JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 233 



that tMs treaty, like the Ensso- American treaty, limited the "ISTorth- 

 west Coast" to that i)art of the coast between the littieth and six- 

 tieth i^arallels of north latitude — as fully set forth by Mr. Middletou in 

 the protocols preceding the treaty between the United States and 

 Eussia. The negotiators never touched one foot of the boundary of 

 the Behring Sea, whether on continent or island, and never even made 

 a reference to it. Its nearest point, in Bristol Bay, was a thousand 

 miles distant from the field of negotiation between the powers. 



It must not be forgotten that this entire negotiation of the three 

 j)owers proceeded "with full knowledge and recognition of the ukase of 

 1821. While all questions touching the respective rights of the powers 

 on the Northwest Coast between the fiftieth and sixtieth i)arallels were 

 discussed and pressed by one side or the other, and finally agreed upon, 

 the terms of the ukase of 1821, in which the Emperor set forth so clearly 

 the rights claimed and exercised by Eussia in the Behring Sea, were un- 

 touched and unquestioned. These rights were therefore admitted by 

 all the powers negotiating as within the exercise of Enssia's lawful 

 authority then, and they were left inviolate by England during all the 

 subsequent contiuuance of Enssia's dominion over Alaska. 



These treaties were therefore a practical renunciatiou, both on the part 

 of England and the United States, of any rights in the waters of Behring 

 Sea during the period of Enssia's sovereignty. They left the Behring 

 Sea and all its coasts and islands precisely as the ukase of Alexander 

 in 1821 left them — that is, with a prohibition against any vessel ap- 

 proaching nearer to the coast than 100 Italian miles, under danger of 

 confiscation. The original ukase of Alexander (1821) claimed as far 

 south as the fifty-first degree of north latitude, with the inhibition of 100 

 miles from the coast applying to the whole. 



The result of the protest of Mr. Adams, followed by the cooperation 

 of Great Britain, was to force Eussia back to 54 10 as her southern 

 boundary. But there was no renunciation whatever on the part ot 

 Eussia as to the Behring Sea, to which the ukase especially and pri- 

 marily applied. As a piece of legislation this ukase was as authorita- 

 tive in the dominions of Eussia as an act of Parliament is in the domin- 

 ions of G-reat Britain or an act of Congress in the territory of the United 

 States. Except as voluntarily moditied by Eussia in the treaty with 

 the United States, April 17, 1824, and in the treaty with Great Britain, 

 February 16, 1825, the ukase of 1821 stood as the law controlling the 

 Eussian possessions in America until the close of Enssia's ownership) 

 by transfer to this Government. Both the United States and Great 

 Britain recognized it, respected it, obeyed it. It did not, as so many 

 suppose, declare the Behring Sea to be mare claiisinn. It did declare 

 that the waters, to the extent of 100 miles from the shores, were re- 

 served for the subjects of the Eussian Empire. Of course many hun- 

 dred miles, east and west and north and south, were thus intentionally 

 left by Eussia for the whale fishery and for fishing open and free to the 

 world, of which other nations took large advantage. Perhaps in pur- 

 suing this advantage foreigners did not always keep 100 miles from the 

 shore, but the theory of right on which they conducted their business 

 unmolested was that they observed the conditions of the ukase. 



But the 100-mile restriction performed the function for which it was 

 specially designed in preventing foreign nations from molesting, disturb- 

 in g, or by any possibility sharing in the fur trade. The fur trade formed 

 the principal, almost the sole employment of the Eussian American 

 Company. It formed its employment, indeed, to such a degree that it 

 soon became known only as the Eussian American Fur Company, and 

 30 



