Page:Alaskan boundary tribunal (IA alaskanboundaryt01unit).pdf/98

 that. if shoukl be retiree? on the lind down this coast to the exterior coast. ‘The meaning becomes absolutely clear, when we tuke into view the monutain range depicted on the map. which went straipht away to the northwest. The line wus fo follow this coust, and porulel te its sinuosities, and along the seaward Imse of the mountains which bordered this coast. and the trend was toward the Leth degree of longitude. After baying fixed unmistakably the

ntenning of *edte it is clear that he intended the line to proceed. so

as to follow the sinnosities of the coast so defined, thit is, the coast extending around the heads of all salt waters. ‘This was the const — demonstrated by the mountains with reference to which the entire negotiations proceeded.

In the third article he says:

Que lt sustite tisitve de ote sor le Continent de F Ameriqne formant Ja linite des possessions TNusses, ue doit, en aucun cts, sttendre en larveor depuis iy mer vers Vinterieuw, au dela de la distance de——liewes maritinws, A quelque distance qne seront lex suelite: montaynes.¢

‘Thus he defines the /éséve as sta strip” and not as ‘strips ” of coust. “The coust is “on the continent ~ and not partly a fiction consisting of water, The width of the strip is not to be more than a cerGun distance “depuis In mer.”

In determining what the const was in respect to the water. he did not have in mind the Grand Ocean, iat the word **sea~ waz used to designate the wuater hounded by whit he had already des- ivvated as ‘ceoast.” In this sense Porthiod Channel was mer.” He had defined it< upper border expressly as ‘*coast.” For the sane reavon. other like waters constituted a part of the sea, and their borders constituted a part of the coast, and consequently the widih of the *hisiéve de cdéte” was to he measured from the coast at their heads, just as the dine took its initial point on the hunds on the coast at the bead of Porthiud Channel. And from these cousts the Jésieve was to be measured “ yers Pintérieur.”

As appears from the letter of Count Lieven to Count Nesselvode of July LS. Led. Mr. Canning submitted bis draft to Count Lieven, Count Lieven understood that the word ‘edte™ in this draft could not have been med in the unasual and special sense now contended for, because in this letter he says that Mr. Canning makes the line

aU. &.C, App, 180.