PERIOD FOLLOWING THE TREATIES. 25 



whole extent of the Pacific Ocean. 1 From what visits of whal- 

 ers to Bering Sea. 



is said, however, by this same author immedi- 

 ately following the above citation, it appears 

 that, through the endeavors of Etholen, "the 

 Government at length referred the matter to a 

 committee composed of officials of the navy 

 department, who reported that the cost of fitting 

 out a cruiser for the protection of Bering Sea 

 against foreign whalers would be 200,000 roubles 

 in silver and the cost of maintaining such a craft 

 85,000 roubles a year. To this a recommendation 

 was added that, if the company were willing to 

 assume the expenditure, a cruiser should at once 

 be placed at their disposal. 1 ' 1 Hence, accord- 

 ing to Bancroft, the failure to protect Bering 

 Sea can not be traced to the fact that the Russian 

 Government considered it had lost the right to 

 do so by the treaties of 1824 and 1825. 



The position of the United States does not, Rigfot to protect 



1 seals not relin- 



however, depend on the foregoing explanation i ulslie<1 - 

 being the true one. Why Russia claimed to 

 guard her coasts for a distance of 100 miles has 

 already been pointed out; and from the fact that, 

 for whatever reason, she may have suffered the 

 carrying on of whaling or of any sort of fishing 

 in Bering Sea, it does not follow that she relin- 



1 Bancroft's Alaska, p. 583. . 



