488 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



[Inolosure 5 in No. 13.] 

 Messrs. Lynde ^- Hoiujh to Mr, Folger. 



San Francisco, February 15, 1882. 



Sir: Yon will please pardon us for this seeming intrusion, but the matter in which 

 we now seek your aid and kind assistance is of great import to us. 



We now are and have been extensively engaged in the Pacific coast cod fisheries, 

 and, in fact, are among the very few who fifteen j'ears ago started in a small way, 

 believing with energy and fair dealing we could work up an enterprise that would 

 be a benefit to the coast. Our ideas were correct. We have been yearly sending 

 vessels to the coast of Kamtchatka (Sea of Okhotsk) for fish. We never have been 

 molested in Russian waters from catching cod-fish or procuring bait, which are small 

 salmon in the rivers, or filling fresh water for the use of ship, but it appears now 

 there is a law which has never been enforced against foreigners, the same we have 

 recently noted, and which we have been apprised of, and the substance is that for- 

 eign vessels must receive an order from the Governor of Siberia, besides must pay a 

 duty of 10 dollars per ton on all fish caught in Russian waters. This decree, if sus- 

 tained, is ruinous to one of the best and rising industries of the coast, and as we fit 

 oiar vessels to sail about the 1st May, leaves us but little chance to arrange matters 

 this season save with your kind assistance in the matter. Our business is fishing 

 entirely. We use no trade with natives, having nothing to do with the taking or 

 purchasing of furs. At this time we are placed in a very bad predicament. Trust- 

 ing that you can relieve us from this embarrassment, and receive an early reply on 

 the subject, we are, »fec. 



(Signed) Lynde & Hough. 



P. S. — Our vessels fish from 10 to 25 miles from shore. 



L. & H. 



No. 14. 



Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinghuysen. — {Received April 3.) 



Legation of the United States, 



St. Petershurgh, March 14, 1882. 



Sir: I have tlie honour to acknowledge the receipt of a Circular of 

 the Treasury Department of the 30th January last upon the subject of 

 fishing, &c., in the Behring Sea and in the Sea of Okhotsk. 



I am able to give the Department some little information upon this 

 subject, derived nearly four years ago from Mr. Charles H. Smith, for 

 many years a resident of Vladivostok, and at one time our Consul or 

 Vice-Consul at that port. 



A glance at the Map will show that the Kurile Islands are dotted 

 across the entrance to the sea of Okhotsk the entire distance from 

 Japan on the south to the southernmost cape of Kamtchatka on the 

 north. 



In the time when Russia owned the whole of these islands her Kep- 

 resentatives in Siberia claimed that the Sea of Okhotsk was a mare 

 clausum, for that Russian jurisdiction extended from island to island, 

 and over 2 marine leagues of intermediate sea from Japan to Kam- 

 tchatka. 



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

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

 belonged to that Power. 



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

 authorities to maintain their claim. My informant was not aware that 

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



The best whaling grounds are found in the bays and inlets of the Sea 

 of Okhotsk. Into these the Russian Government does not permit for- 

 eign whalers to enter, upon the ground that the entrance to them, from 



