dary was to run along mountain summits
parallel to the coast until it intersected the 141st meridian west
longitude, which was then to be followed to the frozen ocean. In case
any of the summits mentioned should be more than ten marine leagues from
the ocean, the line was to parallel the coast, and be never more than
ten marine leagues therefrom.

When it became important to determine and mark the boundary in a more
exact manner, Great Britain advanced two new claims; first, that the
"Portland Channel" mentioned in the Russo-British treaty was not the
channel now known by that name, but rather Behm Channel, next west, or
Clarence Straits; and, secondly, that the ten-league limit should be
measured from the outer rim of the archipelago skirting Alaska, and not
from the mainland coast. If conceded, these claims would add to the
Canadian Dominion about 29,000 square miles, including 100 miles of
sea-coast, with harbors like Lynn Channel and Tahko Inlet, several
islands, vast mining, fishery, and timber resources, as well as Juneau
City, Revilla, and Fort Tongass, theretofore undisputably American.

In September, 1898, a joint high commission sat at Quebec and canvassed
all moot matters between the two countries, among them that of the
Alaska boundary. It adjourned, however, without settling the question,
though a temporary and provisional understanding was reached and signed
October 20, 1899.

The commissioners gave earnest attention to the sealing question, which
had been plaguing the United States ever since the Paris arbitration
tribunal upset Secretary Blaine's contention that Bering Sea was mare
clausum. Upon that tribunal's decision the modus vivendi touching seals
lapsed, and Canadians, with renewed and ruthless zeal, plied
seal-killing upon the high seas. Dr. David S. Jordan, American delegate
to the 1896-1897 Conference of Fur-Seal Experts, estimated that the
American seal herd had shrunken 15 per cent. in 1896, and that a full
third of that year's pups, orphaned by pelagic sealing, had starved.
Reckoning from the beginning of the industry and in round numbers, he
estimated that 400,000 breeding females had been slaughtered, that
300,000 pups had perished for want of nourishment, and that 400,000
unborn pups had died with their dams. This estimate disregarded the
multitude of females lost after being speared or shot. Dr. Jordan
predicted the not distant extinction of the fur-seal trade unless
protective measure