APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 489 



headland to headland, is less than 2 marine leagues wide. But \v^hile 

 they permit no foreign whalers to penetrate into these bays, they avail 

 chemselves of their wealth very little. The whole privilege of whaling 

 in those waters is a monopoly, owned by an unimportant Company, 

 which employs two or three sailing- schooners only, the trying and other 



laborious work being done at their stations on shore. 

 19 Eeferring to my IVo. 44 of June 1878, 1 have the honour to add 



that Baron Stoeckl told me in conversation last winter that we 

 failed to make a Fishing Treaty with Russia in 1868, principally on 

 acconnt of the vested interests of this Company. 



Mr. C. H. Smith now resides at Great Falls, N. H., and would be glad, 

 I am sure, to put his information at the service of the Department. 



I am, &c. 



(Signed) Wiokham Hoffman. 



Fo. 15. 



Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Frelinglmysen. — {Received April 13.) 



Legation of the United States, 



!St. Fetersbnrgh, March 27, 1882. 



Sir : I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your ^o. 120, 

 with its inclosures, in reference to our Pacific Ocean fisheries. Your 

 despatch reached me yesterday, and to-day I have written to M. de 

 Giers upon the subject, and I propose to call upon him upon his first 

 reception-day. In the meantime, and until further information, I do not 

 see that any new orders necessarily affecting our fishermen have been 

 issued by the Russian Government. Messrs. Lynde and Hough have 

 apparently given insufficient attention to the words '■'■ Russian waters." 

 These waters are defined in the Notice published by the Imperial Vice- 

 Consulate at Yokohama, as follows : 



"Fishing, &c., on the Russian coast or islands in the Okhotsk and 

 Behriug Seas, or on the north-eastern coast of Asia, or within their sea- 

 boundary line." 



If I recollect correctly the information given me by Mr. Smith upon 

 this subject, referred to in ray No. 44 of June 1878, and in my No. 207 

 of this month, the cod-banks lie in the open ^'ea of Okhotsk, many 

 marine leagues off the south-western coast of Kamtchatka. I observe 

 that Messrs. Lynde and Hough state that their vessels fish from 10 to 

 25 miles from the shore. At that distance in an open sea they cannot 

 be said "to fish upon the coast." 



I do not think that Russia claims that the Sea of Okhotsk is a nutre 

 claiisum, over which she has exclusive jurisdiction. If she does, her 

 claim is not a tenable one since the cession of part of the group of the 

 Kurile Islands to Japan, if it ever were tenable at any time. 



I may add that, according to the information given me four years 

 ago, Russia opposes no objections to foreign fishermen landing in desert 

 places on the coast of Kamtchatka, far from the few villages which are 

 found on that coast, for the purposes of catching bait and procuring 

 fresh water; but she does object to all communication between trading 

 and fishing vessels and the inhabitants, alleging that these vessels sell 

 them whiskey, upon which they get drunk, and neglect their fishing) 

 their only means of livelihood, and then, with their wives and children, 

 die of starvation the ensuing winter. 



I am, &o. (Signed) Wickham Hoffman. 



