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SEALS

commissions met at Washington in a joint con-
ference known as the Conference of Fur Seal
Experts, and after a full discussion of the
results of their labors, reached an agreement on
all essential facts, establishing the fact of de-
cline, its probable rate and its cause. The
cause was fixed as the killing of females at sea
involved in pelagic sealing and the agreement
foreshadowed-the commissions having no
power to consider ways and means-the aboli-
tion of pelagic sealing as the only means of sav-
ing the herd. On the basis of this agreement the
fur seal question passed into the hands of the
Joint High Commission called at Quebec in
1898 to consider this among a number of other
questions in dispute between the United States
and Canada. Unable to reach an agreement
on the boundary dispute this Joint Commission
suspended action without result, and its labors
have never been resumed. Meanwhile pelagic
sealing has continued and the herd has steadily
declined.

It is probable that in the days of its pros-
perity-1870 to 1885- the fur seal herd of the
Pribilof Islands numbered 2,500,000 animals of
all classes, the herd of the Commander Islands,
half as many more. The maximum product of
the herd for this period was 100,000 skins on the
Pribilof Islands and 50,000 on the Commander
Islands, valued at from $15 to $25 in the raw
state, at from $30 to $40 when dressed and dyed.
The product of the Pribilof Island land sealing
for 1902 was 22,304 and of the Commander

Islands sealing 7,733. A like decline is found in
the results of the pelagic industry, which is
necessarily suicidal in its nature. Its total
catch-and the greatest in its history - for
1894 was 143,000; its total catch for the season
of 1902 was 16,058. No stronger arraignment of
pelagic sealing can be made than that which a
comparison of these figures gives. It is to be
hoped that an agreement will soon be reached
by which this destructive agency may be done
away and this wonderful race of animals and
the valuable legitimate industry which depends
upon it may be saved to the world. The United
States and Great Britain, by acceptance of the
Paris Award, and by enforcement of its regula-
tions for the restriction of pelagic sealing since
1894, have established a precedent which should
make it an easy step to the abolition of such
sealing.

In the subjoined table, compiled from various
sources, is brought together the total statistics
of the fur seal industry, and these figures give
a comprehensive view of the whole subject.

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SEALSFIELD SEAMAN

(1877); Carroll, 'Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland (1873); Schultz, Fisheries and Seal-hunting in White Sea, Arctic, and Caspian Sea, translated in Report of United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Part III. (1873-4); Southwell, Notes on Seal and Whale Fishery,' Zoologist (London 1883-1902); Elliott, Fur Seal Islands of Alaska) (1882); 'Proceedings of Tribunal of Arbitration,' 15 vols. (1895); Jordan and others, The Fur Seals and Fur Seal Islands of the North Pacific' (1898).

GEORGE ARCHIBALD CLARK, Secretary of the Fur Seal Commission 1896-7, Leland Stanford, Jr., University.

Sealsfield, selz'feld, Charles, pseudonym of KARL ANTON POSTEL, Austrian novelist: b. Poppitz, Moravia, 3 March 1793; d. Soleure, Switzerland, 26 May 1864. He entered a monastery and was ordained in the priesthood, but in 1822 he fled to Switzerland and thence to the United States, where he lived in 1822-6 and 1827-30. In 1829 he edited in New York the Courier des Etats Unis, and after 1832 made his residence chiefly in Switzerland, though he visited the United States at intervals. He subsequently engaged in novel writing, his work creating a sensation in Germany. His publications include: Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika' (1828); 'Der Legitime und die Republikaner (1833); Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemisphären (1835-7); Das Kajütenbuch) (1840); (Süden und Norden) (1842-3);

etc.

Seaman, se'man, Owen, English writer: b. 18 Sept. 1861. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1888 became lecturer in literature at the Durham College of Science (Newcastle-on-Tyne), and in 1890 was there appointed to the newly established professorship of literature. In 1897 he was admitted barrister of the Inner Temple. He began contributions in 1894 to the National Observer, in 1895 to the World,' and in 1894 to Punch, whose staff he joined in 1897, and of which he became editor in 1906. Among his books of verse are: With Double Pipe (1888); 'Horace at Cambridge) (1894); Tillers of the Sand' (1895); The Battle of the Bays' (1896); 'In Cap and Bells' (1899); Borrowed Plumes (1902); A Harvest of Chaff' (1904).

