38 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



42 8n;\iMARY ok riRiTisii Reply. 



A more exhaustive collection of Maps and Cliarts prove tbat " Paciiic Ocean" includes 

 lieliring Sea. Not one lias been found which, having regard to the relative sizes 

 and positions of the names, is an autliority to the contrary. In Charters of the 

 Russian American Company, the Kurile Islands, T,vhich lie outside Behring Sea, 

 hut in the Pacific Ocean, are said to be in '* Kortli-Eastcru Ocean," or North- 

 Eastern Sea; the identity of which with the Paciiic Ocean is thus demoustrateil. 



Apart from the evidence aft'ordcd by maps, and by the previous negotiations, that 

 the words "Pacific Ocean" in the Treaties included IJehring Sea, the same is 

 proved from the Treaties themselves. Both, for ten years, throw open to the 

 subjects of the Contracting Powers the harbours ou the uorth-we.st coast; which 

 coast is not defined by interpretation clause; and is shown by the preliminary 

 correspondence, and by Article III of the 1825 Treaty, to have reached to Behring 

 Strait. The throwing open of the harbours assumes the right of aijproach thereto, 

 and refutes the suppositicm that Behring Sea was closed. 



The interpretation of the term "north-west coast" in Contention (1.) is now sug- 

 gested, without reason assigned, after three other interpretations had been 

 put forward l>y the United States, and answered by Great Britain, in the cor- 

 respondence x^receding the Arldtration Treaty. Two of the three do not reappear 

 iu the United States Case; aud the survivor, which forms Contention (4.) is that 

 "north-west coast" in both Treaties means what is called in the Treaty of 182.5 

 the "lisiere." But it did not mean this iu the Treaty of 1824; for no "lisiere" 

 is mentioned therein, or was iu question between the parties. Nor in the Treaty 

 of 1825 could "north-west coast" have meant the "lisiere," as the right to use 

 harbours is carefully expressed to be reciprocal, and to apply to both Powers, 

 while the "lisiere" was to belong exclusively to Russia. Further, the second 

 Articles of the Treaties bind Russian subjects not to laiul, v/ithout permission, at 

 United States aud British establishments 6n the "north-west coast." 



The above construction of "north-west coast" is confirmed by the use of the term 

 "north-western coast," manifestly to include the east coast of Behring Sea, in 

 a form of Patent prepared by the Russian Government, pursuant to the Slave 

 Trade Treaty of the 20th December 1841; and by the use of the term "north- 

 west coast" in Treaties of Commerce between Great Britain and Russia, dated the 

 11th January, 1843, and 12th January, 1859. 



I 



CONTENTION THAT GEOGRAPHERS EXCLUDE BEHRING SEA 



FROM PACIFIC OCEAN. 



United States With reference to the above-fiuoted assertions that the 

 Case, p. 52. tcrms "Great Ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean 

 or South Sea," and "the Ocean, coiiwmmly called tlie Pacific 

 Ocean," as used in the Treaties, are shown by a study of 

 the contemporaneous Maps, Charts, and writings of navi- 

 gators not to have applied to or to have included Behring 

 Sea, the following observations may be made. 



The Maps and Charts, of which a list is given in the 

 Appendix to the United States Case, are said to prove 

 that— 



43 the best geographers have at all times distinguished that body 

 of water from the ocean lying south of it by conferring upon it 

 some separate name 



United states This list of Maps is the list inclosed by Mr. Blaine to 

 voTi, p.^'i'es'"^'''' Sir Julian Pauncefote in his letter of the 17th December, 

 1890, with a statement that it represented — 



a large proportion of the most authentic maps published during ninety 

 years prior to 1825 in Great Britain, in the United States, the Nether- 

 lands, France, Spain, Germany, and Russia. 



