had become such a serious matter that the United States ordered her
revenue cutters up to Bering Sea to protect her interests.

Several ships were captured by the revenue-officers, 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