According to the terms of the treaty between the United States and Russia, the boundaries of Alaska are as follows:

"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 131° and 133° 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 56° 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 141st degree of west longitude (of the same meridian) and finally from the said point of intersection the said meridian line of the 141st degree in its prolongation as far as the frozen ocean.

"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 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st 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 possession 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 boundary, in 1825, when this description was made, was a theoretical one based on the charts placed before the negotiators, which they doubtless assumed to be a substantially correct expression of geographical facts. The country through which the line passes was then substantially unexplored.

Much survey work has been done in recent years, with the object of determining more accurately the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions in North America; but the task is not yet complete. The general outlines of the country, however, are familiar to all, and recent maps indicate its boundaries on all sides with substantial accuracy. The whole territory may be roughly divided into six parts, as follows:

1. The Arctic division, containing 125,245 square miles, and comprising all that portion of the North American continent between the one hundred and forty-first meridian in the east and Cape Prince of Wales, or Behring Strait, in the west, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and having for its southern boundary a line indicating the watershed between the Yukon River system and the streams emptying into the Arctic and impinging upon the coast of Behring Sea just north of Port Clarence.

2. The Yukon division, containing 176,715 square miles, and comprising the valley of the Yukon River as far as it lies within our boundaries and its tributaries from the north and south. This division is bounded by the Arctic division in the north, the one hundred forty-first meridian in the east, and Behring Sea in the west. The southern boundary lies along a line indicating the watershed between the Yukon and the Kuskokvim, Sushetno, and Copper Rivers, and runs from the above-mentioned meridian in the east to the coast of Behring Sea, in the vicinity of Hazen Bay, in the west. The island of St. Lawrence, in Behring Sea, is included in this division.

3. The Kuskokvim division, containing 114,975 square miles, bounded on the north by the Yukon division, and comprising the valleys of the Kuskokvim, the Togiak, and the Nushegak Rivers, and the intervening system of lakes. The eastern boundary of this division is a line running along the main Alaskan range of mountains from the divide between the Kuskokvim and Tennanah Rivers down to the low, narrow isthmus dividing Moller Bay from Zakharof Bay, on the Alaska peninsula. Behring Sea washes the whole west and south coasts of this division, which also includes Nunivak Island.

4. The Aleutian division, containing 14,610 square miles, and comprising the Alaska peninsula westward of the isthmus between Moller and Zakharof Bays and the whole chain of islands from the Shumagin group in the east to Attoo in the west, including also the Pribylof or fur-seal islands.

5. The Kadiak division, containing 70,884 square miles, and comprising the south coast of the Aliaska peninsula down to Zakharof Bay, with the adjacent islands, the Kadiak group of islands, the islands and coasts of Cook's Inlet, the Kenai peninsula, and Prince William Sound, with the rivers running into them. The main Alaskan range bounds this division in the north and west. Its eastern limit is the one hundred and forty-first meridian, which intersects the coast-line in the vicinity of Mount St. Elias, while the south shores of the division are washed by that section of the North Pacific named the Gulf of Alaska.

6. The south-eastern division, containing 28,980 square miles, and comprising the coast from Mount St. Elias in the north to Portland Canal, in latitude 54° 40', in the south, together with the islands of the Alexander Archipelago between Cross Sound and Cape Fox. The eastern boundary of this division is the rather indefinite line established by the Anglo-Russian and Russian-American treaties of 1824 and 1825 respectively, following the summits of a chain of mountains supposed to run parallel with the coast at a distance not greater than three marine leagues from the sea between the head of Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias.

The Arctic division is situated almost entirely above the Arctic circle and is known to explorers only from observations made along the seacoast. The interior consists doubtless of frozen plains and low ranges of hills, intersected by a few shallow and sluggish streams. The only rivers known to emerge from this part of Alaska are the Colville, the Kok, the Inland or Noatak, the Kooak, the Selawik and the Buckland. There are many villages scattered along the coast and others are reported to exist further up on all these rivers. The coast settlements are visited every year by many vessels engaged in whaling, hunting and trading. Their inhabitants possess great commercial genius and energy, and carry on an extensive traffic with the natives of the Asian coast, their common trading-ground being at Behring Strait.

