258 GANNETT 



by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (scale i: 1,200,- 

 ooo) gives its area as 590,884 square miles. Of this the 

 portion lying east of the I4ist meridian, popularly known 

 as southeastern Alaska, which is the best known part of 

 the territory, has an area 01^43,710 square miles, of which 

 30,800 square miles consist of mainland and 12,910 square 

 miles of islands, forming what is known as the Alexander 

 Archipelago. 



The Cordillera of North America enters Alaska at its 

 southeastern extremity and follows the Pacific coast around 

 to the Aleutian Islands. Beyond this mountain system, 

 and following its general trend, is a broad depression, 

 drained by the Yukon River and its tributaries. North 

 of this basin is a height of land which separates the 

 Yukon valley from the bleak shores of the Arctic Ocean. 



THE PACIFIC COAST REGION. 



This portion of the territory is mountainous throughout. 

 Although the coast of the mainland and of the islands is, 

 all together, several thousand miles in length, yet for the 

 entire distance there are very few square miles of level 

 ground. The land rises from the water almost every- 

 where at steep angles, without a sign of beach, to alti- 

 tudes of thousands of feet. It is a fiord coast. The 

 islands are separated from one another and from the main- 

 land by fiords, deep gorges whose bottoms are in some 

 cases thousands of feet below the surface of the water. 

 These fiords extend far up into the mainland and into the 

 islands, in deep, narrow U-shaped inlets. 



The relief features of this region, its mountains and its 

 gorges partly filled by the sea, are all of glacial origin, 

 presenting everywhere the familiar handwriting of ice. 

 Every canyon, every water passage, whether called strait, 

 canal, or bay, is a U-shaped gorge, and its branches are 

 similar gorges, commonly at higher levels ' hanging 



