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seal fisheries in Bering Sea east of the water boundary defined in 

 the treaty of March 30, 18G7, between Eussia and the United States, 

 passed unimpaired to the United States. She conveyed all her terri- 

 tory and dominion, and all the rights, franchises, and privileges Avhich 

 she possessed in such territory and dominion, within the limits defined 

 by that treaty, free and unincumbered by any reservations, privileges, 

 grants, or possession, by any company or individuals. The deed of ces- 

 sion of 1867 necessarily embraced all of Kussia's rights, whatever they 

 were, in the fur seals frequenting the Pribilof Islands, and in the 

 industries carried on there for more than three-guarters of a century 

 prior to 1867. 



If I am correct in the views above expressed, the answers to the 

 first four points of Article VI should be, substantially, as follows: 



To the first. — Prior to and up to the time of the cession of Alaska to 

 the United States, Russia did not assert nor exercise any exclusive 

 jurisdiction in Bering Sea, or any exclusive rights in the fur seal fish- 

 eries in that sea, outside of ordinary territorial waters, except that in 

 the Ukase of 1821 she did assert the right to prevent foreign vessels 

 from approaching nearer than 100 Italian miles the coasts and islands 

 named in that Ukase. But, pending the negotiations to which that 

 Ukase gave rise, Russia voluntarily suspended its execution, sa far as 

 to direct its officers to restrict their surveillance of foreign vessels to 

 the distance of cannon shot from the shores mentioned, and by the 

 treaty of 1821 with the United States, as well as by that of 1825 

 with Great Britain, the above Ukase was withdrawn, and the claim 

 of authority or the power to prohibit foreign vessels from approaching 

 the coasts nearer than 100 Italian miles was abandoned, by the 

 agreement embodied in those treaties to the effect that the respective 

 citizens and subjects of the high contracting parties should not be 

 troubled or molested, in any part of the Great Ocean commonly called 

 the Pacific Ocean, either in navigating the same or in fishing therein, 

 or in landing at such parts of the coast as shall not have been already 

 occupied, in order to trade with the natives, under the restrictions 

 and conditions specified in other articles of those treaties. 



To the second. — Great Britain never recognized nor conceded any 

 claim by Russia of exclusive jurisdiction in Bering Sea, nor of 

 exclusive rights as to the seal fisheries therein, outside of ordinary 

 territorial waters; although she did recognize and concede Russia's 