The only mineral of any value that is found on this coast is coal, of which there are several good veins at Cape Lisburne. The chief attraction for the navigators who visit the coast are furs, oil and walrus ivory. The whaling industry is already beginning to decline here as it has done in every other region of the world. Many seals are found here and polar bears are numerous. A few reindeer are found on the coast and moose and mountain sheep are said to be numerous in the interior. Muskrats and squirrels abound everywhere and their skins are offered for sale in large quantities. Foxes also are plentiful, especially the white variety, and their skins are much sought for by the American and European markets. Aquatic birds of all kinds are found in countless hosts. The only fish of value is the salmon.

About thirty villages are known in this region, their total population being a little over 3,000.

The Yukon division is the largest and in many respects most important of all. As this volume is so largely devoted to a description of the great river and the country it traverses little need be said regarding it here. Numerous trading posts have been established and the waters of the river are plied by steamboats. No mineral deposits in large paying quantities have yet been discovered, but it is believed that important gold mines will yet be found. The river abounds in fish and the forests which border it in game. High as the latitude is the summers are very warm and the vegetable growths of the country are luxuriant. The coast line of this division is particularly dreary. It is inhabited by a hardy race of seal and walrus hunters, who occupy numerous small villages. At Port Clarence, just south of Cape Prince of Wales, three or four villages are clustered around a fine harbor. King's Island or Oukivok is a small, high island, surrounded by almost perpendicular cliffs of basalt. On it is a village composed of about forty houses, which are simple excavations in the side of the cliffs. The inhabitants live almost entirely by walrus and seal hunting. On the shores of Golovin Sound small deposits of lead and silver have been found. The most important point on the coast is St. Michael, where there are several trading agencies. The Island of St. Lawrence belongs properly to this division. It had originally a population of about 1,000, but famine and disease have diminished it to one-half that number. The people are Asiatic Esquimaux. There are in all this division of Alaska about seventy-five known settlements, with a total population of nearly 7,000, of whom perhaps about twenty-five are white, 2,500 Athabaskan and the rest Esquimaux.

The Kuskokvim division is, on the whole, poor in such natural products as white men desire, and it has therefore been little visited. It contains a few mineral deposits, however, including cinnabar, antimony and silver. Game and fur bearing animals are not as numerous as in other parts of Alaska, but there are many seals in the sea and river, and minks and foxes are quite numerous. Many salmon are also found in the river and they form a leading article of food for the natives. There are nearly a hundred villages in this division with about 9,000 inhabitants, nearly all of them being Esquimaux.

The Aleutian division comprises the western part of the Alaska peninsula and the long range of islands extending toward the Asiatic coast. These islands appear to be merely a continuation of the Alaskan range of mountains. Many of them contain volcanic peaks, some of which are still active, and all the islands are mountainous. The soil is altogether treeless save for some dwarf willows, but there is a luxuriant growth of grass. On this account it was once thought that cattle could be successfully raised here, but the long and stormy winters made the experiment a failure. The people of these islands are doubtless of Esquimau origin, although distinct in language and in habits from the remainder of that race. Their twenty-five or thirty villages are inhabited by about 2,500 people, perhaps 100 of the number being white. Their principal industry consists in fishing and taking seals, sea-otters and other marine animals.

The Kadiak division comprises the southern side of the Alaska peninsula, numerous adjacent islands and the coast of the mainland eastward to Mount St. Elias. Its inhabitants are of Esquimau stock and resemble greatly those of the Kuskokvim division. The coast is frequented by great numbers of walrus, which animal provides the inhabitants with food, material for their canoes and ivory, which is used for money and as an object of trade. Many whales are also taken here. On the land there are numerous reindeer, brown bears and foxes, otters and minks. The island of Kadiak has for a century and a quarter been one of the most important portions of this division of Alaska. It was here that some of the earliest Russian settlements were made, and the population at the present time is considerable. There are several villages devoted almost entirely to the building of ships and boats.

North of the Kadiak group is the great estuary known as Cook's Inlet, which was first visited by the Russian traders a hundred years ago and was the scene of many desperate conflicts between rival settlers as well as between the Russians and the natives. The natives here are almost giants in size and are strong, active and war-like. Their houses are superior to those of the Esquimaux, being constructed above ground of logs and bark. They are expert fishermen, and the waters in this region abound in salmon and other fish, and the land in huge bears, moose, mountain sheep, wolves and numerous smaller animals, while geese and ducks and other wild birds are found by the million. Timber exists here in great abundance, especially in the valley of the Copper River. There are about fifty villages in the Kadiak division with a population of 4,500.

