302 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
by Honourable W. W. Eaton, late Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, United 
States Senate, to which Mr. Boutwell made the following reply: 
“ WASHINGTON, January 18, 1888. 
“Str: Since the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, I have examined with care 
the letter addressed to me as Secretary of the Treasury by T. G. Phelps, Esq., then 
Collector of Customs at the Port of San Francisco, dated the 25th Mareh, 1872, and 
also my official reply thereto, dated the 19th April, 1872, in relation to the purpose of 
certain parties to capture fur-seals on their annual migration to the islands of St. 
Paul and St. George, through the Onimak Pass, and through the neighboring 
approaches to the islands. Upon the examination of the correspondence, my recol- 
lection is in a degree refreshed, and my knowledge of the circumstances revived. 
“The fourth sentence of Mr. Phelps’ letter appears to proceed upon the idea that 
it was the purpose of the hunters, as their purpose was then understood by him, to 
take the seals upon the Pacific Ocean side of the Aleutian range of islands, and near 
the passes mentioned, and through which the animals were destined to move, and 
such was the view taken by me on which my reply was based. 
“Nor can I now see that there is ground for any other reasonable construction of 
the correspondence. 
“Mr. Phelps appears to have apprehended a diversion of seals from the Onimak 
Pass and the narrow straits near that pass, and his suggestion of a remedy was lim- 
ited to the same field. Therefore, neither upon my recollection of facts as they were 
understood by me in 1872, nor upon the present reading of the correspondence, do L 
admit the claim of Great Britain that my letter is an admission of any right adverse 
to the claims of the United States in the waters known as Behring’s Sea. My letter 
had reference solely to the waters of the Pacific Ocean, south of the Aleutian Islands. 
“Very respectfully, 
(Signed) “GORGE 8S. BOUTWELL. 
“Hon. W. W. Eaton, Washington, D. C.” 
APPENDIX (G). 
Extract from ‘ Papers relating to Behring’s Sea Fisheries,” Washington Government 
Printing Office, 1887. 
PART avis 
The following correspondence shows the position assumed in 1872 by the Treasury 
Department in relation to the extent of jurisdiction of the United States in Alaskan 
waters. 
“* Mr. Phelps to Mr. Boutwell. 
“Customs HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO, COLLECTOR’S OFFLCE, 
Mareh 25, 1872. 
‘Sir: I deem it proper to cal! the attention of the Department to certain rumours 
which appear to be well authenticated, the substance of which appears in the printed 
slip taken from the ‘ Daily Chronicle’ of this date, herewith inclosed. 
273 ‘‘In addition to the several schemes mentioned in this paper, information 
has come to this Office of another which is being organized at the Hawaiian 
Islands for the same purpose. It is well known that, during the month of May and 
the early part of June in each year, the fur-seal, in their migration from the south- 
ward to St. Paul and St. George Islands, uniformly move through Onimak Pass in 
large numbers, and also through the narrow straits near that pass which separate 
several small islands from Aleutian group. 
‘The object of these several expeditions is unquestionably to intercept the fur- 
seals at these narrow passages during the period above mentioned, and there, by 
means of small boats manned by skilful Indians or Aleutian hunters, make indis- 
criminate slaughter of those animals in the water, after the manner of hunting sea- 
otters. 
“The evil to be apprehended from such proceedings is not so much in respect of 
the loss resulting from the destruction of the seals at those places (although the 
killing of each female is in effeet the destruction of two seals), but the danger lies 
in diverting these animals from their accustomed course to the Islands of St. Paul 
and St. George, their only haunts in the United States. 
“Tt is believed by those who have made the peculiar nature and habits of these 
animals a study that if they are by any means seriously diverted from the line upon 
which they have been accustomed to move northward in their passage to these 
ee 