Seaman, a person below the rank of officer who is employed in the navigation of a vessel either coastwise or on the high seas. The word "sailor" is broader in meaning than that of seaman, including men employed on inland waters as well as at sea, and in the United States, with a vast area of navigable lakes, sailor is the term more generally used. Seamanship is, of course, as old as navigation, and that originated before the historic period. Although in ancient times vessels were propelled to a great extent by the labor of slaves, chained to the pars they handled, the men engaged in navigating ships were usually free, and the ancient seamen appear to have had more voice in matters affecting the voyage than seamen have to-day. Commerce by water was the chief source of the wealth which made Tyre and Carthage, and some of the Greek cities in Asia and Europe rich and powerful, and skilful seamen were, therefore, in great demand. Similar conditions prevailed in the more prosperous republics of

the Middle Ages, and the Northmen who spread their sails in search of lands they could plunder and subdue were sailors and warriors both.

The discovery of America gave a great impulse to seamanship, and may be said to have created a new race of sailors, who were also adventurers, and whose feats of navigation have never been surpassed for daring, skill, and achievement. In the early days of the American colonies, and indeed up to the time when manufactures attracted the surplus population of the rural districts, Americans might almost have been called a race of sailors. They sailed around the world in their merchant ships, fighting French privateers, and, when nearer home, school of varied hardship and adventure they dodging English revenue cutters, and in this learned the lessons of seamanship as no others had learned it before. Good sailing ability to navigate a ship to the best advantage, was almost as requisite as good gunnery in the naval battles of a century ago, and America's splendid naval record of 1800 to 1815, in combat with that American seamen could both navigate and French, Barbary pirates, and British, proves fight.

mostly of foreign origin. Scandinavia supplies The seamen in American vessels to-day are a large proportion of them, and they are excelon the statute lent sailors. Strict laws are of seamen, their claims to pay, and their disbooks regulating the engagement and treatment charge and return to this country, if abroad. Seamen can no longer be beaten and cuffed with impunity by brutal shipmasters. The authorities, both civil and criminal, are quick to uphold the cause of a seaman who has a real grievance. Merchant seamen make their contract by signing a written agreement called the shipping articles. This must set forth the voyage, the ports at each end, and all other matters which are necessary to an intelligent understanding of the contract. The contract, when signed, is not absolute evidence of agreement on the part of the seaman, who may prove, if he can, that he was induced to sign by fraudulent representations, or while irresponsible. The law provides penalties for violation of the contract by either party; the amount and quality of provisions while on a voyage are regulated by statute, and the master is bound to pay the wages due, unless he can show that the seaman has been insubordinate or inefficient. seaman refusing, without good cause, such as illness or other disability, to do the work assigned to him, may be put in irons while on board, and prosecuted in the nearest United States court. If he deserts he may be arrested, and punished by forfeiture of wages and imprisonment. He can justify desertion by proof of cruel treatment. If a seaman is discharged without cause and against his will in a foreign port, the master can be punished by six months' imprisonment, or a fine of $500. If the seaman, who has done his duty, is willing to be discharged abroad, and the master on his part is willing to let the man go, the master must pay him three months' wages beyond what is due, one third of which amount goes to a fund for the maintenance of American seamen abroad and for bringing them home. It is part of the duty of American consuls to be vigilant in the protection of American seamen, and the master

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SEARCH-LIGHT-SEARING

of a vessel must present his papers for examination by the American consul or consular agent in all ports visited, and must explain the reasons for the absence of anyone entered in the list of the crew.

Unfortunately many seamen are ignorant of the provisions of law intended to guard them from abuse and imposition, and the dissipation in which many of them indulge when on shore helps to make them easy victims of unscrupulous boarding-house keepers and shipmasters, who conspire to rob them of advance money, and virtually kidnap them on board vessels on which they had no intention of sailing. This evil is undoubtedly winked at, in some instances, by corrupt officials, who presumably receive a share of the proceeds. Some outrage, greater than usual, calls attention at intervals to the wrongs being perpetrated on seamen, and then there is a brief spasm of public anger, and talk of prosecution and reform. This dies out, as a rule, without serious action having been taken, and matters go on as before. The lot of the American seaman is, however, immeasurably better than it was in the early part of the 19th century, for now the law is on his side, when invoked, whereas formerly all its power was exerted on the side of the shipmaster, however cruel and unscrupulous.

