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and admiralty causes only the process, pleadings and decree, and such orders and memorandums as may be necessary to show the jurisdiction of the court and regularity of the proceedings, shall be entered upon the final record."

Section 698 is as follows:

"Upon the appeal of any cause in equity, or of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, or of prize or no prize, a transcript of the record, as directed by law to be made, and copies of the proofs, and of such entries and papers on file as may be necessary on the hearing of the appeal, shall be transmitted to the Supreme Court; Provided, That either the court below or the Supreme Court may order any original document or other evidence to be sent up, in addition to the copy of the record, or in lieu of a copy of a part thereof."

In this section the distinction is recognized between that which constitutes the final record and that which may be made part of the record for the purposes of appeal. On appeal all questions properly preserved are open to determination, while on prohibition the inquiry is confined to the matter of jurisdiction, so that it seems to follow that, unless under very extraordinary circumstances, the record proper should only be looked into in the latter class of cases.

If the record thus made constitutes the face of the proceedings here, the alleged want of jurisdiction does not appear therefrom.

The libel alleges that the seizure was made "within the limits of Alaska Territory and in the waters thereof, and within the civil and judicial District of Alaska, to wit, within the waters of that portion of Behring Sea belonging to the United States and said district, on waters navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons burden." As it is admitted that the United States lawfully exercises jurisdiction to the extent of three miles from shore over the waters of Behring Sea, the allegation of seizure within the jurisdiction is sufficient. The libel further avers that the vessel and her captain, officers and crew, "were then and there found engaged in killing fur seals within the limits of Alaska Territory, and in the said waters thereof, in violation of section 1956 of the

Opinion of the Court.

Revised Statutes of the United States." Of course, these are the waters over which the United States lawfully exercises jurisdiction, and upon the face of the libel the court had jurisdiction of the forfeiture and of the offence. The master raised no question of jurisdiction in filing his claim, and the demurrer having been overruled, the answer denied that the seizure was made within the waters described or that the vessel, captain, officers or crew were found engaged in killing fur seal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof, or that they were then and there violating any law of the United States. Trial having been had the court found that "on the 9th day of July, 1887, and theretofore, the master and crew of the defendant vessel were engaged in killing and did kill fur seals in that portion of Behring Sea ceded by Russia to the United States by the treaty of March, 1867, and within the waters of Alaska, in violation of section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States." This was a finding of the commission of the offence within the jurisdiction stated in the libel.

As already seen, the first section of the act of May 17, 1884, provided, "that the territory ceded to the United States by Russia by the treaty of March thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and known as Alaska," should constitute a civil and judicial district. And by section 1954 of the Revised. Statutes, the laws of the United States relating to customs, commerce and navigation were extended "to and over all the main-land, islands and waters of the territory ceded to the United States by the Emperor of Russia by treaty concluded at Washington on the thirtieth day of March, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-seven." The finding refers similarly to that portion of Behring Sea ceded by Russia, and states that the killing was "within the waters of Alaska." The second and third findings were that the vessel, her furniture, apparel, tackle, cargo and 477 fur-seal skins, were seized in said waters, that is to say, in the waters of Alaska, by the commanding officer of the United States revenue-cutter Rush, then and there engaged in the revenue marine service of the United States, who was duly commis

Opinion of the Court.

sioned by the President of the United States, and made such seizure under the direction and by the authority of the Treasury Department.

Upon the face of the libel and findings, if the jurisdiction did not extend beyond three miles from the shore, the legal inference is that the offence and seizure were within that limit. Hudson v. Guestier, 6 Cranch, 281; The Rio Grande, 23 Wall. 458. The court had power to inquire into the fact upon which jurisdiction depended and its maintenance of jurisdiction involved the conclusion necessary to sustain it.

If, therefore, the findings of fact are properly part of the face of the proceedings, the want of jurisdiction not only does not appear, but the contrary. The petitioner asked no finding of fact by the court as to the exact locality, but after the findings and conclusion were made and filed, moved in arrest, assigning, among other grounds, "that from the evidence produced on the part of the United States it appears that this court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of this cause." But this motion was not equivalent to a plea in abatement, nor to a declinatory allegation in the nature of a plea to the jurisdiction, nor to a motion for a rehearing. By the demurrer and answer the defendant had submitted to the jurisdiction, and whatever might be his rights upon appeal, the interposition of this motion did not make that a part of the face of the proceedings, which would not have been so without it.

