88 ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



I now approach the consideration of that question which, in the order 

 adopted by the Treaty, seems properly to be the first to engage our atten- 

 tion. That has reference to tlie rights whicli may have been gained by 

 Enssiaover the regions in connection with which this controversy has 

 arisen, and the riglits which consequently the United States may have 

 derived from the act of cession of the Alaskan territory by Eussia to the 

 United States. When I was giving a historical sketch of tlie origin of 

 tliis controversy I very briefly alluded to the region of Bering Sea and to 

 the enrly discoveries and acquisitions of Eussia in that quarter of the 

 globe, but I ought, perhaps, to call attention to some of the details 

 which it was not important for me then to give. 



The maritime enterprise and ambition of Eussia, withholding its 

 exercise from the more fruitful and agreeable quarters of the globe, 

 were exerted in these high northern latitudes on the coasts of Asia and 

 ISTorth America. The discoveries of Eussian navigators in that region 

 began at a very early period. As early as 1G48 a voyage Avas made 

 from the Arctic Ocean, from the northern shores of Sibeiia, around 

 through Bering Straits, and along the eastern coast of Siberia. That 

 was as early as 1G48, and at about the same time there was a discovery 

 of the iSTortli American continent near the mouth of the Yukon Elver, 

 on the other side of Bering Sea. 



The President. Was not Siberia in possession of Eussia? 



Mr. Carter. So far as it could be in the possession of any power, I 

 think it can be said that as early as that period it was in the possession 

 of Eussia. In the year 1728 Beiing made his voyage through the 

 Straits to which his name was afterwards given. He made a second 

 voyage in 1741, and in tliat voyage ho discovered the eastern shore of 

 the Sea, and also a large number of the Aleutian Islands. He discov- 

 ered also the Comsnander Islands, which are the breeding place of the 

 Eussian seals; and it was upon one of those islands that he was ship- 

 wrecked . 



This discovery of the Commander Islands by Eussia gave them a 

 knowledge of the herd of fur-seals which visited that spot, and enabled 

 them to turn that source of wealtli to the benefit of man. During this 

 period, ami subsequent to the voyages which I have mentioned, there 

 were other very numerous Eussian voyages in Bering Sea and along 

 the Aleutian chain, and in the course of them it was discovered that 

 there were vast bodies of seals at certain periods of the year migrating 

 North, and at cei'tain other periods migrating South. Their migrations 

 ISTorth were more noticeable, because it is in those migrations that they 

 are more together; and from the knowledge the Eussians had already 

 acquired of the habits of seals around the Commander Islands, they 

 had every reason to believe that there was, North of the Aleutian 

 Islands, through the passes of which they saw them taking their course, 

 some remote region which they made their breeding ground. As I had 

 occasion to state, the discovery of that unkuown region was one of the 

 great purposes of Pribilof, an enterprising Eussian navigator, and he 

 finally, after nuiny attempts, made the discovery. 



The President. You mean to say Pribilof's expedition was mainly 

 designed on account of the seals, — that he, at that period, was looking 

 out for the seals? 



Mr. Carter. He was. He had been looking out for the breeding 

 place of those seals which he had observed making these migrations to 

 the northward. It was a distinct object with him, and he fiiuilly satis- 

 lied his ambition and made the discovery. 



