learned what had been done, and made a vigorous protest against this interpretation of the map. This protest, backed by Major Emory, the chief astronomer, caused a sudden stoppage of the work of running the line and the repudiation of the agreement by the United States Government. Negotiations followed, but no agreement was reached until in 1853 the whole matter was taken out of court by the Gadsden purchase.

GADSDEN PURCHASE.

Subsequently, on December 30, 1853, a second purchase was made of Mexico, consisting of the strip of land lying south of the Gila River in New Mexico and Arizona. The boundaries as established by this, known as the Gadsden purchase, were as follows:

ARTICLE I. The Mexican Republic agrees to designate the following as her true limits with the United States for the future: Retaining the same dividing line between the two Californias as already defined and established according to the fifth article of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the limits between the two Republics shall be as follows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the fifth article of the treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo; thence, as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47′ north latitude crosses the same; thence due west one hundred miles; thence south to the parallel of 31° 20' north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31° 20′ to the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude west of Greenwich; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River twenty English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.

In the year following a commission was appointed for surveying and marking this line, under the United States commissioner, Maj. W. H. Emory. The line was run and marked in the year 1855, and the report was transmitted in the following year.

As settlement increased in the territory which this line traverses, the fact was developed that the line was insufficiently marked. Some of the monuments had disappeared, and in many places there were great extents of country in which no monuments had ever been placed, so that the necessity became apparent for rerunning and marking of the line. For this purpose a commission was created in 1891, the United States members of which were Col. J. W. Barlow and Capt. D. D. Gaillard, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and Mr. A. T. Mosman, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Under this commission the line was recovered from the original monuments as far as possible, and between these monuments was rerun and fully and durably marked. The report, with maps, profiles, and illustrations of the monuments, was published in 1899.

ALASKA PURCHASE.

Alaska was purchased from Russia, the treaty of purchase having been signed on March 30, 1867, and proclaimed June 20, 1867. The

boundaries of the territory are described in the accompanying quotation from the treaty:

Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40' north latitude, and between the one hundred and thirty-first and one hundred and thirty-third degree of west longitude (meridian, of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west longitude (of the same meridian); and, finally, from the said point of intersection the said meridian line of the one hundred and forty-first degree in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean.

IV. With reference to the line of demarcation laid down in the preceding article it is understood

1st. That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to Russia (now, by this cession, to the United States).

2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast from the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west longitude shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British Possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the possessions ceded by this convention), shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.

The western limit within which the territories and dominion conveyed are contained passes through a point in Behring's Straits on the parallel of 65° 30′ north latitude at its intersection by the meridian which passes midway between the islands of Krusenstern or Ignalook and the island of Ratmanoff or Noonerbook, and proceeds due north without limitation into the same Frozen Ocean.

The same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, proceeds thence in a course nearly southwest through Behring's Straits and Behring's Sea, so as to pass midway between the northwest point of the island of Saint Lawrence and the southeast point of Cape Choukotski to the meridian of one hundred and seventy-two west longitude; thence from the intersection of that meridian in a southwesterly direction, so as to pass midway between the island of Attore and the Copper Island of the Kormandorski couplet or group, in the North Pacific Ocean, to the meridian of one hundred and ninety-three degrees west longitude, so as to include in the territory conveyed the whole of the Aleutian Islands west of that meridian.

The consideration paid for Alaska was $7,200,000 in gold. There is no possibility of a misinterpretation of the language of the above treaty concerning the portion of the boundary running along the one hundred and forty-first meridian from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the neighborhood of the coast near Mount St. Elias, and in recent years points upon this boundary, notably at the crossing of the Yukon, have been established by the United States and Canadian surveyors by astronomic means and marked.

Concerning the remaining portion of the boundary, however, from the neighborhood of Mount St. Elias southeastward to the mouth of Portland Canal, question has been raised in recent years by Canadian authorities.

It has long been known that the coast of this part of Alaska is extremely broken, containing many fiords extending far inland, and that no continuous range of mountains parallels the coast. It was for many years tacitly admitted by both sides that the second alternative of the treaty, that the boundary should follow a line 10 marine leagues distant from the coast and following its windings, should be the one finally adopted when the question of marking the boundary arose. This position was taken by the United States and consistently followed from the time of the acquisition of the territory to the present. All maps, United States and Canadian, agreed on it. Many acts of sovereignty were performed by the United States within this territory, no question being raised by the Canadian authorities, and the claim of the United States to a strip of territory 10 marine leagues in width from the main coast was universally admitted by the Canadian authorities. The discovery of gold in the basin of the Yukon, in Canada, and the fact that the only feasible means of access to this region lay through United States territory, made it extremely desirable for Canada to possess a port or ports on this coast as the starting points of routes to the Yukon mines, and it was only when this necessity appeared that any question arose concerning the interpretation of the definition of limits in the treaty.

The claim made by the British Government, before a joint commission on the boundary, on behalf of Canada, in August, 1898, was that this portion of the boundary, instead of passing up Portland Canal, should pass up Pearse Canal, connecting with Portland Canal, up which it follows to the summit of the mountains nearest to the coast, and then should follow them, regardless of the fact that they do not form a continuous range, crossing all the inlets of the sea up to Mount St. Elias. This, of course, was refused by the United States commissioners. A proposition made by the British commissioners to refer the matter to arbitration was also refused by the United States commissioners, on the ground that there was nothing to arbitrate, since the territory in question was in the possession of the United States, and had been for many years without dispute, such possession being in full accord with the terms of the treaty. The commission was then dissolved, the only outcome being an agreement that the summits of White and Chilkoot passes and a point upon the Chilkat, above Pyramid Harbor, were temporarily adopted as points upon the boundary.

The treaty of January 24, 1903, created an Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, to consist of "six impartial jurists of repute," three to be selected by each of the two parties to the controversy, to attempt a settlement of this boundary question. The United States was represented by Messrs. Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and George Turner. The Canadian side was represented by Baron Alverstone, lord chief justice of England, Sir Louis A. Jetté, and A. B. Aylesworth, of