Definition of the Boundary. 179 



to both. In a region which is sparsely settled and where there 

 are and can be few interests, either public or private, that con- 

 flict in any way, it is not difficult to determine a boundary line 

 without dispute. The postponement of the question, however, 

 may leave it undetermined until the population is greatly 

 increased, property becomes more valuable, and mineral or 

 other resources have been discovered which make it important 

 to each contending side that every foot of territory shall be con- 

 tested for. 



A very few years after the Alaska purchase (in 1872) General 

 Grant, then President of the United States, recognizing the diffi- 

 culties attending the settlement of this question, and especially 

 the difficulties which might arise from its further postponement, 

 recommended in his annual message to Congress the appointment 

 of a commission for settling the boundary line between Alaska 

 and the possessions of Great Britain. The countr^Hoeing practi- 

 cally unsurveyed, it became necessary to consider a method for 

 a suitable survey of the country adjacent to the boundary line 

 in order that it might be correctly defined, and various estimates 

 of the cost of such an operation and the length of time required 

 for its execution were made at that time. The matter was 

 then allowed to dro|), however, and nothing further was done 

 until nearly fifteen years later, when President Cleveland again 

 brought the subject forward by referring to it in his message 

 to Congress. 



In the estimates submitted for the year 1888 an item of 

 $100,000 was inserted by the Department of State for a prelimi- 

 nary survey of this boundary. No action was taken upon this 

 item, however, but in the following year an appropriation of 

 $20,000 was made, the survey to be conducted by the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey in accordance with plans or 

 projects approved by the Secretary of State. In draAving up the 

 plan for the work it was agreed to begin the operations by the 

 establishment of points upon the 141st meridian west of Green- 

 wich. In order to_ accomplish this it was necessary to send ob- 

 servers into the interior, and for this purpose in the spring of 1889 

 two parties were organized to ascend the Yukon river and its 

 branch, the Porcupine, in order to establish camps as near as 

 possible to the 141st meridian for the purpose of making the nec- 

 essary astronomical observations for the determination of its 

 location. They were also instructed to execute such triangula- 



25— Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. IV, 1892. 



