Mr. G. Canning, in his letter to Mr S. Canning of Dee. 8, 1824, ealled attention to this change, us follows:
The Russian plentpotentiaries propose to withdraw entirely the limit of the lisiére on the coast, which they were themselves the first to propose, viz.: the summit of the mountains whieh run parallel to the coast, and which appear, aevording to the map, to follow all its sinuosities, and to substitute generally that whieb we only sugvested as a corrective of their first proposition.
We cannot agree te this change. [tis quite obvious that the boundary of meun- tains, where they exist, is the most natural and effectual boundary. The imeon- venience against which we wished to guard wae that which you know and can thoroughly explain to the Rassian plenipotentiaries to have existed on the other side of the American continent, when mountains laid down in a wap as in a certain given position, and asstimed in faith of the accuracy of that map as a leondary between the possessions of England and the United States turned ont to be qnite liffevently situatel, a discovery which has given rise to the niost perplexing disens- sions. Shonld the maps be ne more acenrate as ta the western than as te the eastern mountains, we might be asigning to Russia tmimense tracts of inkind territory, where we only intended to give, and they only intended to ask, a strip of seacoast,
To avoid the chance of this inconvenience we proposed to qualify the general preposition “that the mountains should be the boundary, with the condition if those mountains shorld vet be fonnd to extemd beyond ton leagues from the coast." The Russian plenipotentiaries now propoee to take the distance invariably as the rule. Bot we can not consent to this change. The mountains, as | have said, are a more eligible boundary than any imaginary line of demarcation, and this being their own original proposition, the Russian Pienipotentiaries cannot reas@imbly refuse ta adhere to it.
Where the mountains are the houndary, we are content to take the summit instead of the ‘seaward busee" as the line of demarcation.[1]
Thus he brought Russia hack to ber original proposition, and neceded to it, and the reasoning on which it was based. He aban- doned the seaward base of the monutains bounding the strip of coast. He shows that he accepted the original chain. compre- bending the entive coast as shown on the niaps, that he intended to give “ta strip of seavonst.” and that he put the fimit against recession from this coast. not that be ever contemplated getting any of the coast by adhering te the mountains, but because he feared that. without this limitation, he might be assigning ** humense tracts of inland territory.” It is impossible to predicate any such fear, if he had contemplated such a mountain line as Great Britain now contends for, for those peaks were visible from the waters
which had been navigated by Vancouver and bad not been depicted
- ↑ U. S. C. App., 210–212
