Island, whieh lies north and west of the entrance to what is denom- inated in the United States Cuse Pearse Cunal” and in the British Case * Porthind Canal.” Tt is claimed that inasmuch is the direction was to locate 4 station **on the frontiers of our straits,” the fact that the location was made on Tongass Island proves that it was recurded by the Russian-American Company as being the extreme frontier of Russian territory. ‘This is an over strained conclusion. ‘The instrue- tions said:
A we thay say that the only place in our straits, visited by the foreigners ix Ton- gas, you must select this bay as the place of your sojourn.
The selection was not wade with any object of fixing a loundary point. It was only chosen as a convenient station neur the frontier for protecting the trade with the nutives. It wppeared as stated that it was the only phtee visited by the foreigners, As the object was to police the frontier against foreigners and not to fix an extreme boundary point, that point was chosen to which foreiyners resorted rather than a point nearest the water up whieh the boundary line passed to which foreigners bad not resorted. The instructions which are ouly partially quoted in the British Counter Case, go on to say that the most important infhix of furs is at Tongass. ‘That was a sufficient reason for establishing the station there.”
ALLEGED ADMISSION IN THE UNITED STATES CASE,
In the British Counter Case (p. 7) a passage is quoted from the Case of the United States as follows:
The condition of the territorial coutroversy “Had shrank to a dispute over the possession of an irregularly shaped portion of the continent bounded on the east by Pourse and) Porthuwl Canale aad a presimyptive chain of motuntains. an the wy north by a Jine extending from a point on the coast, about latitude 56° 30’, to the meuntain range, andl on the west by the indented continental shore Tine, together with the ishawl= Lying between Clarence Strait and the mainland from oft? 40 to Hi SO and thus situated north and west of Portland Canal and between it and the continent.
The British Counter Case proceeds:
Te will be noticed that the eastern boumlary of the seetion deseribed is given
as Pearse and Vortlamt Canals’. But Pearme Canal’, which is the name ab- sequently given by the United States to the lower part af Vancouver's Portland
Canal, and ** Porthiunwl Canal”, whieh name was later limited by the United States
+ Se. =
eTra 0. App. 255-254.