frontier as defined in the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825;' and on August 23d the British Government claimed that the eastern boundary of Alaska should run from the extremity of Prince of Wales Island at 54° 40', along the estuary marked on recent maps as Pearse Canal, up to the top of the Portland Canal, from there straight to the coast and then along the mountains on the mainland nearest to the shore and across all the sinuosities of the sea that advance into the continent up to Mount Saint Elias.2 (See map, Plate I.)

By the treaty negotiated at Saint Petersburg and signed there on February 16-28, 1825, the Muscovite and the British Empires agreed in Articles III and IV of that treaty upon the following divisional line between their respective North American possessions.3

66 ARTICLE III.

"The line of demarcation between the possessions of the High Contracting Parties upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of America to the northwest, shall be drawn in the manner following:

Commencing from the southernmost part of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, and between the 131st and the 133rd degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent

"The Alaskan Boundary," by Hon. John W. Foster: The National Geographic Magazine, November, 1899: Washington, p. 453. Mr. Foster, the able author of this article, was Secretary of State, 1892-93, in the Harrison Administration, and has been from the beginning one of the United States members of the Joint High Commission.

In collecting maps on the subject of the Alaskan frontier, I have received kind aid from Mr. P. Lee Phillips, chief of the Map Division of the Library of Congress, and Mr. Tittman and Mr. Andrew Braid, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, at Washington, D. C.

2"The Alaskan Boundary," by Hon. John W. Foster: The National Geographic Magazine, November, 1899: Washington, p. 455.

3" Fur Seal Arbitration." Washington, Government Printing Office 1895; Vol. IV, pp. 42-43.

where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same meridian); and finally, from

Prepared in the Office of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Treasury Department.

PLATE I-United States and English boundary claims.

the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian and British possessions on the continent of America to the northwest.

"ARTICLE IV.

"With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the preceding Article, it is understood:

"Ist. That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to Russia.

"2nd. That wherever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, shall prove to be at a distance of more then 10 marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings [sinuosités] of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of 10 marine leagues therefrom." 4

The negotiations that resulted in the treaty of 1825 were originated by an Ukase promulgated in 1821 by Emperor Alexander the First, in which, in addition to claiming exclusive jurisdiction for Russia in the waters of Behring Sea and a large part of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, he extended also the territorial claims of Russia from the 55°, as claimed by the Ukase of 1799 issued by the Emperor Paul, down to the 51° of north latitude. The United States and Great Britain both protested against the pretensions of sovereignty asserted in the Ukase of 1821. In 1824 the United States and the Russian Governments signed a treaty in which, among other things, they agreed on the parallel of 54° 40' as the divisional line between their respective territorial claims; all below that line Russia agreed to leave to the United States to contest with Great Britain, and all above it the United States consented to leave to Russia to dispute with England.

Owing to the importance of the French text, which the British Government in its printed argument in the Bering Sea Seal Fisheries Case (Fur Seal Arbitration, Vol. IV, p. 500) recognized as the official version, and the fact that French is the diplomatic language of the world, which was probably much more the case in 1825 than to-day, the French text is given here:

"ARTICLE III.

"La ligne de démarcation entre les possessions des Hautes Parties Contractantes sur la côte du continent et les îles de l'Amérique nord-ouest, sera tracée ainsi qu'il suit :

Meanwhile, the course of negotiations between Russia and England did not progress as smoothly; but finally in February, 1825, nearly a year after the signing of the RussoAmerican Treaty, the Russian and the English plenipotentiaries signed the treaty containing the two articles above quoted. For more than half a century the British Empire never contested the interpretation openly placed by both the Muscovite and the United States Governments that under those two articles, first Russia and later-after the cession of Russian America or Alaska in 1867 to the American Union -the United States were entitled to a strip of territory (lisière) on the mainland from the Portland Channel or Canal in the south up to Mount Saint Elias in the north, so as to cut off absolutely the British possessions from access to the sea above the point of 54° 40'. In August, 1898, for the first time, the British Empire formally claimed at the Quebec Conference that the proper reading of those two articles entitled Canada to the upper part of most or all of the fiords between the Portland Canal and Mount Saint Elias."

"A partir du point le plus méridional de l'île dite Prince of Wales, lequel point se trouve sous le parallèle du 54o degré 40 minutes de latitude nord, et entre le 131e et le 133o degré de longitude ouest (méridien de Greenwich), la dite ligne remontera au nord le long de la passe dite Portland Channel, jusqu'au point de la terre ferme où elle atteint le 56e degré de latitude nord; de ce dernier point la ligne de démarcation suivra la crête des montagnes situées parallèlement à la côte, jusqu'au point d'intersection du 141o degré de longitude ouest (même méridien); et, finalement, du dit point d'intersection, la même ligne méridienne du 141e degré formera, dans son prolongement jusqu'à la Mer Glaciale, la limite entre les possessions Russes et Britanniques sur le continent de l'Amérique nord-ouest.

66 ARTICLE IV.

"Il est entendu, par rapport à la ligne de démarcation déterminée dans l'Article précédent :

"I. Que l'île dite Prince of Wales appartiendra toute entière à la Russie. "2. Que partout où la crête des montagnes qui s'étendent dans une direction parallèle à la côte depuis le 56e degré de latitude nord au point d'intersection du 141e degré de longitude ouest, se trouveroit à la distance de plus. de 10 lieues marines de l'océan, la limite entre les possessions Britanniques et la lisière de côte mentionnée ci-dessus comme devant appartenir à la Russie,. sera formée par une ligne parallèle aux sinuosités de la côte, et qui ne pourra jamais en être éloignée que de 10 lieues marines.”

566 "The Alaskan Boundary," by Hon. John W. Foster: The National Geographic Magazine, November, 1899: Washington, p. 453.

A review of the negotiations during the years 1822, 1823, 1824 and 1825, between Count Nesselrode and M. de Poletica in behalf of Russia, and first of Sir Charles Bagot and afterwards of Mr. Stratford Canning, later Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, for Great Britain, shows clearly that the

Prepared in the Office of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Treasury Department

PLATE II.-Sir C. Bagot's three proposed boundaries, 1824.

agreement finally reached as embodied in the treaty of 1825 was to exclude the British North American territory from all access to the sea above the point of 54° 40'. From the very inception of the negotiations, the Russians insisted