Passing from this, however, what is the attitude of the case as to the findings? Is this court bound by them or not? If so, no reference to the evidence would be admissible.

The latter part of section 7 of the act of May 17, 1884, 23 Stat. 24, 26, is as follows: "Writs of error in criminal cases shall issue to the said District Court from the United States Circuit Court for the District of Oregon in the cases provided in chapter one hundred and seventy-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine; and the jurisdiction thereby conferred upon Circuit Courts is hereby given to the Circuit Court of Oregon. And the final judgments or decrees of said Circuit and District Court may be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States as in other cases." We

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are of opinion that the word Circuit as here used refers to the Circuit Court of Oregon, and, for the purposes of the matter in hand, the clause may be read: "And the final judgments or decrees of said District Court of Alaska may be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States as in other cases." Under sections 690, 691, 692, 695 and 699, of the Revised Statutes, this court has appellate jurisdiction to reexamine the final judgments of any Circuit Court, or of any District Court acting as a Circuit Court, in civil actions, where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of $5000; all final decrees of any Circuit Court, or of any District Court acting as a Circuit Court, in cases of equity and of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, within the same limit of amount involved; all final decrees of any District Court in prize causes; all final judgments at law and final decrees in equity of any Circuit Court or of any District Court acting as a Circuit Court, in any case touching patent rights or copyrights; in any civil action brought by the United States for the enforcement of any revenue law thereof; in actions against revenue officers; in cases brought on account of deprivation of rights of citizens or of rights under the Constitution; and in suits for injuries by conspirators against civil rights. Under section 701 this court may affirm, modify or reverse any judg ment, decree or order of a Circuit Court, or District Court acting as a Circuit Court, or of a District Court in prize causes, lawfully brought before it for review, or may direct such judgment, decree or order to be rendered, or such further proceedings to be had by the inferior court as the justice of the case may require. And it is argued that the words "as in other cases," in section 7 of the act of 1884 can mean nothing else than other cases of appeals from District Courts and District Courts acting as Circuit Courts; and that the right of appeal from the decrees of District Courts is confined to prize causes under section 695.

It is said that if there could be such a thing as an appeal from the District Court of Alaska in an ordinary admiralty case direct to this court, this court would be obliged to try the case de novo; that the District Court of Alaska, sitting as an

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admiralty court, would supply and take the place of a Circuit Court in admiralty sitting in appeal, although all the statutes authorizing District Courts to exercise the functions of Circuit Courts expressly exclude the power of appeal; that the only foundation of a right of appeal from the Alaska court, based upon this right to exercise the jurisdiction of a Circuit Court, is section 692 of the Revised Statutes, and that only extends to the final decrees of such District Court when exercising the jurisdiction of a Circuit Court, while the exercise of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction by the District Court for Alaska was, by the act creating it and the Revised Statutes, the exercise of purely District Court jurisdiction as such; nor could the Alaska court be supposed to have acted in the exercise of both jurisdictions, as the only admiralty and maritime jurisdiction which belongs to the Circuit Courts is appellate.

But the District Court of Alaska is not alone a District Court of the United States, and a District Court exercising Circuit Court powers; it is also a court of general law and equity jurisdiction. If the contention of petitioner were correct, any power of review in this court over judgments and decrees of the Alaska court in law and equity, except when entered as a Circuit Court, would be excluded. We do not think it was the intention of Congress to give such finality to its judgments and decrees.

It seems to us that the words "as in other cases" mean, as in similar cases from other courts; and we concur in the construction contended for on the part of the respondent, that the meaning of the provision is, that this court may review the final judgments or decrees of the District Court of Alaska as in cases of the same kind from other courts.

The act of February 16, 1875, (18 Stat. 315,) provides that Circuit Courts of the United States in deciding causes of admiralty or maritime jurisdiction on the instance side of the court, shall find the facts and the conclusions of law upon which it renders its judgments or decrees, and shall state the facts and conclusions of law separately. And the review of the judgments or decrees entered upon such findings, by this court, upon appeal, is "limited to a determination of the ques