XVIII FUR-SEA... FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



eries, the last head of this inquiry and not inferior to any other in importance ; per- 

 haps the most important of all. What even are sea-otter skins by the side of that 

 product of the sea, incalculable in amount, which contributes to the sustenance of 

 the human family? * * » Salmon exist in uuequaled numbers, so that this fish, so 

 aristocratic elsewhere, becomes common enough. * * " Herring seem to be not 

 less multitudinous than the salmon. Their name, derived from the German heer, signi- 

 fying an army, is amply verihed. The cod is perhaps the most generally diflfused and 

 abundant of all, for it swims in all the waters of this coast from the frozen ocean to 

 the southern limit, and in some places it is in immense numbers. Behind all these is 

 the whale, whose corporal dimensious strictly represents the space which he occupies 

 in the fisheries of the world, hardly diminished by petroleum or gas. * * » 



Speaking of fishing banks or soundings, he adds : 



The sea and straits of Bering as far as the frozen ocean have been surveyed by a 

 naval expedition of the United States under Commander John Rogers. 



From one of his charts now before me, it appears that, beginning at the frozen 

 ocean and descending through Bering Straits and Bering Sea, embracing Kotzebue 

 Sound, Norton Bay, and Bristol Bay to the peninsula of Aliaska, a distance of more 

 than 12 degrees, there are constant uninterrupted soundings from 20 to 50 fathoms, 

 thus presenting an immense extent proper to this respect for fishery. * * * 



Our own fisheries, now so considerable, were small in the beginning; they were small 

 even when they inspired the eloquence of Burke in that most splendid page never 

 eqiialed even by himself. But the Continental Congress, in its original instructions 

 to its commissioners for the negotiation of peace with Great Britain, required as a 

 fundamental condition, next to independence, that these fisheries should be preserved 

 unimpaired. While this proposition was under discussion Elbridge Gerry, who had 

 grown up among the fishermen of Massachusetts, repeWed the attacks upon their pur- 

 suit in words which are not out of place here. " It is not so much fishing," he said, 

 "as enterprise, industry, employment. It is not so much fish, it is gold, the produce 

 of that vocation. It is the employment of those who would otherwise be idle, the 

 food of those who would otherwise be hungry, the wealth of those who would other- 

 wise be poor." After debate it was resolved by Congress that "the common right of 

 taking fish should in no case be given up." 



For this principle the ddest Adams contended with ability and constancy until it 

 was fixed in the treaty where it stands side by side with the acknowledgment of in- 

 dependence. 



The acquisition of this wealth of marine products was presented to 

 the Senate by the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as the 

 most important achievement of the treaty ; and no one questioned the 

 right of Russia to sell and transfer it to this country, and no suggestion 

 was made in the Senate or elsewhere that this valuable marine terri- 

 tory was not included in the proposed purchase. 



On the 17th of February, 1808, the President transmitted to the 

 House of Representatives a message in relation to Russian America, 

 accompanied by documents from the Department of State and the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury, all of which are printed in Executive Document 

 No. 177, Fortieth Congress, second session. From these documents we 

 n)ake the following extracts. Under date of May 10, 1807, the Ameri- 

 can minister, Mr. Clay, writes from St. Petersburg to Secretary Seward 

 as follows : 



Sill: Your dispatch No. 241, April 1, 1867, ii.closing the treaty between Russia and 

 America, ceding us all Russian America, was duly received. I awaited the expres- 

 sion of European aud Russian sentiments in reference thereto before answering you. 



I congratulate you upon this brilliant achievement, which adds so vast a territory 

 to our Union; whose ports, whose mines, whose waters, whose furs, whose fisheries 

 are of untold value, and v/hose fields will produce many grains (even wheat), aud be- 

 come thereafter, in time, the seat of a hearty white population. 



On the 4th of April, 18G7, Quartermaster-General Meigs wrote to 

 Mr. Seward as follows: 



My Dear Sir : I am surprised to find it stated that objections are made to the ac- 

 quisition of Russian America. I can conceive of no greater boon to the Pacific States, 

 aud I can not suppose that Atlantic Senators will deny to the people of those States 

 the fisheries depending upon Russian America now within their grasp. We need 

 such ft nursery of seamen, such a commerce, as the fisheries will produce. They will 



