74 



the coasts above mentioned au illicit trade very prejudicial to the riglits 

 reserved entirely to the liussian- Vmciican Company," and from fur- 

 nisliiug " arms and animunitiou to tlie natives in the Eussian possessions 

 in America," and (to use the language of Bnron Mcolay) from landing 

 <'on the settlements of the American Company, and on the Peninsula 

 of Kamschatka and the coasts of Okhotsk Sea, and from sailing along 

 the coasts of those possessions, and, as a rule, from approaching them 

 within 100 Italian miles." (2) That, in order to accomplish those ends? 

 foreign vessels were not to infringe upon ''the line marked out in the 

 regulations," and therefore not to approach the coasts within a less 

 distance than that specified. (3) That while Russia claimed that it 

 could jpstly assert the rights of sovereignty over all the waters 

 between the North American and Asiatic Continents, from Bering Strait 

 to the fifty-first degree of north latitude on the American side, and 

 from the same strait to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude on the 

 Asiatic side, it limited' in the Ukase of 1821 its actual assertion of 

 sovereignty over the waters within or inside of a certain line. It 

 consequently declared that the Ukase of 1821 had reference only to 

 the waters within 100 Italian miles from the coasts mentioned. 



Additional proof of all this is found in the letter of Mr. Adams, the 

 American Secretary of State, of March 30, 1822, replying to the above 

 communication from M. Poletica, and in the latter of M. Poletica to 

 Mr. Adams, dated April, A. D. 1822. Mr. Adams, in his letter, said: 

 " With regard to the suggestion that the Eussian Government might 

 have justified the exercise of sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as a 

 close sea, because it claims territory both on its American and Asiatic 

 shores, it may suffice to say that the distance fiom shore to shore on 

 this sea, in the latitude of 51 degrees north, is not less than 90 degrees 

 of longitude or 4,000 miles." To this M. Poletica responded : " In the 

 same manner the great extent of the Pacific Ocean at the fifty-first 

 degree of north latitude can not invalidate the right which Eussia may 

 have of considering that part of the ocean as close. But as the 

 Imperial Government has not thought it fit to take advantage of that 

 right, all further discussion on this subject would be idle." U. 8. 

 Case, Vol. 1, App., 134, 135. 



The next point in Article VI to be considered is that involved in the 

 inquiry: 



'■'■ Iloiofar were these claims of JHrlsdicAion as to the seal fisheries 

 recognized and conceded by Grcal BrilaliiP^ 



