THE SIZE OF ALASKA. 



183 



THE SIZE OF ALASKA. 



By GEORGE B. HOLLISTER, 

 U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



A LASKA, as a portion of our national domain, is at this time justly 

 -*--*- demanding our interested attention. Its marvelous resources 

 and their probable rapid development are already bringing many to its 

 shores, and will undoubtedly attract many more; hence, new facts 

 regarding it, or old facts placed in a new light, must be of general 

 interest. For many reasons, but chiefly because of its distance from 

 the United States and the present difficulties of travel in its interior 

 the size of the territory has been but little understood and probably 

 much underestimated. 



We know that its area has been stated by the geographers to be 

 about 600,000 square miles, but unrelated figures, after all, give to 



Fig. 1. 



the average mind but vague ideas of the extent of territory. When 

 it is said that Alaska has one fifth the area of the whole United States, 

 one begins to have a more intelligent conception of its size, for in a 

 general way the average American readily forms a fairly accurate 

 mental picture of the broad size relations of his country. But so great 

 is the extent of the United States and so difficult is it to judge accu- 

 rately of the relations of geographical measurements that even this is 



