50 THE TREATIES OF 1824 AND 182;'. 



not only tliat it was made in response to a 

 request of the liussian American Company for 

 an interpretation of tlie American treaty, but, 

 what is more important, that it was made shortly 

 before the signing- of the treaty with Great 

 Britain, in which, therefore, the Russian nego- 

 tiators did not consider it necessary (any more 

 than they had considered it necessary in the 

 former) to declare that Bering Sea was not a 

 part of the Pacific Ocean, in which latter the 

 right of free fishing was recognized to exist. 

 Treaties rccog- So far, therefore, from the terms of these trea- 



nized bv iinpliea- . ,... , ..-,.. 



tionrigLtsfiaimedties revokmg Or limiting the jurisdiction pre- 



liy Kussia over _ ^ _ • r< 



Bering Sea. viously excrcised by Russia over Bering Sea, 



there is inherent evidence in all those instru- 

 ments, as well as in the negotiations which pre- 

 ceded them, that no such revocation or limitation 

 was sought, conceded, or obtained by the high 

 contracting parties. Russia was quick to notice 

 that her assum])tion of control over the waters 

 of the North Pacific Ocean was untenable; she 

 therefore acknowledged this by the first articles 

 of the two treaties in question. But neither in 

 the protests, negotiations, nor treaties is any 

 reference found to Bering Sea, and it must be 

 conceded from a study of those instruments and 

 the subsequent events that the question of juris- 

 dictional rio-hts over its waters was left where it 



