CASE OF GREAT HRITAIM. 75 



Aleutian fisliermen concerning islands visited by theni and not laid 

 down upon the charts, point to the great ne<;essity for an exhaustive 

 geograpliical reconnaissance of the coast, as was done for the coast of 

 the United States between Mexico and British Columbia. 



Even the latest United States chart of what are now 

 known as the Aleutian Islands (No. (58, published in 1891) 

 is based chiefly on information obtained by the ''North 

 Pacific Surveying Expedition" under Rogers, which was 

 carried out in the schooner "Fenimore Cooper" in 1855. 

 On sheet 1 of this chart (einl)racing the western part 



98 of the Aleutian Islands) such notes as the following 

 are found : 



The latest Russian charts place Bouldyr Island 10 miles due south 

 of tlie position given here, whicli is from a determination Ijy Sumner's 

 method. 



The low islands between Goroloi and lonlakh, excepting the west 

 point of Unalga, are from Russian authorities, wliich, however, are 

 widely discrepant. 



Similarly, in the corresponding Britisli admiralty chart 

 (No. 1501) published in 1800 we find the remaik: 



Mostly from old and imperfect British, Russian, and Anuirican 

 surveys. 



On the chart of Behring Sea, i)nl)lishe(l by the United 

 States in 1891, a small islet is shown north of St. Mattliew 

 Island, near the centre of the sea, which does uot api)ear 

 on the special map of St. Matthew Island published in 

 1875, and which could not be found in 1891. 



LIMIT CONTINUKD TIIHOIOH AUCTIC OCEAN. 



That the line drawn through Bcliring Sea between Rus- 

 sian and United States possessions was thus intended and 

 regarded merely as a ready and definite mode of indicating 

 which of the numerous islands in a partially explored sea 

 should belong to either Power, is fnrther shown by a con- 

 sideration of the northern portion of the same line, which 

 is the i)ortion first defined in the Treaty. From the initial 

 point in Behring Strait, which is carefully described, the 

 "limite occidentale" of territories ceded to the United 

 States "remonte en ligne directe, sans linntation, vers le 

 nord,jusqu'a ce qu'elle se perd dans la ]\rer Glaciale,"' or 

 in the United States official translation "proceeds tlue 

 north without limitation into the same Frozen Ocean. 



The "geographical limit'' in this the northern part of its 

 length runs through an ocean which had at no time been 

 surrounded by Russian territory, and which had never 

 been claimed as reserved by Russia in any way; to which, 

 on the contrary, special stipulations for access had been 

 made in connection with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 

 181*5, and which since 1848 or 1849 had been freipiented by 

 whalers and walrus-hunters of various nations, while no 

 single fur-seal has ever been found within it. It is there- 

 fore very clear that the geographical limit thus pro- 



99 jected towards the north could have been intended 

 only to define the ownership of such islands, if any, 



as might subsecjuently be discovered in this imperfectly 

 explored ocean; and when, therefore, the Treaty proceeded 



