40 The ukase of i82i. 



r^r'^rinn "^-V Micldletoii, United Slates Minister at St. Peters- 



Jinut oi 100 miles ' 



chosen. burg, to the Secretary of State, dated August 8, 



1822, giving an account of an interview with 

 the Governor-General of Siberia, who had been 

 one of the committee orio-inatino- this measure. 

 The Governor-General said it was souo-ht to es- 

 tal)lish " limits to the marine jurisdiction on their 

 coasts, such as should secure to the Russian 

 American Fur Company the monopoly of the 

 very lucrative profit they carry on. In order to 

 do this they sought a precedent, and found the 

 distance of thirty leagues, named in the Treaty of 

 Utrecht, and which may be calculated at about 

 one hundred Italian miles, sufficient for all pur- 

 poses." ^ As a similar and n'\ore recent prece- 

 dent, though not for so great an extent of sea 

 jurisdiction, might have been cited the fourth 

 article of the Nootka Sound convention between 

 Gre-al Britain and Spain, already referred to, 

 whereby the former conceded to the latter ex- 

 clusive jurisdiction of the sea for ten leagues 

 from any part of the coasts already occupied by 

 Spain. ^ 

 Tiiis limit en- The PHbilof Islands, the home of the Alaskan 



^^I"u**^f-rTT\J,'T^seal herd, are situated less than two hundred 



OI iribiloi Islands. ' 



Italian miles from the Aleutian Chain on the 

 south, and thus a sufficient portion of the eastern 



' Mr. Middleton to Mr. Adams, Angust 8, 1822, Vol. I, p. 135. 

 2 Vol. I, p. 32. 



