over the bays and inlets and the coasts bordering them, all of which were in the undisputed possession of the United States.
In 1892 the United States and Great Britain entered into a treaty, providing for a joint survey, for the purpose of marking the boundary. They obligated themselves in this treaty, to proceed as soon as practicable after the report, or reports, of the commissioners, to consider and establish the boundary line in question. It was provided that a report should be made within two years after the first meeting of the commissioners. By a supplemental treaty of February 3, 1894, the time was extended to December 31, 1895.
Joint surveys were made, and a joint report was submitted December 31, 1895, but it contained no recommendation for a settlement.
The discovery of gold in 1896 in the Yukon territory attracted many persons to the Klondike District. The natural pathway for them was from the Pacific Ocean up through Lynn Canal over the Chilkat and Chilkoot passes and thence into the territory of Great Britain. Along this route thousands of miners passed. The ports at the head of Lynn Canal at once assumed large commercial importance. It was not until after this that any question was officially raised as to the boundary line between Alaska and Canada extending around the heads of the hays and inlets. Although individual citizens of Canada had, at times, advanced the theory that the treaty of 1825 should be so interpreted, as to run the boundary line along the summits of mountains claimed to he parallel to the general or mainland coast, and so as to leave the heads of the bays and inlets in British territory, such a claim was never put forward by Great Britain until 1898.
After the failure to agree under the treaty of 1892, a Joint High Commission was constituted, for the adjustment of the boundary differences, which met in 1898 and 1899.
The Marquis of Salisbury, in his instructions to the British High Commissioners July 19, 1898, said:
From Portland Channel to Glacier Bay there is no such continuous range of mountains running parallel to the coast as the terms of the Treaty of 1825 appear to contemplate. That Treaty, again, provides that the line should be parallel to the sinuosities of the coast, and that it should never exceed the distance of ten leagues from the Pacific Ocean. Considering the number and size of the projections and indentations along the coast, it would be difficult to trace the boundary according to the Treaty.[1]
- ↑ B. C. App, 298.
