Tin: NUll'niWKSTKItX HOUNDAHV - LINK. 21.') 



iK'tu'ccii tliem in tlic sjiino (|imrtt'i' \)y ix liiu; Aylilcli, 

 beginning in 54° 40' at the southernmost point of 

 Prince of Wales Island, was made to run oblicjuely to 

 strike the main-land at latitude ;jG°, and then to pro- 

 ceed parallel to the "windings of the coast at the dis- 

 tance of not exceedinir ten marine leairues therefi'om 

 along the sunnnit of the coast mountains to its inter- 

 section Avitli the 141st degree of longitude at ]\Iount 

 Sb. Elias, and thence due north along that meridian to 

 the Frozen Ocean. 



It has been too nnich the j)ractic(^ of I'ritlsh na\'i- 

 gators and Jiritish map-makers to alllx i'higlish names 

 to places previously visited and named Ijy other 

 Europeans, and to found thereon claims of discov- 

 eiy. Kuglish nanus are scattered along the coast of 

 Ivussian America, — such as Cook's Inlet, Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound, King George III. Archi|)elago, Prince 

 of Wales Archipelago; — but no British claims of 

 l)rior exploration could prevail here against the 

 claiins of possession as well as discovery presented 

 Jjy liussia. 



In this treaty, each Government speaks as the ]")ro- 

 prietor and sovereign of the respective teiTitories ; 

 and it is this treaty which defines and marks out the 

 Territoiy t)f Alaskn, as now held l)y the Unit<'^^. olates 

 under ivcent cession from Kussi/i. 



hi this condition stood the title. for more than 

 twenty years: the United States claiming from the 

 latitude of 42° to that of 54'' 40', in virtue, first, of 

 their own discoveries and settlement, and of the right 

 of the extension of Louisiana until it should reach the 



