286 THE GROWTH OF CANADA 



the American authorities in Alaska proceeded 

 to assert far-reaching powers for controlling 

 the situation. In 1886 three, and in the next 

 summer four, British sealers were seized by 

 American revenue cutters in Behring Sea, at 

 distances from the shore varying from fifteen 

 to one hundred and fifteen miles, on the charge 

 of violating the law forbidding the killing of 

 seals in Alaska. The court of the district up 

 held the seizures and inflicted penalties on the 

 crews of the vessels, taking the ground that 

 Behring Sea was mare clausum, and that so 

 much of it as lay to the eastward of the water 

 boundary described in the treaty of cession by 

 Russia was subject to the territorial jurisdiction 

 of the United States. 



Against this whole procedure the British 

 Foreign Office entered vigorous protests. There 

 was involved a claim to control over a stretch 

 of open ocean some seven hundred miles in 

 width and that by a government which was 

 vehemently objecting to the exercise on the 

 Atlantic coast of like control over ocean spaces 

 but a paltry forty miles wide. The administra 

 tion at Washington refrained from pressing the 

 contention on which the Alaskan court rested, 

 and ordered the release of the seized vessels. On 



