APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. bil 
boundaries of the jurisdiction thus conveyed. The western limit, which extends 
out on the high seas (a questionable conveyance) as far as the meridian of 193° west 
longitude, so as to include the whole of the Aleutian Archipelago, and thence pro- 
ceeds north-west to the intersection of the meridian 172° west with the parallel of 
65° 30’ north, passes through the middle of Behring’s Straits, midway between the 
Islands of Kousentern, or Ignalook, and Rotmanoft, and thence due north without 
limitation into the Frozen Ocean. By Act of Congress the laws of the United 
States are extended over all this territory and water. As Behring’s Straits at its 
narrowest is 36 miles wide, 9 miles from the Alaskan mainland coast would not begin 
to reach the western limit of our purchase from Russia, and until the right of the 
United States Government to exclusive jurisdiction over those waters is successfully 
controverted, you must not violate the law of Congress, by killing seals therein, 
without the consent of the Secretary of the Treasury, on peril of confiscation. 
“According to the current of modern authority,” says Chancellor Kent, ‘‘the gen- 
eral territorial jurisdiction extends into the sea as far as a cannon-shot will reach, 
and no further, and this is generally calculated to be a marine league (3 miles), and 
the Congress of the United States has recognized this limitation.” The claim of 
Russia to sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean north of the 51st degree of latitude, as 
a close sea, was considered by our Government in 1822 as being against the rights of 
other nations, but now, as we have bought Russia out, it is all right. One’s opinions 
change according to one’s standpoint, and besides, cannons shoot farther now than 
they used to. 
{PuBLIc—No. 130. ] 
An Act to prevent the Extermination of Fur-bearing Animals in Alaska. 
(See Inclosure 1 in No. 6.) 
Letter dated Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., April 19, 1872. 
(See Inclosure 6 in No. 3.) 
Indenture dated August 3, 1870. 
(See Inclosure 3 in No. 6.) 
The Alaska Seizures. 
[Extract from the Brooklyn ‘‘ Eagle.”] 
(See Inclosure in No. 138.) 
[Extract.] 
GOVERNMENT Hovusr, 
Victoria, British Columbia, August 26, 1886. 
T have the hononr to report that a few days since I received a telegram from Mr. 
Mason,.acting British Consul at San Francisco, to the following effect: 
***Caroline’ and ‘Thornton’ seized by United States steamer ‘Corwin’ for illegal 
sealing; about twenty men from them put on board ‘St. Paul’ arrived here last 
night; they ask me for protection and to send them to Victoria. Advise me what 
to do. They are not charged with anything.” 
Upon receipt of this I arranged with the owners of the “Caroline” and ‘‘Thorn- 
ton” for the return of the men here, and they arrived on the 23rd. 
The “Caroline” and “Thornton,” belonging to different owners, are sloops owned 
here and fitted out here for the prosecution of seal fishing in the North Pacific and 
Behring’s Sea. It seems from the accounts given that they were peaceably pursuing 
their vocations and not within 70 miles of land when they were seized by United 
States Revenue steamer “Corwin,” as above stated. Some of the men were shipped 
to San Francisco; the sloops and their masters are retained in some Alaska port. 
