Map C.
Map F.

the treaty speaks of the "channel," for that part south and west of Birch's Bay, it must mean the channel of Haro, for no other "channel" was known to the negotiators. The channel of Haro was on the map of Vancouver, the highest English authority, and on the map of Wilkes, the highest American authority at the time. when the treaty was signed; and no other channel is named on either of these maps, or on any map used by the negotiators. On the chart of those waters by Duflot de Mofras, published in 1844, under the auspices of Louis Philippe and the French ministry, the channel of Haro is named, and no other. In the collection of maps in the Royal Library at Berlin, not a single German or other map, anterior to June, 1846, names any other channel than that of Haro. How is it pos

Map E.

sible, then, that any other channel could have been intended, when [26] no other was named on any map which it can be pretended *was known to Lord Aberdeen or Mr. MacLane, to Mr. Buchanan or Mr. Pakenham ?

Мар Н.

Again, the word "channel," when employed in treaties, means a deep and navigable channel; and where there are two navigable channels, by the rule of international law, preference is to be given to the largest column of water. Now, compared with any other channel through which a ship could pass from the sea at the forty-ninth paral lel to the Straits of Fuca, the channel of Haro is the broadest and the deepest, the shortest and the best. Its maximum width is six and a half English miles, and there is no other channel of which the maximum width exceeds four miles. The narrowest part of the channel of Haro is about two and a quarter English miles, and there is no other channel of which the minimum width exceeds about one and a quarter English miles. With regard to depth, the contrast is still more striking. A cross-section on the parallel of 48° 45′ shows the Canal de Haro to be there about a hundred and twenty fathoms deep, about twice as deep as any other; on the parallel of 48° 35′ the Canal de Haro is nearly a hundred and fifty fathoms deep, against thirty fathoms for any competitor; on the parallel of 48° 25' the Canal de Haro has nearly a hundred and ten fathoms, while no other passage has more than forty.

Not only is the volume of water in the Canal de Haro vastly greater than that in any other passage-a single glance at any map shows that it is the shortest and most direct way between the parallel Appendix No. 49, of 49° and Fuca's Straits. Duflot de Mofras describes it as P., 17–19. notoriously the best.

If the channel of Haro excelled all others only on one point-if it were the widest though not the deepest, or the reverse, or, if being the widest and deepest, it were not the shortest and best, there might be some degree of color for cavil; but since the channel of Haro is the broadest and the deepest, and the shortest and the best, how can any one venture to pretend that any other is "the channel" of the treaty? [27] *"THE CHANNEL WHICH SEPARATES THE CONTINENT FROM VAN

COUVER ISLAND."

The next words of the treaty are: "The channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island," and this, from latitude about 48° 46', can be no other than the Canal de Haro. It is the only one which from that latitude to "Fuca's Straits" separates the continent from Vancouver Island. There are other passages which divide islands from islands, but none other separates the continent from Vancouver Island.