Ten years later, in 1857, an investigation into the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company was held by a special committee of the House of Commons. At that investigation, Sir George Simpson, who was examined, presented a map of the territory in question, and, speaking for the Company, said: "There is a margin of coast, marked yellow on the PLATE VI.-Map in "Narrative of a Journey Round the World," by map, from 54° 40' up to Cross Sound which we have rented from the Russian Company." (Plate VII). This map shows that the strip of land on the continent extended far enough inland to include all the sinuosities of the coast so as to exclude, according to the United States claims, the British PLATE VII.-Map of the Hudson's Bay Company: "Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 31st July and 11th August, 1857." The Russian territory, which is darker than the Canadian in this reproduction, is colored yellow on the original map. territory altogether from any outlet upon salt water above 54° 40'. Again in 1867, about the time of the sale by Russia to the United States of Russian-America-to which William H. Seward gave the name of Alaska 16" Black's General Atlas of the World" was published at Edinburgh. In the introduction of this work, the following description of Russian-America is given: "Russian America comprehends the N. W. portion of the continent, with the adjacent islands, extending from Behring Strait E. to the meridian of Mount St. Elias (about 141° W.), and from that mountain southward along the Maritime chain of hills till it touches the coast about 54° 40'." 66 Then, on three maps of this atlas, "The World," No. 2, "The World on Mercator's Projection," No. 3, and “North America," No. 39, the Russian territory from Mount Saint Elias down to the end of the Portland Canal at 54° 40' is marked so as to include within the Muscovite possessions all the fiords and estuaries along the coast and thus cutting off the British territory entirely from all access to tide water above 54° 40'. In addition there is given a small map marked at the top, "Supplementary sketch map, Black's General Atlas, for Plate 41," and at the bottom, "United States after Cession of Russian-America, April 1867, Coloured Blue." On this sketch map the territory purchased by the United States is marked, "Formerly Russian America," and like the rest of the United States it is colored blue. And the boundary of the new territory of Alaska is given as upon the other three maps of this atlas, Nos. 2, 3 and 39, already cited, according to Brue's map of 1825, and Krusenstern's map of 1827, and the Canadian and the English maps already referred to, and in accordance with the territorial claim that Russia and the United States have always maintained and acted upon. 16" Seward at Washington as Senator and Secretary of State," by Frederick W. Seward. New York: 1891, Vol. III, p. 369. Concerning the sale of Alaska by Russia to the United States, see "Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on the cession of Russian-America to the United States;" 1867, passim, and "The Alabama Arbitration," by Thomas Willing Balch, Philadelphia, 1900, pp. 24-38. Many other maps can be mentioned, in addition to thoseabove quoted, against Britain's recent claim. For examples, Petermann's map in the Mittheilungen, of April, 1869;: Thomas Devine's map prepared and printed in 1877 at Toronto by order of the Canadian Government; Alexander Keith Johnston's map of "North America" in his "Handy Royal Atlas of Modern Geography," published at Edinburgh and London, in 1881; E. Andriveau-Goujon's map of “l'Amérique du Nord," published at Paris in 1887; and finally the wall map (1897) of the "United States" by Edward Stanford," an important map maker of London to-day, give to Alaska the limits always claimed since 1825 by Russia. and the United States. Some maps-for example, "The World," by James Gard-ner, published in 1825 and dedicated "To His Most GraciousMajesty George the IVth;" "Nord America, Entworfen und gezeichnet von C. F. Weiland,” 1826; and a "carte Physique et Politique par A. H. Brué," 1827-bring the Russian boundary on the mainland from Mount Saint Elias down only to a point about half way opposite Prince of Wales Island at about 56°, and then along the estuaries so as to include all of Prince of Wales Island in the Russian Territory, instead of carrying the frontier to the top of the Portland Canal and then down to the sea at about 54° 40' But for all the territory above the point on the continent about half way opposite Prince of Wales Island up to the 141° west from Greenwich, these maps give the divisional line between the Muscovite and the British territories, far enough inland and around the sinuosities of the coast so as to cut off the British territory from all contact with tide water. Besides, Weiland, in a map of 1843, corrected his error in his map of 1826 in stopping a little short of the Portland Canal in marking the Russo-Canadian boundary;. and in Brué's maps of 1833 and 1839 the divisional line is given as it was marked on his map of 1825. Gardner's mapis overwhelmed by the multitude of English and Canadian maps-governmental and private--that followed Krusen 17"The United States." London: Published by Edward Stanford, 26 and 27 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, S. W., July 15, 1897. |