Whitelaw

This is an appeal in admiralty from a decree of the district court for the district of Alaska, forfeiting the schooner La Ninfa, upon the ground that she had been unlawfully engaged in killing seal in the waters of Alaska territory. See 49 F. 575’. The libel charges that the vessel and her crew “were engaged in killing fur seals within the limits of Alaska territory, and in the waters thereof, in violation of section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States ( 16 U.S.C.A. § 644 and note), and of other acts of congress, and of the proclamation issued by the president thereunder.” The district court found that “on the 6th day of July, 1891, and ■theretofore, the master and crew of defendant vessel were engaged in killing, and did kill, fur seal in that portion of Behring Sea ceded by Russia to the United States by treaty of 1867, and within the waters of Alaska, in violation of section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and of the other acts of congress and the proclamation of the president of the United States thereunder,” and that the vessel was an American vessel. The court thereupon decreed a forfeiture of the vessel, and of the skins on board of her. It…