Statement of the Position of Affairs re the Boundary Between Canada and Alaska, October 1, 1898.

In the year 1867 the Russian possessions in North America passed, by purchase, into the hands of the United States.

The eastern boundary of the purchased territory now known as Alaska had been defined by a treaty between Great Britain and Russia, entered into at St. Petersburg in 1825. To this treaty, therefore, we must look for a description of the boundary between Alaska and the adjoining territory which comprises the Province of British Columbia as to the southern portion of the line, and the Northwest Territories as to the northern.

The Articles of the Treaty at St. Petersburg, which especially deal with the line of demarcation are Nos. III and IV, which read as follows:

III. The line of demarcation between the possessions of the high contracting parties upon the coast of the continent and the islands of America to the northwest, shall be drawn in the manner following:

Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince cf Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees, 40 minutes, north latitude, and between the 131st and the 133rd degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent, where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same meridian); and, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the frozen ocean, shall form the limit between the Russian and British possessions on the continent of America to the northwest.

IV. With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the preceding article, it is understood :

.1st. Russia.

That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to

2nd. That wherever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast, from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude, shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.

The line thus described has not yet been traced out or marked on the ground. This was not necessary so long as the business of the coast was of a local character, such as the fur trade, the fisheries, etc., and communication with the interior was had only by Indians engaged in hunting or inter-tribal trade. In respect of such traffic the high and rugged mountainous region adjacent to the coast was a sufficient mark without a close definition of summits. • The development of mining in the interior has altered the case by directing a considerable traffic from the sea ports to the interior water stretches, whence arises danger of complications in the enforcement of customs regulations, and in respect of criminal and civil jurisdiction generally.

As an instance of this may be cited a case which occurred so long ago as 1876, on the Stikine River, which, in the lower part of its course, flows through United States territory, when a prisoner in charge of a Canadian constable assaulted him and made his escape. Being afterwards recaptured and tried in Victoria for the assault, he pleaded that the assault was committed in United States territory. This directed attention to the boundary question, and, in 1877, Mr. Joseph Hunter, on behalf of the Canadian Government, made a survey of the lower Stikine and made a provisional determination, pending the final settlement by an international commission, of the point where the boundary line, under the treaty, should cross the river.

Later on, the discovery of rich placers near the point where the 141st meridian crossed the Yukon River, at Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile Creeks, rendered necessary Mr. Ogilvie's provisional survey in that region, and at the present time much attention is being directed to the question of the undetermined boundary at Lynn Canal, with reference to the routes thence to the YukonChilkoot and White Passes and the Dalton Trail from Chilkat Inlet.

For an understanding of the questions involved in the determination of the boundary line at these places, as well as along the whole extent of the contiguous territory of Canada and the United States in the north, it may be well to point out that the boundary line defined by the treaty is naturally divided into two parts, to be determined according to different principles. The first part extends from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island to a certain point of the continent, thence along the summit of the mountains to the 141st meridian, subject to the proviso of Article IV of the Treaty of St. Petersburg. This is a boundary which is to be laid down according to natural features and without dependence upon latitude or longitude, except as to its terminal point, 111 deg. west longitude. The second part is a meridian of longitude, not depending in any way upon natural features, but to be laid down by scientific processes of astronomy and land surveying.

To begin with the second part, there is, with regard to it, no possibility of dispute as to the meaning of the treaty. It should be the meridian of 141 deg. longitude west from Greenwich. The only difficulty is the practical one of laying down this longitude line with the precision necessary. The usual method of laying down such a line is to fix one point of it by astronomical observations for longitude, and thence to produce the meridian line Lorth and south with the transit theodolite. Observations for longitude are needed at but one point, except in the event of the interruption of the line surveying by mountains or other insuperable obstacles. Astronomical observations of another kind are, however, taken at frequent intervals along the survey to check its direction and hold it to its accurate north and south course, and points can thus be laid down in the same longitude as the initial astronomical station with greater precision than the absolute longitude of the latter can be determined.

