FUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 149 



was proclaimed was not a land claim alone — that was a secondary con- 

 sideration ; but the first great idea of Russia then was to establish her 

 supremacy over Aliaskan waters and as far as she could to the south- 

 ward ; for it was as true then as it is to-day that the pelagic furs of 

 that region were the only ones of real commercial importance to her, as 

 they now are to us, or to the rest of the world, for that matter. 



In pushing their large sea-otter hunting parties down the northwest 

 coast from Prince William Sound to the iSitkan Archipelago, the Rus- 

 sians, between 1796 and 1804, often met American and British vessels 

 snugly anchored in the outer sounds and harbors of the Sitkan district ; 

 there they were busily engaged in trading with the natives, and suc- 

 ceeded in gathering a rich harvest of sea otter skins. Naturally the 

 Slavic traders regarded them with undisguised jealousy and annoyance ; 

 yet in those early days these vessels had precious stores of flour, of 

 ammunition, andof liquor and tobacco, which the Russians were sorely 

 in need of and exceedingly anxious to buy; they were always accom- 

 modated by the Anglo-Saxon voyagers, who managed to get along in 

 this way without any open rupture. Finally, by 1812-'17, the Russians 

 became well established at Sitka, with an abundant surplus of food 

 stores and hunting supplies, and then the inroads made by these out- 

 side traders, anchored iu their harbor, became a matter of serious con- 

 cern. Steps were taken at St. Petersburg to remedy this injury to 

 Russian-American fur trade, and the imperial ukase of September 16, 

 1821, was given to the world for that purpose. 



The proclamation of the Emperor of Russia asserting his dominion 

 over all Russian-American seas and bays, and its northwest coast down 

 as far as latitude 51° N., was made after the entire general topography 

 and hydrography of that region had been carefully mapped and charted. 

 What the Czar meant by this edict of September, 1821, was then as well 

 understood by the powers of the earth as it is now ; for as early as 1766 

 a chart* of the Kamchatkan (Bering) Sea and the North Pacific Ocean 

 was made by order of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. 



To Great Britian, in especial, this edict was clear and intelligible, 

 since in 1805 a finely engraved series of charts of the world was pub- 

 lished in an immense oblong folio at London by Thomas Kitchin, sr., 

 "aided by captains of the royal navy." In this volume is a chart which 

 accurately bounds and designates the waters now known as Bering Sea 

 and the North Pacific Ocean ; but on it Bering Sea is termed the " Sea 

 of Kamchatka;" otherwise this nomenclature of land and water in 1805 

 is exactly as it stands on our maps to-day. And this early authoritative 

 map of Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean shows those waters in 

 their lauded bounds just as clearly and quite as accurately as our best 

 hydrogaphic charts do at the present moment. 



When, therefore, sixteen years later, the Emperor Alexander first 

 asserted the supreme authority of Russia over these waters t down from 

 the Arctic Ocean to the lower end of the Queen Charlotte Island group, 

 on the northwest coast of America, it was perfectly well understood 

 by us, and in the British colonial office then, what he meant and what 

 he was doing. This claim of Russia to absolute control of the waters 

 of a well-recognized international high sea, to waters which, with an 

 unbroken roll, laved the coasts of Mexico, the United States, British 

 Columbia, and Russian America alike — this claim of dominion over the 



*It bears the date of 1758, aud is to be fouud in Miiller's Voijacjes et de coiivertea faites 

 par les Russea le long des Cotes dela Mer Glaciate et sur V Ocean Oriental, etc., Amster- 

 dam, 1766. 



t The ukase of Paul, in 1799, August 11, confined this assertion of Russian dominion 

 to the land and islands only of Russian- Amorica down to latitude oiP N. 



