32 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



This document has beeu produced for the first time in the 

 United States Case. It is in no sense an international doc- 

 ument. Further, the questions put by the North American 

 Company, to wliich it purports to be an answer, are not 

 produced. 

 CaYe '**f 54^ 55*^'^ Morcovcr, the tran slation of the Eeport cited i n the 



T^or ^' "revi'sed 34 United States Case is inaccurate in most important 

 Appendis^Voi.^i! particulars. The translation given in the United 



p. 34.) ' States Case is as follows, the words appearing between 

 brackets being simple interi)olations: 



7. That since the sovereiguty of Russia over the shores of Siberia 

 [and America], as well as over the Aleutian Islands [and the inter- 

 venin(t_seas] , has long since been acknowledged by all Powers, these 

 coasts, islands [and seas] j ust named could not have beeu referred to 

 in the Articles of the above-mentioned Convention, which latter con- 

 cerns only the disputed territory on the north-west coast of America 

 and the adjoining islands, and that in the full assurance of such 

 undisputed right Russia has long since established permanent Settle- 

 ments on the coast of Siberia, as Avell as on the chain of the Aleutian 

 Islands; consequently, American subjects could not, on the strength 

 of Article II of the Convention of the 5th (17th) April, have made 

 landings on the coast, or carried on huntiug and fishing without the 

 permission of our Commanders or CTOvernors. These coasts of Siberia 

 and of the Aleutian Islands are not washed by the Southern or Pacific 

 Ocean, of which mention is made in Article I of the Convention, but 

 by the Arctic Ocean and the Seas of Kamchatka and Okhotsk, which, 

 on all authentic Charts and in all geographies, form no part of the 

 Southern or Pacific Ocean. 



From this Report, it may be gathered that the two fol- 

 lowing points had been raised by the Company: 



1. It was thought that Article I of the Convention per- 

 mitted citizens of the United States to resort to the coast 

 ui)ou points not already occupied upon the shores of Siberia 

 and the Aleutian Islands for the jjurpose of trading with 

 the natives. 



2. The Company desired to confine the right of fishing 

 and trading, granted to the United States for ten years by 

 Article IV, to the coast south of Cross' Sound. 



It was to meet the first of these points that the argument 

 that Behring Sea is not ])art of the Pacific Ocean, or South 

 Sea, was for tbe first time suggested in the above Eeport. 

 Revised trans- Upou the sccoud poiut, the Committee expressed the 

 dix,VoL i, p^?5° opinion that Yakutat or Behring Bay was situated — 



in a latitude [59° 30' north] where the rights of Russia have never 

 formed a subject of dispute, and that this important circumstance 

 permits us to include it in the general declaration concerning the 

 Aleutian Islands and the other northern places. 



Revised traBs- 35 ^g to Cross' Souud, the Committee agreed that — 



latiou, Ap p en- ' ° 



dix, vol. i, p. 35. ^g j^ jjgg under the 57th degree of north latitude, and consequently 

 within the limits of those islands and regions to which Russia's right 

 of sovereignty has been disputed, it is imjiracti cable to apply the 

 same rule. 



Accordingly, on the suggestion of the Committee, Baron 

 Tuyll, Russian Minister at Washington, was instructed 

 by his Government to propose to Mr. Adams that Cross' 

 Sound should be the northern limit, to which the right of 

 fishing and trading for the stipulated period of ten years 

 should be confined. 



