LIBRARY 3D 



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ALASKA. 

 By Otto J. Kxotz, D.T.S. 



(Of the Alaska Boundary Survey). 



( Read he fore the Ottaiua Literary and Scientific Society, February /J, 1894. ) 



It was not many years after the discovery of the eastern coast of 

 America that the South Sea or Pacific Ocean was seen by Balboa from 

 the heights of Darien. Balboa was the first European to place foot on 

 the western coast of America. 



Sir Francis I )rake, the celebrated English admiral, was the first to 

 explore the western coast northward, as far as latitude 48 , i.e., north of 

 the mouth of the Columbia River. 



Having landed, he named the country New Albion, and took pos- 

 session of it in the name of Queen Elizabeth; this was in 1578. The 

 object of his exploration was to find a passage to the north Atlantic. 



For the next 150 years no discoveries of importance were made on 

 the west coast of North America. 



Hitherto all discoveries in America, both on the east and west 

 coasts, had been made by expeditions crossing the Atlantic westward, 

 but in 1 741 Vitus Bering, the intrepid Russian explorer, discovered the 

 continent in latitude 58 , by sailing eastward from Kamtchatka. That 

 part of the continent where Bering landed is now known as Alaska, 

 the subject of our discourse. 



The principal motive of all the expeditions up to this time was not 

 for the increase of geographical knowledge, but for material wealth ; 

 legitimately obtained we call it commerce, otherwise conquest. , 



The Spanish, after Columbus, set out to discover and obtain the 

 silver of Mexico and Peru ; and Sir Francis Drake, to discover the 

 Spanish galleons and he found them. The Russians were after fur, 

 and geography was benefitted by the discovery of the Aleutian and 

 Kurile Islands, the north-west coast and Bering Strait. 



The next explorer of note on this part of the continent was the 

 celebrated navigator, James Cook. As a navigator the merits of Captain 



