Page:Alaskan boundary tribunal (IA alaskanboundaryt01unit).pdf/131

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
121

and all mountains from the head of Porthind Channel all the way round to Mt. St. Elias,

This was an official map issued the year after the Treaty. when everything was fresh in the mind, The most striking thing on it, looking to the long negotintions just terminated, was the boundary line. The next most striking thing is, that the line ts drawn exactly where the chain of mountains depicted on Vancouver's and other maps. which were before the neyotintors, was located. The next most strik- ing thing is that this chain of mountains is not shown at all on the tap. The next most striking thing is that other mountains are shown to the seaward of the boundary line, und that the line nowhere touches them, and cannot, on account of the clear intervening space. possibly be correlated with them, The declaration of the map. put into words, is **The mountams next to the sex were pot the mountains meant by the Treaty, and the boundary line is not to be drawn along the erest or from summit to swiminit of these mountains or in any way with reference to them.”

The map of Arrowsmith issued in 15338. speaks exactly the same message.[1] The most conspicuous thing in this map is a note as follows:

Note.—Wherever the summit of the Mountains (which are sup- posed to extend in direction parallel to the Const) from the S6th degree of N. Lat. to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of W. Long. shall prove to be at the distance of more than 10 murine leavues from the Ocean the limit between the British Possessions and the line of coast whieh ts to lelong to Russia. shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the Coast and which shall never exceed 10 imine leagues therefrom, See Art. 4th, Treaty 1525.”

The line is put back of the “* mountains next to the coast because ther were not ‘the mountains which are supposed to extend in diree- tion purallel to the coust from the otth degree of N. Lat. te the point of intersection of the 141st degree of W. Long.”

The map of Brué of 1883 shows a chain of mountains, just as did the maps which the negotiators used. It also shows mountains to the seaward of this chain. The boundary is made coincident with the chain and is entirely disassociated from these other mountains.[2]


  1. U. S. Atlas, No. 12.
  2. U. S. Atlas, No. 13.