6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



to draw the line in accordance there- 

 with from the southern point of Prince 

 of Wales Island to the 56th degree of 

 north latitude. 



An examination of the maps will show 

 that the body of water variously de- 

 scribed as Portland Channel or Canal is 

 composed in part of two inlets from the 

 ocean, one a broad and easily navigable 

 channel to the south, and to the north 

 a narrow, somewhat tortuous, and un- 

 safe passage. Between these passages 

 lie a group or series of islands. The 

 American contention was that the broad 

 or southern passage was the Portland 

 Channel of the treaty. The British 

 claim was that the narrow or northern 

 passage was the one intended by the 

 negotiators. Vancouver's charts and 

 later maps favored the American view, 

 but his Narrative seemed to support the 

 British case. The Tribunal decided 

 against the American contention, but 

 did not accept in full the British claim, 

 as the two larger islands only were made 

 British territory, and the two smaller 

 islands involved in the controversy were 

 awarded to the United States. This 

 part of the decision has occasioned the 

 most bitter criticism and is the chief 

 matter of complaint in Canada. This 

 feeling is in part explained by the fact 

 that Port Simpson, situated on the 

 southern side of the entrance to Port- 

 land Canal, has been fixed upon as the 

 Pacific terminus of the newly projected 

 transcontinental railway, and it was 

 urged that, for strategic purposes, all 

 the islands on the north or opposite 

 sides should belong to Canada. 



The other work of the Tribunal was 

 to determine the mainland boundary 

 line. The treaty provided that from 

 the head of Portland Channel the line 

 should be drawn to the 56 , and " from 

 this latter point the line of demarcation 

 shall follow the crest of the mountains 

 situated parallel to the coast. 

 That whenever the crest of the moun- 

 tains which stretch in a direction par- 



allel to the coast from the 56th degree 

 of north latitude . . . may lie at a 

 distance of more than ten marine leagues 

 from the ocean the boundary between 

 the British possessions and the coast 

 strip (/isierc) mentioned above as hav- 

 ing to belong to Russia, shall be formed 

 by a line parallel to the sinuosities of 

 the coast, and which can in no case 

 be more distant therefrom than ten 

 leagues." 



Vancouver saw as he sailed up and 

 down the northwest coast of America, 

 as likewise modern tourists, all along 

 the Alaskan mainland a constant series 

 of mountains. He made no explora- 

 tions in the interior of the continent; 

 but in drawing his charts he depicted a 

 regular and continuous chain of moun- 

 tains from the head of Portland Canal 

 up to Mt St Elias, running around the 

 heads of all the inlets and arms of the 

 sea. The map-makers who succeeded 

 Vancouver adopted with more or less 

 accuracy this feature of his charts. It 

 was this topographical indication which 

 the negotiators had in view when they 

 drafted the text of the treaty just 

 quoted. They regarded this supposed 

 mountain chain as a natural and proper 

 boundary. 



But later explorations have shown 

 that the mountain chain depicted by 

 Vancouver and other cartographers of 

 the period preceding the treaty had no 

 existence in fact, but that the mainland, 

 extending back for ten leagues and more 

 from the coast, is what has been termed 

 " a sea of mountains," with no domi- 

 nant and well-defined chain. The 

 American claim, therefore, was that the 

 natural boundary contemplated by the 

 treaty having no existence in fact, the 

 ten marine league line mentioned therein 

 should apply, and that the United States 

 boundary should follow the sinuosities 

 of the coast and always ten marine 

 leagues therefrom, passing around all 

 the inlets of the sea. 



On the other hand, the British con- 



