2 i 6 The National Geographic Magazine 



has continued these surveys ever since. 

 It is not possible to make mention here 

 of all the surveys which have been car- 

 ried on in Alaska by some thirty differ- 

 ent parties. It will suffice to say that 

 in six field seasons all but three of 

 the larger rivers of Alaska have been 

 mapped, as well as many large inter- 

 stream areas. The results have been 

 mostly published on a scale of i : 250,000, 

 but it is planned to follow this recon- 

 naissance mapping by detailed surveys, 

 which have already been begun. 



Among the notable explorations made 

 by the Geological Survey was one by 

 J. E. Spurr, who ascended the Yentna, 

 the left fork of the Sushitna, and, port- 

 aging to Kuskokwim waters, descended 

 the latter river to its mouth, and then 

 returned to Cook Inlet by crossing the 

 Alaskan Peninsula, completing a jour- 

 ney of some 1,400 miles. Another was 

 by a party led by W. J. Peters, which 

 left the coast at Lynn Canal, and, going 

 westward along the northern base of the 

 St Elias range, reached the headwaters 

 of the White River, then extended its 

 explorations to the head of the Tanana 

 and crossed to the Yukon at Fortymile. 

 In 1 90 1 W. J. Peters and F. C. Schra- 

 der made a trip which included a jour- 

 ney the entire length of Alaska, from 

 the southernmost limit to Point Barrow. 

 During the winter they traveled to the 

 Koyukuk with dog teams, thence as- 

 cended one of the north forks of that 

 stream, crossed to a tributary of the 

 Colville, and made their way to the 

 Arctic Ocean. They then skirted the 

 coast westward to Point Barrow and 

 finally southward to Cape Lisburne, 

 where they were so fortunate as to find 

 a steamer. In the same year W. C. 

 Mendenhall and D. L. Reaburn ex- 

 plored the headwaters of the Allen and 

 Kobuk Rivers, and followed the latter 

 to its mouth, at Kotzebue Sound. 



In 1902 Brooks and Reaburn made a 

 survey of the western front of the Alas- 

 kan range during a journey of 800 miles 



from Cook Inlet to the Yukon. Areal 

 surveys have also been completed of the 

 entire Seward Peninsula and of the 

 Copper River basin. 



The foregoing sketch will show the 

 progress of Alaskan surveys from 1709 

 to the present day, and the accompany- 

 ing map embodies the results of this 

 mensuration. 



GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES 



It will be of interest to study Alaska 

 with the aid of this new map, and to 

 compare it, both as to position and to 

 dimensions, with better-known parts of 

 the earth' s surface. This relief map also 

 permits of a classification of Alaska's 

 salient physiographic features to a bet- 

 ter understanding of its topography. 



An examination of a chart of the 

 world will show that the latitude of 

 Alaska corresponds approximately to 

 that of the Scandinavian Peninsula. 

 Point Barrow, the northernmost cape of 

 Alaska, is in about the same latitude as 

 North Cape. Dixon Entrance, which 

 marks the southernmost point, is nearly 

 on the same parallel as Copenhagen. 

 Sitka, the capital of Alaska, is in the 

 latitude of Edinburgh, in Scotland. 



To consider the longitude, the merid- 

 ian passing through the westernmost of 

 the Aleutian Islands passes near the 

 New Hebrides and through New Zea- 

 land. Cape Prince of Wales, the most- 

 westerly point of the mainland, is nearly 

 as far west as the Samoan Islands. 



Alaska stretches through 27 degrees 

 of latitude and 54 of longitude. Its 

 east-and-west dimension, measured to 

 the extreme limit of the Aleutian Islands, 

 is almost exactly equal to the distance 

 from Savannah, on the Atlantic coast, 

 to Los Angeles, on the Pacific. Its 

 most northerly and southerly points are 

 as far apart as the northern and south- 

 ern boundaries of the United States. 



Alaska, the northwestern extremity 

 of the North American continent, forms 

 in its main mass a peninsula nearly rect- 



