448 APPENDIX TO COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



This map is entitled "Map of tlie North- west Coast," 

 and is actually reproduced in fac- simile in the despatch. 

 This map appears to be regarded as an argument con- 

 clusive in itself, and it is said of it, " The map will be found 

 to include precisely the area which has been steadily main- 

 tained by this Government in the pending discussion."* 



If Mr. Blaine had written " precisely that part of the 

 west coast of America," he would have been more accurate, 

 for of this coast the maj) in question actually includes from 

 about latitude 40°, in the vicinity of Cape Mendocino, to 

 the vicinity of that part of the coast where latitude 60° 

 reaches the Pacific. 



The area of the map is, however, a very different matter, 

 as it stretches eastward so as to include Hudson Bay and 

 Strait, Davis Strait, and the St. Lawrence Eiver nearly to 

 its mouth : in fact, almost the entire northern width of the 

 North American Continent. We are fortunately, however, 

 not obliged to criticize this point alone by the exigencies 

 which determined the lines upon which this particular map 

 was cut off by the draftsman — for it is evidently by its 

 construction a reproduction of some part of a more inclusive 

 map of the continent. 



The text of the work to which it is an appendage explains 

 the limits which the historian had placed himself under, 

 and, at the same time, very clearly shows that he did not 

 suiipose the title of his work alone would render its scope 

 clear to his readers. On the second page of the first vol- 

 ume, and in exi^laining the scope of his work, Mr. Bancroft 

 writes: "The term north-west coast, as defined for the pur - 

 poses of this history, includes the territory known in later 

 times as Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia;" thus 

 rendering it obvious that for convenience he embraced 

 under that term certain parts of the west coast which sub- 

 sequently shaped themselves into three distinct territorial 

 divisions. As he had already treated of the history of 

 California (vols, xviii and xix), this was excluded, and as 

 he proposed to treat separately of Alaska (vol. xxxiii), 

 this, also, was eliminated. As a matter of fact, however, 

 he found it convenient to include in his map a greater 

 extent of the coast than that above defined to the north 

 and south, as we have already seen he did not scruple to 

 do to the east. His map actually includes a considerable 

 part both of the coast and the interior of Alaska in one 

 direction, and of what is now the State of California in 

 the other. 



The diflBculty incident to the attempt made on the part 

 of the United States to attach a perfectly definite mean- 

 ing to the term North-west Coast is further illustrated by 



*Mr. Blaine does uot appear to have noticed one curious circumstauce 

 connected with this "carefully prepared map." In the northern part 

 of the map, each tenth degree of latitude is indicated, including 70*^, 

 60'^, and 50°, and, on the west coast the 40th parallel is also shown 

 hy a lino correctly placed, to the south of Cape Mendocino. It is, 

 however, indicated in the margin as latitude "42." On the opposite 

 or eastern side of the map the line of latitude actually shown is lati- 

 tude 42, and it is correctly so named. This peculiar mistake occurs 

 both on the original and on the reproduction. 



