THE FUR-SEALS AND THE BERING SEA AWARD 7 



limits, comprehends all the conditions which are ordinarily 

 attached to shut seas (mers fermees), and the Russian Government 

 might consequently judge itself authorized to exercise upon this 

 sea the right of sovereignty, and especially that of entirely inter- 

 dicting the entrance of foreigners. But it preferred only assert- 

 ing its essential rights, without taking any advantage of localities. 



It thus became evident that the Emperor considered as 

 belonging to him alone, not only the Bering Sea, but also, 

 as a closed sea, all that portion of the Pacific Ocean which 

 lies north of latitude 51; and that he further considered it 

 a generous act on his part to leave all his imperial domain of 

 sea, except a mere hundred-mile belt about its shores, free 

 to the world for its commerce and navigation. Mr. Adams 

 replied to Mr. Poletica's note on March 30: 



This pretension is to be considered not only with reference to 

 the question of territorial right, but also to that prohibition to the 

 vessels of other nations, including those of the United States, to 

 approach within one hundred Italian miles of the coasts. From 

 the period of the existence of the United States as an indepen- 

 dent nation, their vessels have freely navigated those seas, and the 

 right to navigate them is a part of that independence. . . . 



The Russian Emperor's position, in asserting mare clausum 

 over the Pacific Ocean as bounded by his own possessions on 

 either side, was made absurd by Mr. Adams' simple state- 

 ment that " the distance from shore to shore on this sea in 

 latitude 51 north is not less than 90 degrees of longitude, or 

 four thousand miles." 



England had no important interests directly violated by 

 the Russian ukase of 1821, but she possessed territory 

 vaguely and indefinitely bounded in the northwest part of 

 North America, and she detected in Russian claims of en- 

 larged jurisdiction over so great an extent of sea a precedent 

 that might in the future operate adversely to her own inter- 

 ests. Her protest, which was quite as vigorous as the one 

 from Washington, is found in the Duke of Wellington's 

 letter of November 28, 1822, to the Russian Ambassador at 

 London : 



