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 map, from 54° 40′ up to Cross Sound, which we have rented from the Russian Company." (See Map No. 14.) 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 territory altogether from any outlet upon salt water above fifty-four degrees forty minutes.

Also on a Russian Imperial map published in 1861 (see Map No. 15), the Russian Government again claimed, without calling forth any protest from the British Government, for its American possessions an eastern frontier identical with that it had asserted soon after the treaty of 1825 upon the maps of Krusenstern and Piadischeff.

John Arrowsmith's map of the Provinces of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, published at London in 1864, gives eloquent testimony of what English cartographers thought was the was the eastern boundary of the Russian lisière a year or two before the Emperor Alexander the Second sold Russian America to the United States (See Map No. 16).

By a number of overt acts, too, the British Empire

MAP OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY: "ORDERED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS TO BE PRINTED 31ST JULY AND IITH AUGUST, 1857." THE RUSSIAN TERRITORY, WHICH IS DARKER THAN THE CANADIAN IN THIS REPRODUCTION, IS Colored Yellow ON THE ORIGINAL MAP.

MAP No. 14.

MAP No. 16.

recognized the right of Russia to a continuous lisière on the continental shore above fifty-four degrees forty minutes. One of these acts, for example, was the case of the British brig Dryad.

In June 1834, notwithstanding that by Article six of the treaty of 1825 18 the Muscovite and the British Governments had agreed that British traders should have the right forever to navigate freely all rivers crossing the Russian lisière, the Russians turned back, near the entrance of the Stikine River, the British brig Dryad while on its way to establish a trading post in the interior on the Stikine River above the limit of Russian territory. Sailing from Vancouver, the Dryad, after passing through Clarence Strait, reached near the north end of Wrangell Island, the Russian post, called Fort Saint Dionissievsky, at the mouth of the Stikine River. When the Dryad arrived off the Russian fort, the commander of the English expedition, Mr. Ogden, who

18

"ARTICLE VI.

"Il est entendu que les sujets de Sa Majesté Britannique, de quelque côté qu'ils arrivent, soit de l'océan, soit de l'intérieur du continent, jouiront à perpétuité du droit de naviguer librement, et sans entrave quelconque, sur tous les fleuves et rivières qui, dans leurs cours vers la Mer Pacifique, traverseront la ligne de démarcation sur la lisière de la côte indiquée dans l'Article III. de la présente Convention."

'ARTICLE VI.

"It is understood that the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, from whatever quarter they may arrive, whether from the ocean, or from the interior of the continent, shall forever enjoy the right of navigating freely, and without any hindrance whatever, all the rivers and streams which, in their course towards the Pacific Ocean, may cross the line of demarkation upon the line of coast described in article three of the present convention."