35° north, so that all the islands and waters ot the Pacific in which seals are in danger might be governed by the same regulations, and sure of uniform protection.
As to the second point, the intention of the imperial legation was to express the wish that fur-seal hunting on the high seas might be prohibited from March 1, or, at the latest, from April 1, instead of from May 1, which date is too late for the more southern waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, in which the seals make their appearance earlier than in Bering Sea.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,