THE TREATIES OF 1824 AND 1825. 51 



of the coasts and islands lymg; between latitudes ^^''o*?s*^''ir?ctea 



•^ ^ to claim oi juris- 



51° and 55°, on what was known as the North- ^?^*'?? ^^^^^ ,i>- 



' cine Ocean ana to 



west Coast, and their citizens and subjects had ^0^ Jluent.^'*'^*^'^ ^^ 



been actively engaged with their ships in hunting 



and trading on those shores and waters, and it 



was natural that they should vigorously protest 



against the attempt of Russia to exclude them 



from that region. On the other hand there is no 



record that such hunting or trading had ever been 



carried on by them within Bering Sea. The history 



of the period and the locality, the discussion 



which followed the ukase, and the treaties which 



were the result of it, attest that the object of both 



the United States and Great Britain in contesting 



the pretensions of Russia in this matter was to 



maintain their respective claims to the territory 



indicated, to preserve intact their valuable trade 



with the natives on the Northwest Coast, and to 



enjoy the free navigation of the Great Ocean 



which washed that coast.^ 



THE TREATIES OF 1824 AND 1825. 



The controversy which followed the promul- Settled the two- 



•^ ^ fold dispute. 



gation of- the ukase of 1821 resulted in a treaty 

 between the United States and Russia in 1824,^ 



1 See Vivien de Saint-Martin, vol. I, jj. 56. 

 « Vol. I, p. 35. 



