88 TITTMANN— PROGRESS OF THE DEMARCATION [April 24, 



except two near Mt. St. Elias and those in the region between the 

 Whiting River and Devil's Thumb, and some of the peaks south of 

 the Unuk River. The passes, valleys and river crossings have been 

 monumented with the exception of the crossing of the Alsek in the 

 north and the valleys of the affluents of the Iskut and the crossing 

 of the Le Due and Chicamin rivers in the south. The turning points 

 of the water boundary in Portland Canal also remain to be fixed by 

 reference to points on shore. 



The 141 ST Meridian. 



According to the Treaty of 1825 the 141st meridian west of 

 Greenwich forms the eastern boundary of Alaska from the Arctic 

 Ocean to near j\It. St. Elias. It was not until 1889 — twenty-two 

 years after the acquisition of Alaska — that any steps were taken by 

 our government towards establishing the location of the 141st 

 meridian on the ground. In that year the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey despatched one party to the Yukon and another to the Porcupine 

 River to determine the boundary crossing of those rivers. The 

 Canadian government had previously sent an engineer to the Yukon 

 who made an astronomical determination of the boundary in the 

 autumn and winter of 1887. The country at that time was very 

 inaccessible and the surveyors were compelled to determine the 

 longitude by moon culminations' and occultations, and the American 

 parties spent a whole winter in observing them. But the operations 

 of the three parties were not carried on under an international agree- 

 ment and the results therefore were not reciprocally binding on the 

 governments concerned. 



The discovery of gold and the general development of the coun- 

 try, however, caused the construction of a Canadian telegraph Hne ' 

 overland to Dawson and beyond, and later the United States govern- 

 ment laid a cable from Seattle to Sitka and thence to Valdez on 

 Prince William Sound, whence an overland line was built by the 

 United States War Department as far as Fort Egbert on the Yukon 

 near the boundary. Egbert and Dawson were also connected by 

 telegraph. This important auxiliary to longitude determination 

 made it possible for the two governments to determine the position 

 of the 141st meridian with all the necessary accuracy as soon as an 



