52 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Beechey, R. N., in the years 1825-26-27-28, published by 



authority in Loudon, 1831. 

 60 These instructions from the Lords Commissioners, 



which are full and detailed, make reference only to 

 Behring- Strait and the Pacific Ocean, and do not mention 

 the Sea of Kamtchatka or Behring Sea. 



COMMON MEANING OF "PACIFIC OCEAN" AND "NORTH- 

 WEST COAST." 



Greeiiiiow's The works of Mr. Robert Greenhow, Translator and 



works. Librarian to the United States Department of State (well 



known in connection witli the discussion of the " Oregon 



question"), afford a detailed and conclusive means of 



ascertaining the views oflicially held by the United States 



Government on the meaning of Pacijic Ocean, Behring Sect, 



Worth-west coast, and the extent to which the claims made 



by Russia in the Ukase of 1821 were abandoned by the 



Convention of 1821. 



"Memoir His- ^ " Mcmoir " was prepared by Mr. Greenho\v, on the 



liiicai of theoflicial requcst of jMr. L. F. Linn, Chairman of a Select 



'"I'm'' Tr'A*'"'?^* Committee on the Territory of Oregon, by order of Mr. 



ca and the adja- John Forsyth, Secretary ol State. It includes a map 



muLS by''- entitled "the ^^ortli-west Coast of ^orth America and 



ma 



ap and a geo-^atljaceut Territories," which extends from below Acapulco 

 these^ooimtrk^, iu Mexico to abovc the mouth of the Kuskoqnim in Behring 

 byKobertrireen-gj^j^ and eiubraccs also the greater part of the Aleutian 



liow, Translator .' ox 



and Librarian to chain. 



the Department 



of State." Senate, 26tli Cong., Ist Session (174), 1840. The same Memoir, separately 



printed, apparently iu identical form, and with the same map, and pagination, Wiley and 



Putnam, New York, 1840. 



"north-west coast." 



Touching the signification of the terms North-west coast 

 and Pacific Ocean, and the meaning attached to the relin- 

 •^ quishment of Russian claims by the Convention of 1821, 



*/ the first part of the "Memoir," under the heading "Geo- 



graphy of the Western Section of Xorth xVmerica," con- 

 tains the following passage: 



The north-west coast" is the expression usually employed iu the Uuited 

 States at the present time to distiuguiah the vast portiou of the 

 American continent Avhich extends north of the 40th parallel of lati- 

 tude from the Pacific to the great dividiug ridge of the Bockij Moiiii- 

 taiits, together with the contiguous islands in that ocean. The 

 southern part of this territory, which is drained almost entirely Ity 

 the River Columbia, is conmionly called Oregon, I'rom the supposition 

 (no doubt erroneous) that such Avas the name applied to its principal 

 stream by the aborigines. To the more northern parts of the conti 

 nent many appellations, Avhich will hereafter be mentioned, have been 

 assigned i)y navigators and fur traders of various nations. The terri- 

 tory bordering upon the Pacific soul h ward, iromthe 40tli parallel 

 67 to the extremity of the i)eninsula which stretches iu that direc- 

 tion as far as the Tropic of Cancer, is called Ca/(/"oj'«/r/, a name 

 of uncertain derivation, formerly applied by the Spaniards to tlie 

 whole western section of North America, as that of Florida was 



* N. B. — The italies in this and subsequent quotations are those 

 employed by Greenhow himself 



