GENERAL GEOGRAPHY 



BY HENRY GANNETT 



ALASKA, our northernmost possession, ex- 

 tends over more than 20 degrees of latitude 

 and 45 degrees of longitude as far as from 

 Florida to Maine and from Maine to Utah. 1 

 From the main body of the territory stretch two projec- 

 tions, one to the southeast, comprising the Alexander 

 Archipelago and the adjacent mainland, the other to the 

 southwest, comprising the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleu- 

 tian Islands. 



The exact area of Alaska cannot at present be known, 

 owing to the fact that the boundaries are as yet located 

 only approximately. The seacoast, which forms by far 

 the greater part of the boundary, has not been accu- 

 rately mapped, except in small part, while the land boun- 

 dary on the southeast, which separates our territory from 

 Canada, has not been defined, except in the general terms 

 of the treaty of cession from Russia. Various measure- 

 ments have been made, based upon different maps, giving 

 areas ranging from 570,000 to 600,000 square miles. A 

 careful recent measurement from the large map published 



'It lies between latitudes 51 and 71 3C/, extending 5 degrees within the 

 Arctic Circle, and stretches from longitude 130 to 175. The great body of the 

 territory lies, however, between latitudes 60 and 71 3C/, and between longitudes 

 141 and 168. 



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