THE ALASKAN BO UNDAR Y - 433 



With this instruction in his possession Sir Charles Bagot, at" 

 the outset of the negotiations, in response to the Russian demand 

 " for a strip of territory (lisiere) upon the mainland " which would 

 he " parallel to the sinuosities of the coast,"* proposed that the 

 eastern line of this strip should run " always at a distance of 10 

 marine leagues from the shore as far as the 140° of longitude." t 

 Russia suggested that the line should " run along the mountains 

 which follow the sinuosities of the coast." % When the second 

 negotiations were resumed Secretary Canning sent Mr Bagot a 

 draft of a treaty in which it was provided that this line should 

 " be carried along the coast in a direction parallel to the sinuosi- 

 ties and at and within the seaward base of the mountains by which 

 it is bounded."? In explanation the Secretary said, if pressed 

 b}' Russia Mr Bagot might substitute the summit of the moun- 

 tains if a limit to the east was fixed beyond which the line should 

 not go. The British draft proposal of " the seaward base of the 

 mountains " was rejected by Russia, and its counter-draft was 

 that the line " shall not be wider on the continent than 10 ma- 

 rine leagues." || 



But Sir Charles Bagot's attention was so occupied with the 

 other points of the treaty that the matter of the width of the 

 strip did not receive serious consideration until the final stage 

 of the negotiations was undertaken by Sir Stratford Canning, 

 and as Great Britain had by that time receded from all the 

 other contentions, it only remained for him to adjust the eastern 

 line of the strip of the mainland which was to be held by Russia. 

 In his draft of treaty it was proposed that the line should follow 

 the crest of the mountains, provided that if the crest of the 

 mountains should be more than ten marine leagues from the 

 ocean the line should follow the sinuosities of the coast, so that 

 it should at no point be more than ten leagues from the coast. 

 This was in accordance with his instructions.^ The Russian 

 negotiators objected to the proviso and insisted that the crest 

 of the mountains should be the invariable line, arguing that the 

 natural frontier was the mountains following the coast. 



Much of the difficulty in reaching an agreement on this point 

 grew out of the imperfect geographic knowledge of the period. 



views) it might, perhaps, be sufficient at present to settle a boundary on the coast 

 only and the country 50 or 100 miles inland, leaving the rest of the country to the 

 north of that point and to the west ol the range of the mountains, which separate the 

 u aters which flow into the Pacific from those which flow to the east and north, open to 

 the traders of both nations." 



* lb., 427. f lb., 428. J lb., 399. g lb., 435. || lb., 441. % lb., 447. 



