MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS.

317

the Union are contesting for the principles of our great party, we are denied that sacred privilege.

"Among the great territories of the West we alone. stand a monument representing complete and utter isolation and non-representation. With an area sufficient to form a dozen States, with resources unnumbered and unlimited, with no manner of expressing our just needs or to demand our just rights, with a population of upwards of ten thousand whites and fifty thousand natives, among whom are many intelligent and industrious, we come to you for relief.

"With no means of acquiring title to property in which our capital is invested and our labor is expended, we ask the passage of such laws as will afford us relief in this direction.

"With many of our people desirous of securing land upon which they can engage in farming, stock-raising, dairying, and other pursuits of husbandry, we ask that the homestead laws be extended in such manner as will open up this domain for that class of our citizens.

"With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the fish industry we ask the passage of such laws as will secure titles to their property, and encourage the development of one of our greatest resources, and one which is fast becoming valuable to the nation at large.

"With vast forests extending throughout the territory we ask that the present laws relative to the cutting of timber be so modified as to allow it to be used for domestic purposes by the canneries in the packing and

318

JUDICIARY OF ALASKA.

exportation of their fish, and by parties actually engaged in manufacturing enterprises within the territory, and the exportation of furniture and other wooden-wares, etc., etc., and manufactured from our native timber.

"The judiciary of Alaska is anomalous, lying between and dependent upon the general laws of the United States and the general laws of the State of Oregon, and having no true basis from which it can be interpreted. Therefore we ask that a code of laws be enacted for the District of Alaska, suitable to our wants and circumstances and made applicable to our growing industries and communities.

"To-day Alaska stands alone among the great territories of the West without a representative upon the floor of Congress, and we deem it unjust that a longer denial of the rights accorded other portions of our country should be imposed upon us."

In the fall of 1894 this paper was indorsed by a people's convention, held in Juneau, and Thomas S. Nowell was chosen delegate to Congress.

Very few people in the United States, even among the more intelligent and educated classes, fully appreciate the immensity of the territory which was added to the public domain by the purchase of Alaska. The total area of the United States proper, including the fully organized territories, is 2,970,000 square miles. Alaska proper in the mainland contains an area of 580,107 square miles; the islands of Alexander Archipelago, off the southeastern coast, contain 31,205 square miles, and

SIZE OF ALASKA.

319 the Aleutian Islands, 6,391 square miles. In other words Alaska with its adjacent islands embraces more square miles of territory than twenty-one States of the Union east of the Mississippi River; that is, all the New England States, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia-States that are represented in Congress by forty-two Senators and two hundred representatives. The numerous islands, creeks, and inlets of Alaska lengthen out its coast line to 7,860 miles, an extent greater than that of the eastern coast line of the United States.

CHAPTER XV.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE.

Two Ends of the International Dispute-Mt. St. Elias a Settled Point-The Passage of 141st Meridian Through the Gold Fields-The OlneyPauncefote Treaty-The Evidence of Old Time Treaties - Behm or Portland Canal ?-Canadian Claims to Territory Administered by the United States-Changes in Canadian Map-The Removal of the Metlakatla Indians from Canadian to United States Territory-The Possession of Juneau and Dyea.

TH

HERE are two distinct and separate features in the discussion which has been carried on during recent years between the United States Department of State and the British Foreign Office anent the Alaska boundary. It is difficult to decide which of these issues is the more important. The one refers to the location of the 141st meridian in its passage from Mt. St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean. The Yukon gold fields lie about midway between the two extremities of this part of the Alaskan boundary line, and in view of the greatly enhanced value of this territory both nations will insist on the greatest accuracy being observed in its location. Inasmuch as the 141st meridian is an imaginary line, indisputably defined as to its direction by astronomical considerations and rules, its final placing is only a question of time and the accuracy which is brought to bear in placing the defining monuments by the engineers making up the dual com

ANGLO-AMERICAN DISPUTE.

321

mission which will eventually be appointed by the high contending parties to carry on the work.

The other main feature of this Anglo-American dispute refers to the boundary line in its passage from the peak of Mt. St. Elias in a southeasterly direction down the coast to Portland Canal, as the United States claims, or only to Behm Canal, as Canada proposes. This side of the contention gains its importance from the fact that upon its settlement rests the jurisdiction over Dyea, which controls the entrances to the Chilcat and Chilkoot Passes and the gold fields of the Yukon, and many other points of commercial vantage on and near the coast.

DISPUTED BOUNDARY LINE.

With the intention of definitely clearing up the northern end of the boundary dispute, ex-Secretary Olney and Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador at Washington, drew up a treaty which was to provide for the location of the 141st meridian, and the same was laid before the Senate on February 23d of the present year. That the time is ripe for a definite adjustment of these differences may be seen from the fact that in the most recent map published by the Dominion Government, both Miller and Glacier Creeks are claimed for the British empire. If this claim should be allowed to Great Britain, it would mean that the major part of the diggings on Forty-Mile Creek, and nearly all on SixtyMile Creek would be on Canadian soil, and the owners