THREE NOTABLE MEN 261 



to the Yukon Expedition named above. It 

 was he who completed the determination of 

 the 1/j.ist meridian w r hich established the boun- 

 dary between Alaska and Canada and which 

 was accepted by the United States for twenty 

 years. 



"By reason of the extensive territory he had 

 to cover, and the total lack of transportation 

 facilities, he was compelled to abandon most 

 of the proper but weighty instruments for as- 

 tronomical observation, but his tactful adapta- 

 tion of local aids was so well utilized that two 

 clever astronomers, F. A. McDiamid and W. 

 C. Jaques, who made observations in 1907, 

 twenty years afterwards, showed that this line 

 was only a few hundred feet out. Ogilvie was 

 compelled to do some of his fine work with his 

 small instrument clamped on a tree stump, 

 clinging to a slope, which persisted in 

 shifting slightly with varying temperatures. 

 Many of the observations were taken at night 

 in a temperature of 20 to 55 degrees below 

 zero, when after hours of tense and motionless 

 work, alternately watching stars chase each 

 other across the hair wires of his telescope, 

 and the flying second hands of his chronome- 

 ter, his own hands were usually paralyzed with 

 cold. He had only one chronometer and 



