GENERAL VIEW OF THE GEOGRAPHY. 11 



should make none south of the same line ; but this convention was neu- 

 tralized, and, in fact, abrogated, by a treaty concluded between Russia 

 and Great Britain in the following year, by which all the territories of the 

 main land and islands, north and west of a line drawn from the latitude 

 of 54 degrees 40 minutes, north-westward, along the highlands bordering 

 the Pacific coasts, to Mount St. Elias, and thence due north to the Arctic 

 Sea, were to belong to Russia, while all east and south of that line were 

 to be the property of Great Britain. 



Thus, on the western side of North America, two lines of distinct 

 boundary, or partition, each traversing the whole breadth of the Pacific 

 section, have been recognized; the one between two powers, Great Britain 

 and Russia, the other between two different powers, the United States and 

 Mexico, — neither of which is, however, admitted by the third power, claim- 

 ing, also, the possession of territories contiguous to it. Of the vast di- 

 vision of the continent and the adjacent islands between these two lines, 

 no spot has yet been assigned, by mutual agreement, to any civilized 

 nation. The United States claim the territories northward from the 42d 

 parallel, and Great Britain claims those extending south and east from the 

 other line, each to a distance undefined, but so far as to secure for itself 

 the whole, or nearly the whole, of the regions traversed, by the Columbia 

 River. The American government has more than once proposed to 

 adopt the forty-ninth parallel of latitude as the dividing line ; the British 

 have, however, constantly refused to assent to that or any other arrange- 

 ment which should deprive them of the coasts and territories north of 

 the Columbia River ; and neither nation being willing to recede from 

 its pretensions, all the countries claimed by both, west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, remain, by convention between the two governments, con- 

 cluded in 1827, free and open to the citizens or subjects of both. 



Such is the present political condition of the Pacific regions of North 

 America. This anomalous state of things cannot, however, endure much 

 longer. The people of the United States are rapidly colonizing the fertile 

 portions of the territory on the lower Columbia ; and no one acquainted 

 with their character can suppose that they will submit to be deprived of 

 their political birthright in those countries, while they have the slightest 

 prospect of vindicating it. 



Having presented this concise general view of the western section of 

 North America, its divisions will now be described in detail, beginning 

 with the most southern, under the heads of California, Oregon, and Rus- 

 sian America. 



