THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY 451 



the failure of the United States Congress to vote the appropria- 

 tion.* This fact is cited to show that in 1872- 1 3 the British and 

 Canadian officials understood that the eastern boundary of the 

 strip crossed the rivers named at some point above their mouths, 

 which are at the head of inlets, including Lynn canal, and that 

 the boundary could not, therefore, cross any of these inlets. 



In 1876 a Canadian official was conducting one Peter Martin, 

 charged with some offense, from Canadian territory across the 

 strip of American territory traversed by the Stikine river. Hav- 

 ing camped for the night at a point 13 miles above the mouth of 

 the river, Martin, in an attempt to escape, committed an assault 

 on the officer, for which, on his arrival at Victoria, B. C, he was 

 tried and condemned to imprisonment. Martin complained to 

 the consul that he was an American citizen, and the Secretary 

 of State presented the case to the British government. A sur- 

 veyor was dispatched by the Canadian government to the Stikine 

 river to locate the exact spot of the assault, which he reported 

 to be in United States territory under the treaty of 1825. There- 

 upon the Canadian Privy Council, following the indication of the 

 British Foreign Office, decided that as the offense for which 

 Martin was convicted was committed in American territon', he 

 must be released, and he was accordingly set at liberty.! 



A further indication of the views of the British government 

 respecting the boundary line of the strip is found in the action 

 of the two governments in agreeing upon a provisional line on 

 the Stikine river in 1878. The Canadian and American customs 

 outposts on that river came in conflict in the vicinity of a point 

 approximately 30 miles in a straight line from its mouth, and 

 caused considerable friction. The Canadian government dis- 

 patched a surveyor on its own account to survey the river and 

 (ix a boundary line, he having been supplied with the text of 

 articles 3 and 4 of the treaty of 1825. He made his report, and 

 claimed to have found a range of mountains filling the require- 

 ments of the treaty at a point which crossed the river about 25 

 miles above its mouth, or about 20 miles in a straight line from 

 the coast. A copy of this report and accompanying map were 

 sent through the British Foreign Office to the minister at Wash- 

 ington, by whom it was submitted to the Secretary of State, with 

 a view to securing his acceptance of this boundary, and Secretary 



* Canadian Sessional Papers No. 125, vol. xi, pp. 11, 21, 28, 36. 



f Canadian Sessional Papers cited, pp.57, 59, 14::, 152, 155. U. s. Diplomatic Oorre- 



>-l lei 1*77. pp. 268, 271. 



