CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN, 67 



including Lieutenant Barnard, an English officer of Her 



Majesty's sliip " Enterprise," one of the ships engaged in ,."^i'9J"'^1''P8b,; 



the expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. The vol xix*p°32r*' 



"Enterprise" passed Behring Strait on the 6th May, 



1851. The United States wlialing fleet is said to have 



been as numerous as in 1849. 



The interval between the close of Tebenkof s adminis- Alaska, p. 586. 

 tration and the beginning of that of Voievodsky was filled 

 by the temporary ai)pointment of Kosenburg and Rudakof. 



In 1852, buildings at the Hot Springs, near Sitka, were n>i(i.,p.574. 

 destroyed by the Indians. 



The value of catch of the whaling fleet in the North H'i'i. 1-669. 

 Pacific in this year is estimated at 14,000,000 dollars. 

 After 1852 the whaling industry gradually decreased. 



In 1853, war impending between England and Eussia, ibid., p. 570. 

 the Hudson's Bay and Russian-American Companies influ- 

 enced their respective Governments to prohibit hostilities 

 on the north-west coast of America. 



In the same year tlie Russian-American Company again Tikbmenieff. 

 specially requested the Government to prohibit whalers voi.l^-o.'s^" ^^ 

 from entering Okhotsk Sea, but without success. Instruc- 

 tions were, however, issued to Russian cruizers to prevent 

 wlialers from entering bays or gulfs, or from coming within 

 3 Italian miles of the shores. 



Tikhmenieff gives the following details: 



Some time before the Companv had Avritten to the For- 

 eign Office (22nd March, 1853): ^ 



If it IS found impracticable entirely to prohibit for a time fishing by ibid, 

 foreigners in the Sea of Okhotsk, as an inland sea, would it not, at any 

 rate, lie possible officially to prohibit whalers from coming close to our 

 shores and whaling in the bays and among the islands, detaching one 

 of the cruizers of the Kamtchatka llotilla for this service? 



The instructions to cruizers Avere approved on the 9th 

 December, 1853. The cruizers were to see that no 

 87 whalers entered the bays or gulfs, or came within 3 

 Italian miles of the shores of Russian America 

 (north of 54° 41'), the Peninsula of Kamtchatka, Siberia, the 

 Kadjak Archipelago, the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof and 

 Commander Islands, and the others in Behring Sea, the 

 Kuriles, Sakhalin, the Shantar Islands, and the others in the 

 Sea of Okhotsk to the north of 40° 30' north. The cruizers 

 were instructed constantly to keep in view that — 



Our Government not only does not wish to ])rohibitor put obstacles 

 in the way of whaling l)y foreigners in the northern part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, but allows foreigners to take whales in the Sea of Okhotsk, 

 which, as stated in these instructions, is, from its geographical position, 

 a liussian inland sea. (These words are in italics in the original.) 



In 1854, 525 foreign whalers were in Behring Sea and Alaska, p. 58*. 

 its vicinity. In the same year Voievodsky was elected ibid., p. 585. 

 Governor for the Company. 



In 1855, the Abo Whaling Company went into liquidation, iw^-. i'- ^ss. 



In 1856, 36G foreign whalers were reported as in Behring ibid., p. 584. 

 Sea and vicinity. 



Bancroft reports that in the year 1857 — 



Of the 600 or 700 United States whalers thiit were fitted out in 1857, Ibid., p. 66a. 

 at least one-half, including most of the larger vessels, were engaged 

 in the North Pacific, . . . including, of course, Behring Sea. 



