Geographical Settlement Planning- Alaska— Stone 145 



home, in a mountainous or subarctic area, and in those years. 

 Apparently it is unknown how many Russians remained in the 

 Territory after the sale of it to the United States; Petroff enu- 

 merated 430 whites in Alaska in 1880 but his accuracy and 

 completeness have been questioned and United States fishermen 

 had arrived in Southeastern Alaska by the time of this first 

 census. 



While Russian settlement progressed in Alaska so did English 

 occupation move westward in Canada (fig. 1). For a time it 

 appeared as if the Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian 

 American Fur Company would clash head on after each had 

 circled about half of the world's northern lands. Such was 

 diverted two ways. 



The first diversion was the English following natural routes 

 which reduced the possibility of conflicting interests. From 

 Hudson Bay some of the traders went northwestward into the 

 Mackenzie River valley and thence to the Yukon River system. 

 Posts were established in the Liard area, near Southeastern 

 Alaska (fig. 5), but expansion did not continue on westward the 

 short distance through the coast ranges to the ocean. Other 

 English fur traders went from the Ft. Churchill— York Factory 

 area southwestward to what became the northwestern United 

 States. Thence the interests of these men were northward along 

 the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. 



In this maritime area long negotiations averted Russian 

 English difficulties. From the discussions came the establish- 

 ment of what was eventually accepted as the approximate inland 

 boundary of Southeastern Alaska. Also, in 1840, Southeastern 

 was leased to the English. They administered all fur trade in 

 the area from then until 1867. 



Two Hudson's Bay Company posts were established immedi- 

 ately in 1840 in Southeastern Alaska. Each was short lived, 

 though, because the area could be more efficiently controlled 

 from British Columbian posts. In the meantime, the traders 

 moving northwestward reached the confluence of the Porcupine 

 and Yukon Rivers and established Fort Yukon in 1847. This 

 action began continuous permanent white settlement in Interior 



