tittmann: our nobphern boundaries 43 



Chief Astronomer of the Dominion of Canada, representing the 

 British Government. 



To avoid wearying you with details, I have placed against the 

 wall a map which will convey to your eyes the progress made. 

 It indicates that a careful trigonometric and topographic survey 

 has been made of the greater part of the line and that compara- 

 tively little of the field work remains to be done on the boundary 

 under consideration. The labors of the International Waterways 

 Commission, it is understood, are also drawing to a conclusion and 

 thus we shall soon have a thoroly marked boundary and be in pos- 

 session of accurate maps and a precise definition of the whole line 

 as the result of processes based on sound engineering principles. 



THE ALASKA BOUNDARY 



Included in my subject is the delimitation of the Alaskan fron- 

 tier, but this chapter I shall treat very briefly, as the circumstances 

 connected with it are fresh in your memories. 



The Alaskan boundarj^ naturally divides itself into two sections.. 

 The first is the 141st meridian of west longitude and runs from the 

 Arctic Ocean to a point about 10 marine leagues from the coast, a 

 distance of 645 miles. About this stretch there never was any 

 dispute, but it was deemed best to prescribe by a treaty, signed at 

 Washington in 1906, the manner of ascertaining the location o£ 

 the 141st meridian and of tracing the line. 



Our knowledge of geodesy makes it evident that if in a stretch 

 of 600 miles various points should be determined astronomically 

 on the 141st meridian, the resulting line would be a zigzag, fol- 

 lowing the intersection of the verticals with the ground, that is, 

 the meridian would not lie within the plane of one geometric 

 great circle. 



The Commissioners were therefore directed to determine the 

 141st meridian by telegraphic longitude at a suitable point thru 

 which the}'' were to trace a north and south line. This point 

 havmg been established at the crossing of the meridian and the 

 Yukon River, a zealous, able and energetic corps of engineers cut 

 a line thru the timber from Mount Natazhat on the south, to 

 the Arctic Ocean, monumented it and made a careful trigonometric 



