This more specilic instruction shows that he probably had not meant in the first part of the letter to sngwest different mountains from those hefore considered, but that he probably meunt the seaward base of the chain depicted, and not the base of those broken mountains nearest the sea. His reference to the map shows that he must have referred tothis chain. Ile was not seekiny to wet nearer the const or to obtain any part of the const, but to guurd against going too far into the inte- rior. He feared that “the line of demarcation to he drawn parallel with the coast” if drawn on those mountains, which. as shown on the maps. satistied the condition as to. parallelism to the coast, might on aceount of the mistake in location, be further from the coast than they appeared, He wanted other seenrity, aud provided that ‘the line should in no ease (7, ¢.. not in that of the mountains, which appear by the map almost to border the coast, turning out to be far removed from it) be carried further to the east than a speciied number of leagues from the sea.” He referred to the chain of mountains which Russian meant and said thet these imountuins appeared almost to border the coast. He shows that he was willing to give, if necessary, a /ésiére ten leagnes wide. His draft convention shows the kind of mountains he meant, Tt says:
- * * the line of frontier between the British and Russian possessions sball
ascend northerly along the channel called Porthind Channel, tiil it strikes the coast of the continent lying in the 46th degree oi siorth latitude. From this point it shall be carried along that coast in a direction parallel to its windings, and at or within the seaward base of the mountains by which it ts bounded, as far as the Lath degree of longitude weet of the said meritiau.[1]
The line is to be drawn ‘till it strikes the coast of the continent Ivinw in the 56th degree.” It “shall le carried alone that coast par- allel to its windings. and at or within the senward base of the moun- tains by whieh it is bounded.” That is. the mountains which hound that coast. The line must first be parallel to the windings of the coust and at the hase of the boundary mountains, whether they are parallel to the const or not. The mountains are not to control the perallelism. Nothing Init the const is to control it. Th mountains trend across the coast line, yet the live is to follow the windings of the coast and along the hase of the mountains and is not to follow the mountains across the coast and interior waters. Dotbtless he meant
the mountains slready referred to which, as shown by the map, in
- ↑ U. S. C. App., 183.
