444 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



UP FROM VARIOUS JOURNALS AND MAPS, AND ENGRAVED 

 IN THE HyDROGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE MINIS- 

 TRY OF Marine, 1853. A Russian Map, published at St. 

 Petersburgh. Eastern Ocean is written in a line parallel to 

 the coast given. 



J859. General Map of Asiatic Russia or Siberia, and 



THE Russian North-American Possessions. St. 

 Petersburgh, 1859. A Russian Map, published at St. 

 Petersburgh in 1859. The ocean south of the Aleutian 

 Islands is marked Eastern^ Greaty or Facific Ocean. 



3. — On the Meaning of the Term "North-West 

 Coast of America," or "North- West Coast." 



Mr. Blaine, in his despatch of the 17th December, 1892, 

 discusses the question of the meaning of the term North- 

 west Coast or North-ivest Coast of America at greater length, 

 and more fully explains the contention with reference to it, 

 than is done in the Case of the United States. He writes 

 as follows : 



Mr. Blaine to The dispute prominently involves the meaning of the phrase '' north- 



SirJ.Paimceiote, -^vest coast," or ''north-west coast of America." 



December 17, „ „ „ ^ , 



1892. * * ^ * » 



"United States The contention of this Government is that hy long prescription the 

 n"' iq '^It^***'" ''north-west coast" means the coast of the Pacific Ocean, south of the 

 British Case Alaskan Peninsula, or soutb of the 60th piirallel of north latitude; or, 

 Appendix, vol. ii'. to define it still more accurately, the coast, from the northern horder 

 of the Spanish possessions, ceded to the United States in 1819, to the 

 point where the Spanish claims met the claims of Russia, viz., from 

 42^ to 60"^ north latitude. The Russian authorities for a long time 

 assumed that 59° 30' was the exact point of latitude, but subsequent 

 adjustments fixed it at 60°. The phrase "north-west coast," or 

 "north-west coast of America" has been well known and widely rec- 

 ognized in popular usage in England and America from the date of 

 the first trading to that coast, about 1784. So absolute has been this 

 prescription that the distinguished historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, 

 has written an accurate history of the north-west coast, which at dif- 

 ferent times, during a period of seventy-five years, was the scene of 

 important contests between at least four Great Powers. To render the 

 understanding explicit, Mr. Bancroft has illustrated the north-west 

 coast by a carefully prepared Map. The Map will be found to include 

 precisely the area which has been steadily maintained by this Gov- 

 ernment in the pending discussion. 



The phrase "north-west coast of America" has not infrequently 

 been used simply as the synonym of the "north-west coast," but it has 

 also been used in another sense as including the American coast of the 

 Russian possessions as far northward as the Straits of Behring. Con- 

 fusion bas sometimes arisen in the use of the phrase "north-west coast 

 of America," but the true meaning can always be determined by 

 reference to the context. 



It can, however, be shown by actual reference to published 

 maps and documents (apart from the negotiations leading 

 up to the conclusion of the Conventions of 1824 and 1825 

 cited in the British Case, Chapter III) : (1) That North-iccst 

 Coast of America and North-west Coast are practically iden- 

 tical expressions, "America " being in the latter case under- 

 stood, and the abbreviated form being merely arrived at 

 by the elision of that word. (2) That the full meaning of 

 the term, in either form, included the western coast of North 



