52 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
I inclose a cutting from a newspaper published here, which gives as correct an 
account of the matter as we have at present, and also a statement of the facts relating 
to the transfer to the United States of the Russian-American possessions and 
35 of the lease and concessions granted by the Government of the United States 
to the Company above mentioned. 
The matter has been already laid before the Honourable the Minister of Marine 
and Fisheries, who opportunely arrived here a few days after my receiving informa- 
tion of it; but I beg to call your earnest attention to it, so that, the whole case being 
laid before the Imperial authorities, steps may be taken not only to cause reparations 
to be made for the outrage committed, but to definitely prevent any possible repeti- 
tion of it, 
THE SEALING SCHOONER SEIZURES. 
As the late seizures of an American and three British sealing schooners by an 
American Revenue cutter in the Behring’s Sea are almost certain to lead to inter- 
national complications on account of the extravagance of the assumption upon which 
those seizures were made, a brief history of the events which led up to them will be 
acceptable at the present time. 
In March 1867 a Treaty was made between Russia and the United States, by which 
Russia ceded all its possessions in British North America to the Government of the 
United States. One of the terms of that Treaty declared that the western limit, 
within which the territories and dominion conveyed are contained, passes through a 
point in Behring’s Straits on the parallel of 65° 30’ north latitude at its intersection 
by the meridian which passes midway between the Islands of Krusenstern or Igna- 
look, and proceeds due north without limitation, into the same Frozen Ocean. The 
same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, proceeds thence in a course 
nearly south-west through Behring’s Sea, so as to pass midway between the north- 
west point of St. Lawrence and the south-east point of Cape Choutkotski to the 
meridian of 172° west longitude, thence from the intersection of that meridian in a 
south-westerly direction so as to pass midway between the Island of Attou and the 
Copper Island of the Kormandorski couplet or group in the North Pacific Ocean to 
the meridian of 193° west longitude, so as to include in the territory conveyed the 
whole of the Aleutian Islands east of that meridian. So far, so good. 
In July 1870, in the 2nd Session of the 41st Congress, an Act was passed entitled 
“An Act to prevent the ixtermination of Fur-bearing Animals in Alaska,” in which 
the number of seals to be killed for their skins was limited on St. Paul’s and St. 
George’s Islands to 75,000 per annum on each island, with power by the Secretary of 
the ‘Treasury to further limit the number if necessary, and giving that official power 
to lease for rental mentioned in this Act, to proper and responsible parties, to the 
best advantage of the United States, having dune regard to the interests of the Gov- 
ernment, the native inhabitants, the parties hitherto engaged in trade, and the pro- 
tection of the seal fisheries, fora term of twenty-five years from May 1870, the right to 
engage in taking seals on the Islands of St. Paul and St. George. Another section 
declares that any person who shall kill any fur-seals on either of the said islands, or 
in the waters adjacent thereto, without authority from the lessees thereof, or inter- 
fere with them in the lawful prosecution of their duty, shall be deemed guilty of a 
misdemeanonr, and shall for each offence or conviction be punished, and all their 
vessels, tackle, apparel, appurtenances, and cargo shall be forfeited to the United 
States. In the month following the passage of this Act, that is in August 1870, a 
lease called the Seal Island Lease was executed between the United States Govern- 
ment and the Alaska Commercial Company, a Corporation established in California. 
In return for the exclusive privilege of taking for twenty years (with certain 
restrictions) fur-seals in the Islands of St. Paul and St. George, the lessees agreed 
to pay the Government an annual sum of 55,000 dollars, 2 dol. 624 ec. for each seal- 
skin taken, 55 cents for each gallon of seal-oil sold, and to annually provide the 
natives with a certain quantity of provisions and fuel. The months of June, July, 
September, and October were, moreover, the only months during which the capture 
of the seals could be prosecuted. Under this lease or Concession this Company has 
perpetuated its monopoly for sixteen years, reaping a vast profit therefrom. Not 
satisfied with the prolific source of its supply, and the facilities afforded it for 
engaging in the business, the Company has sought and practically succeeded in con- 
trolling the fur-seal market by its aggressiveness in pretending to construe the term 
‘‘and the waters adjacent thereto” as meaning that vast sea of waters included in 
the limits of cession named in the Russo-American Treaty of 1867. In this inter- 
pretation it has received the unrelaxed support of the United States Government, 
whose interests in the matter are identical with those of the Company; and here it 
may be remarked that the royalty paid by the latter furnishes a handsome profit 
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