598 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



blue pencil, marked on the maps what 

 appeared to the tribunal to be the proper 

 mountains. The members of the tribunal 

 were all eminent jurists, but this did not 

 make them proficient in the intricacies of 

 contour maps, and the advice of the ex- 

 perts was constantly requested. 



The location of the boundary was left 

 to two commissioners, Mr O. H. Titt- 

 mann, Superintendent of the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, for the United States, 

 and Dr W. F. King, Chief Dominion 

 Astronomer, for Canada. 



Wherever the blue-pencil mark ap- 

 pears on the map, this point without 

 any recourse is a boundary point, even 

 though a higher and better point may 

 be but a short distance away. 



To follow the sinuousities of the 

 mountain ranges in this country would 

 be hopeless, so the commissioners will 

 probably decide that a straight line con- 

 necting the various blue-penciled points 

 shall constitute the boundary. 



The actual demarcation of the bound- 

 ary, to be satisfactory to both govern- 

 ments, must be done jointly. .By this 

 it is not meant that there is a division 

 of labor in every party. There are 

 American parties and Canadian parties, 

 and with each locating party, or party 

 which decides on the line, go representa- 

 tives of the other government. There 

 are line-cutting parties, leveling parties, 

 topographic parties, triangulation par- 

 ties, and monumenting parties, which 

 work separately, their work being such 

 that joint representation is not always 

 necessary, as the line will be subject to 

 inspection at some later date. These 

 parties report yearly to the commissioner 

 of their respective governments. The 

 commissioners meet sometimes in Wash- 

 ington and sometimes in Ottawa, and 

 either accept or reject the work done by 

 the field parties. Their decision is final. 



A LINE 1,200 MILES LONG MUST BE 

 MARKED 



The magnitude of the task is little 

 understood except by those closely con- 

 nected with the work. 



There are 600 miles of boundary from 

 Portland Canal up the coast to Mount 



Saint Elias, where it hooks around on 

 to the 141st meridian and shoots for 

 another 600 miles straight north to the 

 Arctic Ocean. 



All the land lying along the boundary 

 must be mapped on an accurate scale, 

 and a strip of topography four miles 

 wide must be run the entire length of 

 the 141st meridian; peaks which cannot 

 be climbed, or rather those which would 

 take too long and would be too expen- 

 sive to scale, must be determined geo- 

 detically ; vistas 20 feet in width must be 

 cut through the timbered valleys, and 

 monuments must be set up on the routes 

 of travel and wherever a possible need 

 for them may occur. 



The field season is short, lasting only 

 from June to the latter part of Septem- 

 ber, and along the coast operations are 

 constantly hindered by rain, snow, and 

 fog. Rivers abounding in rapids and 

 quicksands have to be crossed or as- 

 cended. A man who has never had the 

 loop of a tracking line around his shoul- 

 ders little knows the dead monotony of 

 lining a boat up a swift Alaskan river 

 with nothing to think of but the dull 

 ache in his tired muscles and the sharp 

 digging of the rope into his chafed 

 shoulders. 



Vast glaciers are to be crossed, with 

 their dangers of hidden crevasses. More 

 than one surveyor has had the snow sink 

 suddenly beneath his feet, and has been 

 saved only by the rope tying him to his 

 comrades. Several have been saved by 

 throwing their alpine stocks crosswise of 

 the gap, and one, while crossing the 

 Yakutat glacier with a pack on his back, 

 caught only on his extended rrms. High 

 mountains must be climbed ; if they are 

 not the boundary peaks themselves, they 

 must be high enough to see the boundary 

 peaks over the intervening summits. 



And these climbs are not the organized 

 expeditions of an Alpine club, with but 

 one mountain to conquer, but daily rou- 

 tine. Heavy theodolites and topographic 

 cameras must be carried, and instead of 

 being able to throw himself down to rest 

 and enjoy the glorious panorama, there 

 is immediate work to be done, and a few 

 clouds hovering- over some distant moun- 



