THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY 449 



mittee are found the names of Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, 

 Mr Roebuck, and Mr Gladstone. Another member was Mr Ellice, 

 a native of Canada and a director of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

 There was also in attendance on the sessions of the committee, 

 as a representative of the government of Canada, Chief Justice 

 Draper, of Canada. Sir George Simpson was examined before 

 this committee and was questioned in detail respecting the lease, 

 and his testimony confirms the foregoing statement. To explain 

 and accompany his testimony, he exhibited to the committee a 

 map of the territory in question, and said : " There is a margin 

 of coast, marked yellow on the map, from 54° 40' up to Cross 

 sound which we have rented from the Russian American Com- 

 pany for a term of years ";* and he proceeded at some length 

 to explain the territory and the reasons for the lease. 



No question was raised by any member of the committee, or 

 by the representative of Canada, as to the validity of the lease 

 or to the correctness of the map, which was printed as a part of 

 the report submitted to Parliament. An examination of this 

 map will show that the leased strip of territory is continuous, 

 and is carried around all the inlets and interior waters, in con- 

 formity with the present claim of the United States (see map 

 No. 11). This lease was followed by another act on the part of 

 the two governments confirming their approval of the transac- 

 tion. During the Crimean war, at the request of the two com- 

 panies, the territory embraced in the lease was, hy order of both 

 the British and Russian governments, exempt from the opera- 



* Report, etc., p. 1391. Extract from Simpson's testimony : 



'• lniii;. Besides your own territory, I think you administer a portion of the territory 

 which belongs to Russia, under some arrangement with the Russian Company ? There 

 is a margin of coast, marked yellow on the map, from 54° 40' up to Cross sound which 

 we have rented from the Russian American Company for a term of years. 



" L027. I- thai the whole of that strip? The strip goes to Mount St. Elias. 



•" litis. Where does it begin ? Near Fort Simpson, in latitude 54 ; it runs up to Mount 

 St. F.lias, u hieli is farther north. 



" 1029. Is it the whole of that strip which is included between the British territory 

 and the sea? We have only rented the part between Fort Simpson and Cross sound. 



" L030. What is the date of that arrangement? That arrangement, I think, was en- 

 tered into aboul 1839. 



"1031. What are the terms upon which it was made? Do you pay a rent for that 

 land 1 The Bril i~h territory runs along inland from the coast about 30 miles ; the Rus- 

 sian territory runs along the coast ; we have the right of navigation through the rivers 

 to hunt the interior country. A misunderstanding existed upon that point in the first 

 instance; we were about to establish a post upon one of the rivers, which led to very 

 Serious difficulties between the Kussian American Company and ourselves. We had a 

 long correspondence, and to guard againsl the recurrence of these difficulties it was 

 agreed that we should lease this margin ofcoasl and pay them a rent. The rent was, 

 in the firsl instaner, in otters. I think » e gave 2,000 otters a year; it is now converted 



inti ley. We give, I think, I,." a year." 



