The delimitation of the boundary which the Treaty had affirmed gave rise to a further difficulty. The Treaty having provided that the sea line was to be drawn southerly through the middle of the channel which separates Vancouver Island from the continent and of Fuca’s Straits into the Pacific Ocean, the two nations were unable to agree as to what was the middle of the channel in the Gulf of Georgia between the Southern end of Vancouver Island and the North American coast. The main question at issue was the ownership of the island of San Juan, and the subject of dispute was for this reason known as the San Juan boundary question. The British claim was that the line should be drawn to the Eastward of the island, down what was known as the Rosario Straits. The Americans contended that it should be drawn on the Western side, following the Canal de Haro or Haro Channel. Eventually it was laid down by the 34th and Arbitration under the Treaty of 1871. following Articles of the Treaty of Washington of 8th of May, 1871—the same Treaty which provided for arbitration on the Alabama question—that the Emperor of Germany should arbitrate as to which of the two claims was most in accordance with the true interpretation of the Treaty of 1846, and that his award should be absolutely final and conclusive. On the 21st of October, 1872, the arbitrator gave his award in favour of the United States, and it was immediately carried into effect, thus completing the boundary line from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In a message to Congress on the subject of the San Juan Boundary Award, President Grant stated

and he suggested that a joint Commission should determine the line between the Alaska territory and the conterminous possessions of Great Britain, on the hypothesis that here there was no ground of dispute and that all that was required was the actual delimitation of an already admitted boundary line. The matter proved to be more complex than the President’s words implied.

By a Treaty signed on the 30th of March, 1867, the territory now known as Alaska was ceded by Russia to the United States. It was the year in which the Dominion Act was passed; and, when British Columbia[245] in 1871 joined the Dominion, Canada became, in respect of that province, as well as in regard to the Yukon Territory, a party to the Alaska boundary question. The limits of Russian America, as it was then called, had been fixed as far back as 1825, when, by a treaty between Great Britain and Russia, dated Line of demarcation between British and Russian possessions in North America drawn in 1825. the 28th of February in that year, a line of demarcation was fixed between British and Russian possessions

The line started from the Southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, which point was defined as lying in the parallel of 54° 40′ North latitude and between the 131st and 133rd degrees of West longitude. It was carried thence to the North, along the channel called Portland Channel, up to that point of the continent where it intersected the 56th parallel of North latitude. From this point it followed the summit of the mountains parallel to the coast until it intersected the 141st degree of West longitude, and was carried along that meridian to the Arctic Ocean. The Treaty provided that the whole of Prince of Wales Island should belong to Russia, and that wherever the summit of the mountains running parallel to the coast between the 56th parallel of North latitude and the point where the boundary line intersected the 141st meridian was proved to be at a distance of more than 10 marine leagues from the ocean, the line should be drawn parallel to the windings of the coast at a distance from it never exceeding 10 marine leagues.

Free navigation of the rivers which flowed into the Pacific Ocean across the strip of coast assigned to Russia was conceded in perpetuity to British subjects; and, after the transfer of Russian America to the United States, the Twenty-sixth Article of the Treaty of Washington of 1871 provided that the navigation of the rivers Yukon, Porcupine, and Stikine should for ever remain free and open to both British and American citizens, subject to such laws and regulations of either country within its own territory as were not inconsistent with the privilege of free navigation.

In 1872, the year after the entry of British Columbia into the Dominion of Canada, mining being contemplated in the northern part of British Columbia, overtures were, at the instance of the Canadian Government, made to the United States to demarcate the boundary, which had never yet been surveyed and delimited. The probable cost of a survey caused delay, and no action had been taken when in 1875 and 1876 disputes arose as to the boundary line on the Stikine river. The Canadian Government in 1877 dispatched an engineer to ascertain approximately the line on the river, and the result of his survey was in the following year provisionally accepted by the United States as a temporary arrangement, without prejudice to a final settlement. Negotiations began again about 1884, and, by a Convention signed The Convention of 1892. at Washington on the 22nd of July, 1892, it was provided that a coincident or joint survey should be undertaken of the territory adjacent to the boundary line from the latitude of 54° 40′ North to the point where the line intersects the 141st degree of West longitude. It was added that, as soon as practicable after the report or reports had been received, the two governments should proceed to consider and establish the boundary line. The time within which the results of the survey were to be reported was, by a supplementary Convention, extended to the 31st of December, 1895, and on that date a joint report was made, but no action was taken upon it at the time.

In 1896 the Klondyke goldfields were discovered in what now constitutes the Yukon district of the North-West Territories, and in the following year there was a large immigration into the district. The goldfields were most accessible by the passes beyond the head of the inlet known as the Lynn canal, the opening of which into the sea is within what had been the Russian fringe of coast. The necessity therefore for determining the boundary became more urgent than before. In 1898 the British Government proposed that the matter Further negotiations. should be referred to three Commissioners, one appointed by each government and the third by a neutral power; and that, pending a settlement, a modus vivendi should be arranged. A provisional boundary in this quarter was accordingly agreed upon, but, instead of the Commission which had been proposed, representatives of Great Britain and the United States alone met in 1898 and 1899 to discuss and if possible settle various questions at issue between the two nations, among them being the Alaska boundary. They were to endeavour to come to an agreement as to provisions for the delimitation of the boundary

memoranda of the views held on either side being furnished in advance of the sittings of the Commission. Again no settlement was effected.

The dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela as to the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, in which the Government of the United States had intervened, had, by a Convention signed in February, 1897, been referred to arbitration, the Arbitrators being five in number, two Englishmen, two Americans, and one representative of a neutral State. In July, 1899, before the award in this arbitration had been given, Lord Salisbury proposed to the American Government that a treaty on identical lines with the Venezuela boundary Convention should apply arbitration to the Alaska Boundary question. To this procedure, giving a casting vote on the whole question to a representative of a neutral power, the American Government took exception, and suggested instead a Tribunal consisting of ‘Six impartial Jurists of repute’, three to be appointed by the President of the United States and three by Her Britannic Majesty. A suggestion made by the British Government that one of the three Arbitrators on either side should be a subject of a neutral state was not accepted; and eventually, on the 24th of January, 1903, a Convention was signed at Washington, constituting a tribunal in accordance with the American conditions. The three British representatives were the Lord Chief Justice of England and two leading Canadians, one of them being the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec.

The preamble of the Convention stated that its object was a ‘friendly and final adjustment’ of the differences which had arisen as to the ‘true meaning and application’ of the clauses in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 which referred to the Alaska boundary. The tribunal was to decide where Points for decision. the line was intended to begin; what channel was the Portland Channel; how the line should be drawn from the point of commencement to the entrance to the Portland Channel; to what point on the 56th parallel and by what course it should be drawn from the head of the Portland Channel; what interpretation should be given to the provision in the Treaty of 1825 that from the 56th parallel to the point where the 141st degree of longitude was intersected the line should follow the crest of the mountains running parallel to the coast at a distance nowhere exceeding ten marine leagues from the ocean; and what were the mountains, if any, which were indicated by the treaty.

The main point at issue was whether the ten leagues should be measured from the open sea or from the heads of the inlets, some of which ran far into the land. If the latter interpretation were adopted, the result would be to give to the United States control of the main lines of communication with the Klondyke Mining district, just as the Maine boundary threatened to cut, and in large measure did cut, communication between the Maritime Provinces and Quebec.

The Convention provided that all questions considered by the tribunal, including the final award, should be decided by a majority of the Arbitrators. The tribunal was unanimous in deciding that the point of commencement of the line was Cape Muzon, the Southernmost point of Dall Island on the Western or ocean side of Prince of Wales Island. A unanimous opinion was also given to the effect that the Portland Channel is the channel which runs from about 55°56′ North latitude and passes seawards to the North of Pearse and Wales Islands; but on all subsequent points there was a division of opinion, the three American representatives and the Lord Chief Justice of England giving a majority award from which the two Canadian members of the tribunal most strongly dissented. The majority decided that the outlet of the Portland Channel to the sea was to be identified with the strait known as Tongass Channel, and that the line should be drawn along that channel and pass to the South of two islands named Sitklan and Khannaghunut islands, thus vesting the ownership of those islands in the United States. They also decided that the boundary line from the 56th parallel of North latitude to the point of intersection with the 141st degree of West longitude should run round the heads of the inlets and not cross them. One section of the line was not fully determined owing to the want of an adequate survey. The net result of the award was to substantiate the American claims, to give to the United States full command of the sea approaches to the Klondyke Mining districts, and to include within American territory two islands hard by the prospective terminus of a new Trans-Canadian Railway.

It may be added that the Treaty of 30th March, 1867, by which Alaska was transferred from Russia to the United States, gave rise not only to the territorial boundary dispute of which an account has been given above, but also to a controversy as to American and British rights in the Behring Sea, more especially in connexion with the taking of seals. The questions at issue were settled at a much earlier date than the land boundary, having been, by a treaty signed at Washington on the 29th of February, 1892, referred to a tribunal of seven arbitrators, two named by the United States, two by Great Britain, and one each by the President of the French Republic, the King of Italy, and the King of Sweden and Norway. The arbitrators met in Paris and gave their award on the 15th of August, 1893, the substance of the award, as concurred in by the majority of the arbitrators, being that Russia had not exercised any exclusive rights of jurisdiction in Behring Sea or any exclusive rights to the seal fisheries in that sea outside the ordinary three-mile limit, and that no such rights had passed to the United States.

The last phase in the evolution of the Boundary line between Canada and the United States is the Treaty of 11th of April, 1908, ‘for the delimitation of International Boundaries between Canada and the United States’, by which machinery is provided ‘for the more complete definition and demarcation of the International Boundary’, and for settling any small outstanding points such as, e.g., the boundary line through Passamaquoddy Bay.