106 



contracting' parties, any less rights tlian those employed in the hunt- 

 ing of fur seals in the same waters. There is no trace in the record 

 of any purpose upon the part of Eussia to claim larger rights in the 

 open waters of Bering Sea in respect to the hunting of fur seals than 

 in respect to the hunting of whales. In fact, prior to 1807, there was 

 no such thing known as the hunting of these fur seals in the high seas, 

 except, perhaps, a few were taken by the natives along the coasts with 

 spears and harpoons. 



There is one argument, in sujiport of the contention that "Pacific 

 Ocean" in the treaties of 1824 and 1825 do not include Bering Sea, which 

 deserves examination. It is, that upon a vast number of maps pub- 

 lished prior to 1825 the waters north of the Aleutian Islands and be- 

 tween Alaska and Siberia were designated separately from the waters 

 south of those islands, and that if Eussia and Great Britain intended 

 that the treaty of 1825 should embrace the Avaters of Bering Sea some 

 reference would have been made to that sea in the form of words used 

 on maps designating it as a separate body of water. To Mr. Blaine's 

 letter of December 17, 1890, is attached a list of 105 maps, covering 

 the period from 1743 to 1829, showing that on those maps the waters 

 south of Bering Sea are variously designated as the Pacific Ocean, 

 Ocean Pacifique, Stilles Meer, the Great Ocean, Grand Mer, Grosser 

 Ocean, the Great South Sea, Grosser Sud-Sea, iJ^orth Pacific, Mer du 

 Sud, etc. On those maps the waters north of the Aleutian Islands 

 are as a general rule designated specially, sometimes by the words 

 "Sea of Kamschatka," and at other times by the name of "Bering- 

 Sea." 



But, upon examining those and other maps, it appears that, in most 

 instances, the words "Seaof Kamschatka" and "Bering Sea" are often 

 in letters so small as compared with the words " Pacific Ocean," "Great 

 Ocean," "Great South Sea," etc., lower down on the map, as to justify the 

 conclusion that the former body of water was regarded as a part of the 

 latter. This view is supported by the fact that on many charts, and in 

 many geographies, encyclopedias, and other publications prior to and 

 since 1825 (references to some of which ai'e given in the margin*) Bering 



*Morse's American Geography, London, 1794, p. 650: "Russian Empire. This 

 immense empire stretches from the Baltic Sea and Sweden on the west to Kam- 

 schatka and the Pacific Ocean on the east, and from the Frozen Ocean on the ■ 

 north to about the forty-fonrth degree of latitude on the south." 



Malhani's Naval Gazctcer, London, 1705, Vol. 2, p. 4: "Kamschatka Sea is a 

 large hranch of the Oriental or North Pacific Ocean." 