In England also the seaman has had ample legal protection for over half a century, since the passage of the mercantile marine act of 1850, which lays down minute rules for the government of both masters and seamen. The provisions of the act are very similar to the American laws bearing on the same subject.

Search-light. See ELECTRIC LIGHT; LIGHT

HOUSE.

Search, Right of, so far as it applies to the homes, persons, papers, and effects of American citizens, is regulated by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides that the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. This provision appears also in State constitutions. A magistrate should issue a search warrant only on evidence sufficient for a reasonable presumption that stolen articles, or articles used in violation of law, such as gambling implements, are to be obtained by the search, or that evidence essential to a prosecution for serious crime may thus be secured. An officer holding a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with crime may enter upon any premises where he believes that person to be, but is responsible both civilly and criminally for abuse of his authority. If an officer makes an arrest without lawful authority he is liable for false imprisonment. Persons not charged with crime may be arrested and detained as witnesses.

The extent of the right of search by belligerents of the vessels of neutrals is a much disputed question, and although it has been agitated for over a century it is far from a comprehensive and satisfactory decision. The assertion by Great Britain, during the wars with Napoleon, of the right to search American vessels on the high seas for alleged deserters from the British navy-some of whom were hanged after being taken from an American man-ofwar -- provoked the War of 1812. When peace

was made, although other points in dispute were adjusted, this question was left unsettled, England, however, making no further attempt to interfere with American vessels, and the fall of Napoleon removing the causes which had led to England's high-handed measures. The Declaration of Paris, signed by the plenipotentiaries of France, Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Turkey, and Sardinia, 16 April 1856, sought to settle the various questions relating to the right of search, declared privateering abolished; that the neutral flag covered enemy's goods, except contraband of war, that neutral goods, except contraband of war, were not liable to seizure, even under the enemy's flag, and that blockades, to be binding, must be effective. The United States did not assent to this declaration, and matters were in this condition when the American Civil War broke out.

In 1861 a collision between the United States and Great Britain was nearly caused by the unauthorized action of the commander of a Union war-vessel, who stopped the British mail steamer Trent on the high seas, and took from the Trent as prisoners Messrs. Slidell and Mason, commissioners of the Confederate States proceeding to Europe. England made preparations for war, but the government at Washington disavowed the stoppage of the Trent, and released the commissioners. No privateers were chartered by the United States either during the Civil War or the Spanish-American War. In the latter conflict the United States and Spain proclaimed their intention to adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Paris, and this determination was adhered to throughout the war.

The right to search a neutral vessel for contraband of war is universally admitted, this right, however, being confined to private merchant vessels, and not applying to ships of war. The exercise of this right must be conducted with due care and regard to the rights and safety of vessels. All civilized powers also exercise the right of stopping and searching, and, if cause be found, seizing or destroying, should resistance be shown, a vessel suspected of piracy or slave-trading. See BLOCKADE; CONTRABAND OF WAR; PARIS, DECLARATION of.

Search Warrant is a warrant requiring the officer to whom it is addressed to search a house or other place therein specified, for property therein alleged to have been stolen; and if the same shall be found upon such search, to bring the goods so found, together with the person occupying the same, who is named, before the justice or other officer granting the warrant, or some other justice of the peace, or other lawfully authorized officer. It should be given under the hand and seal of the justice and dated. The Constitution of the United States declares that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized."

Sear'ing, Laura Catherine Redden ("HowARD GLYNDEN"), American author: b. Somerset. Md., 9 Feb. 1840. At ten she lost the power of hearing and of speech through illness, and was

SEARS - SEASICKNESS

educated at the Missouri Institute for Deaf Mutes. Later she largely regained the faculty of speech at Clark Institution, Northampton, Mass. She was married to Edward W. Searing in 1876. Her literary career began when she was 18, and during the Civil War she was a newspaper correspondent at Washington. In 1866-7 she was in Italy as correspondent for the New York Times and also engaged in literary work for the department of agriculture. During the Franco-Prussian war she wrote "German War Gossip' for the New York Tribune, was on the staff of the New York Mail in 1868-76, and in 1886 removed to California, where she has continued writing for the leading periodicals. She has published 'Notable Men in the House of Representatives) (1864); 'Idyls of Battle' (1864); (Sounds from Secret Chambers' (1874); etc.

