THE ALASKAN BOUND AR Y - 435 



clearly establish three facts as the result of the negotiations :~ 

 first, that Russia was to have a continuous strip of territory on 

 the mainland around all the inlets or arms of the sea. Sir Charles 

 Bagot fully understood this, and hence his repeated efforts to push 

 the southern boundary of Russia as far north as possible, so that 

 the Hudson's Bay Company might come down to tidewater with 

 its trading posts, recognizing that this could not be done in front 

 of the Russian line. The purpose for which the strip was estab- 

 lished would be defeated if it was to be broken in any part of its 

 course by inlets or arms of the sea extending into British terri- 

 tory. Second, with the strip of territory so established, all the 

 interior waters of the ocean above its southern limit became 

 Russian, and would be inaccessible to British ships and traders 

 except by express license. It was because the Russian negotia- 

 tors refused to make this license perpetual that the negotiations 

 were a second time broken off, and only renewed when Great 

 Britain yielded on this point. Third, the strip of territory was 

 to be 10 marine leagues wide in all its extent, unless inside of 

 that limit a chain of mountains existed which constituted a nat- 

 ural boundary or watershed between the two countries." The 

 "seaward base 1 ' proposed by Great Britain was rejected, and 

 there is no indication that isolated peaks were to constitute the 

 line. 



A fourth fact, not material to explain the treaty, is apparent 

 from the record of the negotiations, and especially Secretary Can- 

 ning's instructions of January 15, 1824, already cited,* to wit, that 

 while the British government sought to restrict the limits of Rus- 

 sian territory as much as possible, it was prepared in return for 

 the revocation of the ukase of 1821, if Russia was persistent, to 

 accept an east line of the strip distant from the ocean 100 miles, 

 and to have the line to the Arctic ocean drawn along the 135° 

 of longitude, thus giving to Russia a strip more than three times 

 as wide as she obtained and the whole of the Yukon gold dis- 

 tricts. 



We come now to the provisions of the treaty, and I confine 

 my examination to those respecting which there are existing 

 differences. Article III, in delineating the first section of the 

 boundary, provides that "commencing from the southernmost 

 point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which lies in 

 the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, . . . the said [bound- 

 ary] line shall ascend to the north along the channel called 



*Ib., 415-420. 



