CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 87 



WHALERS SOMETIMES SEAL-HCNTHKS. 



The following- evidence witli reference to sealing' and 

 wLaling in Okhotsk Sea given before the Committee of 

 Ways and Means in the House of Eepresentatives at 

 Wasliingtou (3rd May, 1870), shows that whalers were also 

 engaged in taking seals: 



Q. AVlio are Williams, Haven ct Co.l—A. Williams, Haven. A: Co. ,H- K., 44th 

 are Mr. Henry P. Haven, of Conuepticnt, who died last Snnday, aixl^ Report 6^3^^*^ ' 

 Ricliard Chapel. They are whalers. They took seals and whales, 

 and had been at that business in the raeilic for a great many years. 



Q. They had an interest in these skins? — J. Yes, sir. They had a 

 vessel in the waters of the Okhotsk Sea, I think, seal-tishing in 1866. 

 While their vessel was at Honoluln in 1866, the captain bceame 

 acquainted with a Russian eaptain who put in there in distress with 

 the remainder, or a portion, of the Alaska seal-skins taken by the old 

 Russian Conii)auy, and there this captain learned of this interest. He 

 left his vessel at Honolulu, went to Connecticut, and conferred with 

 his employers. Then Mr. Chapel, one of the concern, went out to 

 Honolulu and fitted out this vessel and another one ami sent them to 

 the Alaska Islands as early as April, 1868. 



The United States Minister at St. Petersburg, Mr. Hoflf- ,,^i'-^H«ff«^«"to 

 man, writing in ISSli, thus refers to this sea : sen, March i4, 



1882. 



A glance at the map will show that the Kurile Islands are dotted 50thCong.,2ml 

 across the entrance to the Sea of Okhotsk the entire distance from Sess., Senate Ex. 

 Japan on the south to the southernmost Cai)e of Kamtchatka on the Uoc., No. 106, ii. 

 north. 1^^- 4f if J']]^;\; 



In the time when Russia owned the whole of these islands, her Rep- n'^ No. 14.' 

 reseutatives in Siberia claimed that the Sea of Okhotsk Avas a mare 

 tlaHSii))i, for that Russian jurisdiction extended from island to 

 111 island and over 2 marine leagues of intermediate sea from .Japan 

 to Kamtchatka. 



But about live years ago Russia ceded the southern group of these 

 islands to Japan, in return for the half of the Island of Saghalien, 

 which belonged to that Power. 



As soon as this was done it became impossible for the Siberian 

 authorities to maintain their claim. ^ly informant was not aware 

 that this claim had ever been seriously made at St. Petersburgh. 



And in another letter he says: 



I do not think that Russia claims that the Sea of Okhotsk is a mare ^jarch 27 1882. 



clausiim, over which she has exclusive jurisdiction. If she does, her 50th Cong.' 2nd 



claim is not a tenable one since the cession of part of the group of Sess., Senate Ex. 



the Kurile Islands to Japan, if it ever were tenable at any time. £'?''• j!^°- }^^- P- 



'- ' •■ 261. SeeAppen- 



Tho following appears as an introductory statement in jj^'j^-^"!^ "' ^^''^ 

 "Papers relating to Behring Sea Fi.sheries," published at ' 

 the Government Printing Office in Washington, 1887: 



OKHOTSK SEA SUIMECT TO UKASE OF 1821. 



This sea [of Okhotsk] is a part of the waters to which the Ukase of 

 1821 applied, and which M. Poletica, in hissubsequeiit correspondence 

 with Mr. Adams, ])rior to the Treaty of 1824, said His Imjierial Majesty, 

 the Emperor of all the Russias, might have claimed as a close sea had 

 he chosen to do so. As has been seen, all questions as to the right of 

 citizens of the United States, as well as of the subjects of Great 

 Britain, to navigate and fish in those waters, was given up by Russia 

 once for all in the Treaty of 1824 Avith the United States, and of 1825 

 with Great Britain. 



The following correspondence between Russia and the United States 

 in the years 1867 and 1868 contains an explicit disavowal l)y Russia of 

 any claim to interfere with the fishing operations of citizens of the 

 United States in the Sea of Okhotsk. 



