and forming a prolongation of Alaska proper to the South East. It is not, in spite of repeated asseverations to the contrary, in itself a rich country; no goldfields have been discovered there, nor indeed mineral wealth of any description. But it has suddenly acquired value and importance from the fact that it contains the only practicable access to the great gold-bearing districts of the Yukon,which are admittedly within Canadian territory. The United States title is derived by purchase, that country having bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for some million and a half sterling, acquiring thereby Russia's rights in that territory, neither more nor less. It is, therefore, those rights that we shall have to examine. Russians appear to have discovered the country; in any case they were the first to settle there. In 1799 the Emperor Paul granted the Russo-American Company their charter, by which they were empowered to develop the country North of the 55th parallel of north latitude. In 1821 the Czar Alexander I. issued a ukase of mediæval extravagance, laying claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the high seas for a distance of 100 miles from the coast of Asia above 45 deg. 50 min. N. Lat., and for the like distance from the coast of North America above the 51st parallel. Along these coasts, landing and trading with the natives was prohibited to foreigners. In face of the vehement expostulations of Great Britain and the United States, Russia had to give way, to withdraw her pretensions to dominion over the Pacific, and to modify her territorial claims. Conventions were accordingly concluded between Russia and the United States in 1824, and between Russia and ourselves on Feb. 28th 1825. It is this latter compact around which the dispute centres, for the treaty of 1867 provided that the eastern limit of Alaska shall be the line established by the convention between Russia and Great Britain of Feb. 28, 1825." Articles 3 and 4 of the 1825 convention

are the all-important ones, and I give the official English translation, though it must be borne in mind that the signed original was in French only :

"III.-The line of demarcation between the possessions of the High Contract"ing Parties upon the coast of the continent and the islands of America to the "north and west shall be drawn in the following manner :

Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales “Island, which lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north latitude, and "between the 131st and 133rd degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), "the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Chan"nel 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 meri. dian); 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 north-west.

"IV.

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

:

“(Ist.) That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to "Russia.

"(2nd.) That whenever the summit of the mountains, which extend in a direc"tion 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 dis"tance 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 "shall never exceed the distance of 10 marine leagues therefrom."

The boundary is therefore (1) the Portland Channel; (2) alternatively the mountains nearest the sea or a line 30 sea miles therefrom, whichever is nearer to the coast; (3) from the 141st meridian, which is at or near Mount St. Elias, northwards on that meridian.

Until the discovery of gold in the Cassiar district, early in the seventies, the boundary was left defined no further than by the words of the Treaty. In view of the new importance given to South East Alaska by that event, Canada induced Great Britain, in 1872, to approach the United States on the question of the delimitation of the dividing line. But Congress refused to sanction the Bill introduced into the American legislature on the ground

that the £30,000 required was more urgently needed for other purposes. Further abortive negotiations took place in 1885, and it was not till 1892 that a joint Commission of Enquiry was appointed. The report which it presented dealt only with geographical details, the question of construction being left as it was. However, the line of the 141st degree, though not officially determined, is for all practical purposes agreed; for Canada and the United States each sent survey parties in the eighties for the purpose of defining it, and their results, arrived at independently, differed by only 200 yards. The International Commission of 1898 to 1899 effected nothing towards the solution of the difficulty.

The points of disagreement are three :

(1) What is the inlet referred to as the Portland Channel?

(2) How are the "mountains situated parallel to the coast" to be determined?

(3) What is the meaning of "a line parallel to the

windings of the Coast"?

With regard to the first point, Canada contends that the Gulf known as the Portland Canal is the "Portland Channel" of the Treaty, whilst the United States contend that the line should enter the channel by an arm further to the south, named Observatory Inlet by Vancouver. The importance of this deviation is that it would give America control of the Canadian town of Port Simpson. And here it may be said that it is generally agreed that the framers of the treaty took their geography from Vancouver's charts; in fact, these charts remained practically unquestioned until the middle of this century. The United States refuse to accept the Portland Canal proper as the inlet where the line enters the mainland, on the ground that the words of the Treaty are: "A partir du "point le plus méridional de l'ile dite Prince of Wales,

"lequel point se trouve sous la parallèle du 54o degre 40 "minutes de latitude nord, et entre le 131 et le 133 "degré de longitude ouest (méridien de Greenwich), la "dite ligne remontera au nord le long de la passe dite "Portland Channel, jusqu'au point de la terre ferme ou "elle atteint le 56° degré de latitude nord." They argue that there is a gap in the description of the line from Cape Muzon (which is agreed to be the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island) to the point where it enters the mainland, and that the line must, therefore, have been meant to follow the latitude of 54 deg. 40 min. which is expressly mentioned. This argument does not carry conviction, whilst, on the other side, Canada's attitude is simply this: "The Treaty mentions the Portland Channel. We have no concern with what Portland Channel may mean to-day, but only with what it meant in 1825. Now weare agreed that the negotiations of the Treaty were based on Vancouver's maps, and his maps, as well as his descriptions, make it abundantly clear that what he called the Portland Canal is the northern arm, and up it we submit the line should go." It is a pity that this firm ground should have been weakened by a claim at one time set up by the Canadian jingo press; that the Behm Canal, much further north, was the channel intended. The reason was advanced that the treaty speaks of the line ascending to the North along the channel as far as the point of the mainland, where it reaches the 56th degree N. latitude, and that the Portland Channel does not strike the 56th degree at all, because it never gets as far.* But this makes "elle " refer to "Channel," whereas it must refer to "ligne" or

*From a glance at Vancouver's chart as reproduced in the National Geographic Magazine it at once appears (i) that Vancouver's Portland Canal' is the northern area of the Portland Channel; (ii) that the Portland Canal does not reach 56° N. Lat., but ends some 15 minutes South of it. This gap in the description of the line ought, I would submit, to be filled in by a North and South line drawn from the 56th degree to the head of the Channel.

the insertion of "de la terre ferme" would be nonsense. How can a channel reach any place but one on the mainland?

The second and third points are harder to determine. We have to face the fact that Vancouver took his observations from the sea; seeing a fringe of mountains along the coast, he inserted in his charts a continuous and artistic chain of mountains all along. Unfortunately, this chain has no existence. The character of the whole region is rugged and mountainous, but whilst in one part the ranges run into one another with bewildering intricacy, in another we find flat and table land, broken only by a peak here and there. The United States' claim here is that, since there is no continuous range, the artificial boundary of ten leagues must be resorted to all through; whilst Canada asserts that the treaty does not make a point of the existence of a regular chain, but, from the fact that it contains an alternative system of delimitation, rather implies the opposite. She urges that the general trend of the ranges nearest the sea should be followed, lines being drawn from crest to crest. On this principle the American portion would be reduced to a strip averaging only five miles in breadth. Moreover, and this is the third point, the United States say that the ten-league boundary should be calculated from the edge of the coast which must be followed round the ten or twelve inlets with which it is indented, and not, as we say, drawn across them. The Lynn canal is the most important example, forming, as Mr. Horace Townsend says, "the gateway to the goldbearing Yukon district, including the Klondyke; the boundary, according to the United States contention, continues

to the summit of the mountain range

* The claim once put forward by Canadians that the coast should be measured from the outer shore of the islands fringing the mainland may be dismissed as obsolete and untenable.

In the Fortnightly Review for Sept. 1899.