The determination of the longitude of a point consists in the determination of the difference of local time between it and Greenwich or some other point whose difference of time from Greenwich is already known. The process consists in determining the local time at the place by astronomical observation, and then comparing this time with the local time at Greenwich or other standard station. The readiest mode of comparing the times of two stations is the exchange of signals by the electric telegraph where this is available, and this method is the most accurate known. But where the telegraph is not available, other means must be resorted to, such as the carrying of chronometers or the noting at each station of the instant of some visible occurrence, such as a flash of gunpowder (only available, of course, at short distances), an eclipse of the

sun or moon or of a satellite of Jupiter, or the occultation of a star by the passage over it of the moon's disk. The chronometric method is probably the next in accuracy to that by telegraph, but it is not available inland where the chronometers are liable to rough usage in carriage. The readiest inethod in such a case as that under consideration, far inland and away from the telegraphs, is the method by transits of the moon. This method is, in principle, the same as the direct method of exchange of time by signals, but that the moon serves at the same time as the signal onserved and as a record of the Greenwich time. The observer determines his local time, and at the same time determines the position of the moon in the heavens with reference to the stars. The fixed stars have an apparent motion in the sky from east to west, due to the diurnal revolution of the earth, but retain their apparent positions relative to each other. The moon, while partaking with the stars in the apparent diurnal motion, has at the same time a monthly rotation of its own about the earth, by which it traveis from west to east, continually changing its place with regard to the stars, making a complete circuit of the sidereal heavens in rather more than twenty-seven days. Now the movement of the moon in its orbit depends upon the known attractions of the sun, earth and planets, and its path among the stars can be computed beforehand, and is so computed for number of years ahead and its position for each hour of every day is tabulated in the various nautical almanacs. Hence the observer who finds that the moon was in a certain place at a certain instant of his own local time, has but to refer to his almanac to find the Greenwich time at which the moon should be in that place. A direct comparison of the local time with the Greenwich time is thus obtained. The difference is his longitude. The accuracy of the lunar method is less than that of the direct method by signals, for while an error of, say, a quarter of a second in estimating the time of the electric tap, or the flash of the artificial signal, makes an error of one-quarter of a second in the difference of time, and therefore in the longitude; an error of one-quarter of a second in determining the moon's position, i.e., if the moon's time of transit over the observer's meridian is noted one-quarter of a second too soon or too late, the error in the longitude will be twenty-seven times as great, i.e., nearly seven seconds, for the moon, making the circuit of the stars in 27 days, has a motion relative to the stars one-twenty-seventh of their apparent diurnal motion, by which the astronomer determines his time.

By lunar observations, Mr. Ogilvie, on behalf of the Canadian Government, in the winter of 1887-88, determined a point on the Yukon River in longitude 141 deg. The place was visited in 1889 by Mr. McGrath, of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, who also, during two winters, took a number of lunar observations. His result is reported to agree with Mr. Ogilvie's within about 610 feet, which is equivalent to rather more than nine-tenths of a second of longitude.

In view of the fact stated above, that an error in the moon's place is multiplied by 27 in the longitude, the accordance is very close. Of course, the result given by each observer does not depend upon a single observation, but upon many, and the accidental errors of individual observations by a well-known law tends to correct one another in the mean of the individual results.

In the same years, 1889 to 1891, Mr. Turner, of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, determined the point where the 141st meridian crosses the Porcupine River. No Canadian observer has yet visited this point.

The mining population of the Yukon District increasing as the news of the rich deposits spread, Inspector Constantire, of the North-West Mounted Police, accompanied by Sergeant Brown, was sent in 1894 to ascertain the facts in the

case, and the best means of making efficient provision for the enforcement of law in the district and the protection of the revenue. The necessity of action in this regard becoming apparent, a force of Mounted Police was sent to the district in the following year (1895). The greater part of the mining being at the time on the tributaries of Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile Creeks, close to the 141st meridian, it became necessary for the purpose of administration that a definition of the line in this neighborhood should be had. This work was entrusted to Mr. Ogilvie, who returned to the Yukon in the summer of 1895, under instructions to perform also such surveying as might be necessary in connection with mining and land claims. In the following winter Mr. Ogilvie surveyed and marked out the meridian for about five miles north from his astronomical station of 1887-88 on the Yukon River and fifty-five miles south from it to a point near Sixty-Mile Creek, an extent of line sufficient for existing requirements. At the time Mr. Ogilvie was sent out, the United States Government had been asked to co-operate in the survey, so as to make the resulting determination final for international purposes, as Mr. Ogilvie's work, without such international agreement, would, of course be merely provisional, as was Mr. Hunter's work on the Stikine. The United States Government, however, declined to co-operate at the time, expressing a preference for a joint survey of the whole of the 141st meridian. A convention accordingly, providing for a joint survey of the line from the mountains overlooking the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean, was agreed to in January, 1897, by Her Majesty's Ambassador at Washington and the Secretary of State of the United States, and was submitted to the United States Senate for ratification. The Senate, however, has not yet ratified the convention, and the matter is at a standstill. No portion of the line has been surveyed other than that surveyed by Mr. Ogilvie, as above stated, in the winter of 1895-1896.

