AS MINISTER TO RUSSIA- 1892-1894 15 



name that the Russian Government ordered him to come 

 all the way from the Russian islands on the coast of Sibe 

 ria to St. Petersburg, there to be reexamined. It was an 

 enormous journey from the islands to Japan, from Ja 

 pan to San Francisco, from San Francisco to New York, 

 and thence to St. Petersburg. There, with the aid of a 

 Russian expert, I had the satisfaction of putting questions 

 to him ; and, having found the larger part of his previous 

 alleged testimony to be completely in conflict with his 

 knowledge and opinions, I forwarded this new testimony 

 to those in charge of the American case before the Paris 

 tribunal, in the hope that it would place the whole matter 

 in its true light. With it was also presented the concur 

 ring testimony taken by the American experts who had 

 been sent to the Behring Sea. Those experts were Drs. 

 Mendenhall and Merriam, scientists of the highest char 

 acter, and their reports were, in every essential particu 

 lar, afterward confirmed by another man of science, after 

 study of the whole question in the islands and on the ad 

 jacent seas Dr. Jordan, president of Stanford Univer 

 sity, probably the highest authority in the United States 

 and, perhaps, in the world regarding the questions at 

 issue : a pupil and friend of Agassiz, a man utterly incap 

 able of making a statement regarding any point in science 

 which he did not fully believe, no matter what its political 

 bearing might be. 



And now to another feature of the case. Before leaving 

 Washington for St. Petersburg, I had consulted with the 

 Secretary of State and the leading persons in charge of 

 our case, and on my way had talked with Count Shuva- 

 loff, the Russian ambassador at Berlin; and all agreed 

 that the interests of the United States and Russia in the 

 matter of protecting the seals were identical. The only 

 wonder was that, this fact being so clear, the Russian 

 Foreign Office constantly held back from showing any 

 active sympathy with the United States in our efforts to 

 right this wrong done to both nations. 



At my first presentation to the Emperor I found him, as 