Sears, sērz, Isaac, American patriot: b. Norwalk, Conn., 1729; d. Canton, China, 28 Oct. 1786. He descended from Richard Sears, who emigrated from Colchester, England, in 1630, and settled in Massachusetts. He was in command of a privateer against the French in 1758-61, and after losing his vessel, located in New York, and engaged in the West Indian and European trade. He became a prominent member of the "Sons of Liberty," and was chairman of the first committee of correspondence established in New York. He commanded the troop that raided the printing establishment of James Rivington, editor of the Royal Gazette. After destroying the presses, the types were carried away to be cast into bullets. He was a member of the provincial congress in 1783, and also of the State assembly of New York. Having lost his fortune, he shipped as super-cargo on a merchant vessel and contracted a fever on the voyage to China, from which he

died.

Sears, Joseph Hamblen, American author: b. Boston 1865. He was graduated from Harvard in 1889, and has since published The Governments of the World To-day (1893); Fur and Feather Tales (1897); None But the Brave' (1902).

Sears, Lorenzo, American rhetorician: b. Searsville, Mass., 18 April 1830. He was graduated from Yale in 1861, from the General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1864, and was engaged in pastoral duties in New England in 1864-85. He was appointed to the chair of rhetoric and English literature at the University of Vermont in 1885, which he filled until 1890, since when he has occupied that of rhetoric and American literature at Brown University. He has published: History of Oratory) (1897); Principles and Methods of Literary Criticism (1898); A Historical Introduction to the Library of Modern Eloquence) (1901).

Sears'port, Maine, town on Penobscot Bay; five miles northeast of Belfast and about 30 miles southwest of Bangor. Its chief industries are ship-building, ice-gathering, shipping hay and lumber, and poultry products. It has lumber and grist mills, and a spool mill. It has a high school, graded elementary schools, and the Sears Public Library, opened in 1872. The national bank has a capital of $50,000; the savings bank has a large amount of deposits. Pop. (1910) 1,444.

Seasickness, an affection attended with nausea and other disagreeable sensations produced by the motion of a vessel. Its causes and etiology are as yet imperfectly understood. Some refer it to causes dependent upon the altered or affected functions of the nervous centres; others to the regurgitation of bile into the stomach; and still others to irritation of the liver by the unusual movements of the body, increased secretion of bile being secondary. Probably each of these views contains something of the real explanation of the disorder.

When a landsman goes to sea, the movements of the ship, and the shifting lines and surfaces, unsettle his visual stability, as the different inclinations of the plank he stands on unsettle his muscular sense. The consequent derangement of these faculties reacts upon the nervous centres, and through the latter upon the viscera, thus producing nausea and vomiting. Recollection of the disturbing sensations, together with the emotional state which they originally excited, may itself become an efficient cause, at least in individuals, of peculiarly irritable stomachs, or of highly sensitive nervous systems; for this plays downward upon the sensorial centres in such a manner as to excite in them the same condition as that which was originally produced through the medium of the sensory nerve. This may explain why certain individuals show all the symptoms of seasickness on going aboard a vessel perfectly at rest.

So, no doubt, imagination is a potent and imThe fact that visual portant factor in the case. impressions predispose travelers to seasickness suggests that a susceptible individual, when on deck, should shut the eyes.

But perhaps the chief causes of seasickness may be summed up thus: (1) Effusion of blood to the brain; (2) disturbance of the digestive system; (3) over-eating, and also under-eating. Many preventive measures referring to the construction and arrangement of vessels have been tried with little success; yet experiments with vessels having a swinging saloon, designed to preserve equilibrium in any sea, and vessels with a breadth intended to minimize the rocking motion, show that nautical men and shipbuilders are becoming alive to the interests and comfort of travelers. Preventive measures regarded from the patient's point of view are practically limited to the regulation of diet before a voyage. The diet for some days previously should be plentiful, but of light and nutritious character. Above all, the bowels should not be constipated, and food should not be taken for at least five or six hours before going on board, although a cup of strong coffee just before embarking will prove beneficial as a slight stimulant. On the ship a position as near the centre as practicable is to be preferred. It is best when lying down to lie on the back, with the head and shoulders very slightly elevated. As a curative measure during the attack of nausea and vomiting, brandy and ice in small doses may be given. Champagne is better in the period of depression and exhaustion during a long sickness than at the beginning. A bandage moderately tight, across the pit of the stomach, or an ice-belt or even cold compresses all along the spine may afford relief; while some are benefited by sipping frequent drafts of lukewarm or cold water, though a glass of hot milk may

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