The other portion of the Alaska boundary, that between the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island and the 141st meridian, remains to be discussed. We have not now to deal with a line depending upon latitude or longitude which can be laid down by scientific processes, with a degree of precision only limited by the care taken and the time expended upon the work.. The location of this boundary depends upon natural features as described in a written instrument, and cannot be established so long as any differences of interpretation of the treaty remain unsettled. Very wide differences do in fact exist, and while it is not possible, at the present stage of the negotiations between the Governments, to present fully here various arguments which have been set up on behalf of divergent views, it is proposed to state briefly the main points upon which controversy may turn when the claims which may be formulated by the Governments come before a tribunal for adjudication.

It may be premised that the question is somewhat complicated by the fact that the United States are in actual occupation of the coast; settlements have been formed by their citizens on debatable territory, and their officials have, in some instances, pushed their jurisdiction to the farthest limit which the United States could claim under an extreme interpretation of the treaty.

The point of commencement of the boundary by treaty is the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island. There seems no difficulty in identifying this island from the recorded latitude and longitude of its southernmost point with the assistance of the charts in existence at the time of the treaty negotiations. An exploration of the coast and the adjacent archipelago had been made by Captain Vancouver, 1793 and 1794, and his charts have been proved by recent surveys to be remarkably accurate as to the principal natural features. The wide range of longitude, 131 deg. to 133 deg., is given to include the two south

ern promonotories called by Vancouver Capes Muzon and Chacon, both of which lie nearly in latitude 54 deg., 40 min.' but until recently it was not known that Muzon extends a little further south than Chacon. Vancouver did not explore the archipelago sufficiently to ascertain all the channels among the islands, and on his chart he shows a mass of land terminating in the two capes above named, and calls it Prince of Wales archipelago." Later surveys show that this conjecture is in accordance with the facts, and that there are several islands, including two principal ones, the smaller and more westerly of which, now known as Dall Island, terminates in Cape Muzon, while the large Island retains the name Prince of Wales. This island is to be distinguished from "Wales " Island, situated at the entrance to Portland Inlet.

From the point of commencement the line "shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude." The question here arises as to whether Portland "Channel " is to be identified with Vancouver's Portland Canal.' The difficulties are that the entrance to Portland Canal lies some fifty miles nearly due east from Cape Chacon on Prince of Wales Island and eighty miles from Cape Muzon, so that whichever of these capes is taken as the point of beginning, the line must pass over a long stretch of sea before it begins to appreciably "ascend to the north," and during this part of its course it is not following along a "channel" at all. Again, Portland Canal does not reach the 56th degree of north latitude at all. Vancouver's chart places its northern extremity in latitude 55 deg., 15 min., or seventeen and a half statute miles south of the 56th parallel. Recent surveys show that it extends further north than Vancouver's position, but still it does not reach the parallel. On the other hand, no channel, strait or inlet appears on the maps of the time of the treaty under the name of Portland, except Vancouver's Portland Canal, The alternative course up Clarence Strait, terminating either at the head of Behm's Canal or on the mainland shore in Ernest Sound would be more consistent than the other with the direction to "ascend to the north along the channel," but the adoption of this course would seem to be tantamount to striking out of the treaty the words called Portland Channel."

On the decision as to which of these courses is to be followed depends the ownership of a piece of continental territory about 3,000 square miles in area, and of many islands, comprising the large island called Revillagigedo Island and the Annette Island group, and containing in all an area of about 1,500 square miles. These islands, as well as the mainland shore, are of importance on account of their fisheries, there being several canneries and fish curing ostablishments. Mining has received but little attention in this region, but it is probable that valuable minerals will be found both on the islands and the mainland.

Northward from the 56th degree of north latitude the line is to "follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude," subject to the condition in Article IV of the treaty, that wherever the summit shall prove to be more than ten marine leagues (30 geographical miles, or about 341 statutory miles) from the ocean, the boundary shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, and never more than ten marine leagues therefrom. To fully understand these provisions topographical information is required, which can only be procured by actual survey, and in 1892, by convention, the United States and Great Britain agreed "that a coincident or joint survey (as may be found in practice most convenient) shall be made of the territory adjacent to that part of the boundary line of the United States and the Dominion of Canada dividing