On May 20, LS. ina letter from Count Lieven to Count Nessel- rode, he said:
Your excelleney will notice by Mr, Canning’: dispatels thot the English (ievern- ment agrees to accept the terms last proprsed ly our court, and that Sir Charles Bagot is about to receive authority to eign, typan these bases, the convention which will permanently settle the state of cur frontiers in Ameriva, The conditions placet at the diseretion of the British anibuesstdor on this point will prolably net stppear to the imperial ministey of a nature to diminish the value of this concession,
They consist:
(it) Ofa tere detinite description of the limit« within which the portion of terri- tery obtained by Russia on the continent is te he inclosert,
The proposition of onr court was to make this frontier rin along the mountains which follow the windings of the coast to Mount Eliax, The English Government iutiy accepts this line as it is laid off on the maps; but, as it thinks that the maps are defective and that the mountains which are to serve as a frontier might, by leav- ing the coast beyond the line designated, inclose a considerable extent of territory, it wishes the line claimed by us to be descrihed with more exactness, so a= not to cede, in reality, miore than our court asks and more than England ts clisposed to grant.
The English government agreed to aceept the terms last proposed by Russia. ‘These terms were, in order to render the line as distinct is possible. to make it™ follow Porthiod Chanuel up to the mountains, which border the coast,” and thence to “ascend along those mountains ptrallel to the sinnosities of the coast. as far as the one hundred and thirty-ninth dewree of lonwitude,”’
They had explained in their observations that they meant by moun- tains. “the chain of mountains which follows ata very short distance the sinuosities of the const.” Therefore the Enelish Government understood if was a chain of mountains, and that it followed the windings of the coast. It has been shown that by coast they all understood the coust claimed Inv Russian, the whole extent of the northwest coust. north of 54 40°. Tt was a particnlur chain which was to fix the “line as it is laid off on the maps.” The chuin as laid down on the maps meets all of the conditions had in view, There is only one chain shown,’
This chain runs generally parallel to the sintiosities of the coast, as they understand that word, It formed a complete and continuous natural barrier, except where there might be passes or rivers. Can
“U, SBC. App., 175. 60, 8. CG. App, Ls. eV OC. App., 169.
