Show THE BEHRING SEA QUESTION THE behring sea question is coming to the point when it will sh be known whether an amicable settlement ment can be effected the american commissioners recently called on secretary blaine to arrange preliminaries for a joint conference to be held in a few days daya the work of this commission will be of an advisory char acter for the board of arbitration which meets later on it is agreed on by byboth both the american and english commissioners that destruction of the seal meal has been abnormally large during the past live five years but the question which promises the most serious trouble is whether or not the seal can be exterminated by poachers who do not go into the behring sea bea at all it is claimed that seals can c a n be taken aurit during g the coming season without entering AM disputed marine territory the seals make annual im migrations from the aleutian islands to the behring seq sea it is said that no settlement of the question can be complete that does doer not contemplate the habits of the little animal in this par ti cular the united states commissioners are thomas C hall superintendent of the united states coast and geodetic survey and professor C hart merriam Merr lam ornithologist of the department of agriculture both are men of national renown in scientific attainments on the part of the british government sir george smyth baden powell and d dr G M dawson are the commissioners these gentle men anen are also acknowledged authorities on scientific matters the work prescribed for this joint commission was to visit the sealing prepare from observations made the basis of fact upon which will be founded the arguments before the coming board of arbitration in this respect the gentlemen of the commission have completed ot 01 e part art of their mission they have visited the open sea poa poaching abing grounds and the principal sealing islands they even visited many of the russian Is islands lAuds the result of their will mill be embodied in two reports fe porto one to sir juliu julian by the english mm them reports will serve as a fair index to the situation on which the seal oeal reds reata |