20 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
(3.) Letter from Mr. Boutwell, Secretary United States Treasury. if 
(4.) A warning published in San Francisco papers and copied into British Colum- 
bian papers. 
(5.) Letter and telegrams between Mr. Lubbe and Mr. Crow-Baker, M. P. for 
Victoria, 
(6.) A letter from the American newspaper ‘‘ Oregonian. : 
I had hoped to have inclosed a copy of the lease from the United States to the 
Alaska Commercial Company, and a copy of the depositions of the crews on arrival 
at Victoria, but the only copy of the lease in Victoria, as also the depositions, have 
been taken away by the Honourable G. E. Foster, Canadian Minister of Marine and 
Fisheries, who was here on the 23rd, and left yesterday morning. I have telegraphed 
to him for copies, and will forward them as soon as received. 
4 4. I would call attention to the Treaty concerning the cession of the Russian 
possessions in North America to the United States, concluded 30th March, 1867, 
as also to the Convention between Great Britain and Russia, signed 16th (28th) Feb- 
ruary, 1825, and beg to make the following observations: 
An American Company, called the ‘‘ Alaska Commercial Company,” have a lease 
from the United States, dated 1870, of the Islands of St. Paul and St. George for 
twenty years, with the right to kill 100,000 seals annually on the islands and “ waters 
adjacent.” A United States officer is stationed on these islands to see the terms of 
the lease properly carried out, and the ‘‘Corwin” is also there for this purpose. 
By the terms of the lease, fire-arms are not to be used to kill the seals, nor may 
female seals or seals under one year old be killed. 
5. It would appear by Inclosure No. 4+ that the United States claim the whole of 
the Behring’s Sea, bounded on the south by the Aleutian Islands, and, as laid down 
in the Treaty of 1867, as American territory. It would seem impossible to sustain 
this, for it would appear to be the ‘high sea,” and not Russia’s to cede, and this line 
mentioned in the Treaty only meant to include the islands within it, and not the sea. 
I beg to draw special attention to the letter from Mr. Boutwell in 1872 (Inclosure 
No. 3).t Mr. Boutwell was then the United States Secretary to the Treasury, and he 
distinetly states his Government could not interfere beyond a marine league from 
the shore. Mr. Boutwell was, I am told, greatly instrumental in procuring the lease 
of St. Paul and St. George for the Alaska Commercial Company, and was therefore 
interested in excluding sealing vessels from the Behring’s Sea. 
6. I may mention that female seals cannot be distinguished from males when killed 
asleep on the water at sea; the seals killed by the Alaska Commercial Company are 
all clubbed ou land, when the difference of sex can be easily seen; but that does not 
really affect the question as I view it, which is simply whether the Behring’s Sea is 
the “high sea,” or not. If, as I take it, Behring’s Seais the “high sea,” I presume no 
vessel fishing there can be legally interfered with. 
7. The “San Diego” referred to in Inclosures 1 and 2§ is an American schooner, and 
was taken and confiscated, I am informed, for landing and killing 500 seals on Jand, 
contrary to United States law. 
8. Inclosure 5, || from a gentlemen in Victoria interested im sealing, and the tele- 
graphic answers, show that the owners of the schooners sent them up with their eyes 
open, and were aware they ran a risk of being seized. 
9. Inclosure 6 J is a letter in an American newspaper, the ‘‘ Oregonian,” published 
at Portland, Oregon, and shows the view taken by many Americans on the subject. 
I have, &c. 
0 * 
(Signed) M. CULME-SEYMOUR. 
P.S. Port Moody, August 27, 1886.—The depositions alluded to having just arrived, 
I inclose them. 
M. C-S. 
[Inclosure 4 in No. 3.] 
Captain H. Guttermann [?] to Captain J. D. Warren. 
SCHOONER “THORNTON,” IN PORT ILIOLUK, OUNALASKA, 
August 7, 1886. 
Sir: As this is my first opportunity to let you know that on the Ist August at 6 
P. M.—my position 55° 45’ north latitude, 168° 44’ west longitude—having on board 
403 seal-skins, all well on board, when United States Revenue cutter “ Corwin” 
placed an officer on board, took arms and ammunition, took us in tow. At8P. M. 
stopped and took schooner ‘ Carolina” in tow. 
* Not printed. § See Inclosures 4 and 5 in No. 3. 
t See Inclosure 7 in No. 3. || See Inclosure 8 in No. 3. 
t See Inclosure 6 in No. 3, {| See Inclosure 9 in No, 3, 
