426 APPENDIX TO COUNTEE-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



"The Gazet- a Behring Sea, or !Sea of Karatcliatka, is tliat part of the 

 World, '"Thomas North Paciflc Ocean between the Aleutian Islands, in lati- 

 1885^' ^**'^^°"' tiule 55° north, and Behring Strait, in latitude 66'^ north, 

 by which latter it communicates with the Arctic Ocean." 



Worcester's "Behriug Sea. A i)art of the Pacific Ocean N. of the 

 rh^'Sr/ifLan-Aleutian Islands." 



guage," Philadelphia, 1887. 



"Pocket Encv- " Bchriug's Sea. Northeast part of the Pacific between 



slTLol^'itls""" Asia and America." 

 Chambers' "Behriiig Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic 



"Encyclopaedia," ()pp„,, 

 1888. v^CtJclu. 



"Behring Sea. A part of the Paciflc Ocean, commonly 

 known as the Sea of Kamchatka." 

 B 1 a c k i e ' s '' Behring's Strait, connecting the North Pacific with the 



"Modern Cyclo- Ar.pfip Oppaii 

 pajdia," 1889 edi- ^K^tlC KJHidU. 



'^Behring's Sea, sometimes called the Sea of Kam- 

 chatka, is that portion of the North Pacific Ocean lying 

 between the Aleutian Islands and Behring's Strait." 



The following letter, addressed to Mr. Kobert Rayner by 

 Professor Alexander Supan, and published by Mr. Rayner 

 in an article by hiin on the Behring Sea question in the 

 New York "Evening Post," of the 11th March, 1891, is of 

 particular interest as embodying the opinion of one of the 

 most eminent, geographical authorities of the day on the 

 subject of the relations of Behring Sea to the Pacific: 



[TraTislation.] 



Justus Perthes' Geographical Institute, 



Editoriai- Rooms, Office of 



Petermann's Communications, 



Gotha, November 10, 1SS7. 



Honoured Sir : In ansiyer to yonrhonoured. letter of the 24t]i Octo- 

 ber, I beg to make the following remarks: 



Behring's Sea is considered by all geographers as a part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, and there cannot be [the] least doubt with regard to this, 

 [from] however diflerent principles of division one may start. 



Behring's Strait is the natural topographical boundary of two great 

 eea basins, the Pacific and the Arctic, and this all the more, as it 

 nearly coincides with the northern Polar Circle. In addition, there 

 is the consideration that sea arms shut olf by chains of islands are just 

 one of the characteristic marks of the western part of the Pacific 

 Ocean. As little as one can detach the Sea of Okhotsk or the Sea 

 of Japan from the Pacific Ocean, just so little can one consider Behr- 

 ing's Sea as independent. A comparison with such inland waters as 

 Delaw.are Bay or the Sea of Azov appears entirely inadmissible. 



It is, however, [certainly] a ditterent question how [what] the Treaty 

 Powers thought on this point in 1824. Up to the year 1845 there was 

 great [much] caprice and divergence in the division and appellation 

 of the great seas. Ho^w^ver, the wording of the Treaty of 1824 shows 

 that one was already acquainted with the division of Buache (1752), 

 for he was the first one to introduce the name Great Ocean. In this 

 division Behring Sea belonged to the "Mer Septentrionale du Grand 

 Oc(?an." Forster, the celebrated companion of Cook, also is beyond 

 doubt in this regard (see [his] collected writings, vol. iv, p. d,ff).^ 



It must be noted that in Fleurien's time (year eight of the first 

 French Republic) the two ice seas (Arctic and Antarctic) -were not yet 

 separated [were not yet looked upon as separated] from the other 

 three oceans. When i^leurien introduced this separation he took the 

 Polar Circles as boundaries, and to this the British Commission of 1845 