The Southeastern division consists of the narrow strip of coast-land from Mount St. Elias southward to Portland Canal. It is densely wooded and exceedingly mountainous. The coast is deeply indented with bays and sheltered by islands. The principal trees are spruce and yellow cedar. On many of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago coal has been discovered. Copper and gold have also been found. The fur trade is not now nearly as valuable as in former years, although it is still large and profitable. The waters swarm with salmon, halibut, herring and other fish. The climate is not nearly as cold as might be expected in this latitude, but the rainfall is very heavy, an average of 250 days in the year being stormy. The fifty or more villages contain a total population of nearly 8,000, including about 300 whites.

We know, says Dr. Grewgink, the eminent Russian scientist, of no more extensive theatre of volcanic activity than the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska peninsula, and the west coast of Cook's Inlet. Here we have confined within the limits of a single century all the known phenomena of this kind: the elevation of mountain chains and islands, the sinking of extensive tracts of the earth's surface, earthquakes, eruptions of lava, ashes and mud, the hot springs and exhalations of steam and sulphuric gases. Not only does the geological formation of most of the islands and a portion of the continent point to volcanic origin or elevation, but we have definite information of volcanic activity on twenty-five of the Aleutian Islands. On these islands forty-eight craters have been enumerated by Veniaminof and other conscientious observers, and in addition to these we have on the Alaska peninsula four volcanoes, two on Cook's Inlet, one on Prince William Sound, one on Copper River, and one in the vicinity of Sitka (Mount Edgecombe); three other peaks situated between Edgecombe and the Copper River have not been definitely ascertained to be volcanic. The distance from the Wrangell volcano, in the vicinity of Copper River, to the Sitkan Island is 1,505 nautical miles. We have every reason to believe that the Near Islands (the westernmost of the Aleutian group) are also extinct craters; and thus we find one continuous chain of volcanoes from Wrangell to the Commander Islands (Behring and Copper), pointing to the existence of a subterranean channel of lava finding its outlet or breathing-hole through the craters of this region. The nearest volcanoes to the south of this line are Mount Baker on the American continent, in latitude 48° 48', and the craters of the Kurile chain of islands on the coast of Asia. That a subterranean connection exists between this long line of craters is indicated by the fact that whenever volcanic activity grows slack in one section of the chain it increases in violence at some other point, an observation which has been confirmed by all observers.

From all information on the subject at our disposal it appears that the craters of Mount Fairweather, Cryllon, and Edgecombe, and Mount Calder (Prince of Wales Island), have not been active since the middle of the last century, and as the universal law of volcanic activity seems to place the frequency of eruptions in an inverse ratio to the height of the volcanoes, we might reasonably expect that the season of rest for these craters will be a prolonged one; but how terrible and devastating must be the awakening of the sleeping furnaces when it occurs. With regard to Mount St. Elias, we have many authentic data as to its volcanic nature. Belcher and Wrangell consider that the black ridges descending from the summits of the mountains, and the fact that the glaciers on Copper River exhibit a covering of vegetation, as proof of the volcanic character of the mountain. The first phenomena may rest entirely upon an optic delusion, as it is not at all certain that the black streaks consist of lava or ashes, while the appearance of vegetation on the surface of glaciers on Copper River is very probably due to the fall of volcanic ashes; the latter phenomenon may be traced as easily and with far more probability to the Wrangell volcano.

One of the most impressive physical features of the whole Territory is the stupendous glacier at Muir Inlet. This ice-field, says a recent writer, enters the sea with a front two or three hundred feet above the water and a mile wide. Fancy a wall of blue ice, splintered into columns, spires and huge crystal masses, with grottoes, crevices and recesses higher than Bunker Hill Monument and a mile in width! It is a spectacle that is strangely beautiful in its variety of form and depth of color, and at the same time awful in its grandeur. And not alone is the sight awe-inspiring. The ice-mountain is almost constantly breaking to pieces with sounds that resemble the discharge of heavy guns or the reverberations of thunder. At times an almost deafening report is heard, or a succession of them, like the belching of a whole park of artillery, when no outward effect is seen. It is the breaking apart of great masses of ice within the glacier. Then some huge berg topples over with a roar and gigantic splash that may be heard several miles, the waters being thrown aloft like smoke. A great pinnacle of ice is seen bobbing about in wicked fashion, perchance turning a somersault in the flood before it settles down to battle for life with the sun and the elements on its seaward cruise. The waves created by all this terrible commotion even rock the steamer and wash the shores miles away. There is scarcely five minutes in the whole day or night without some exhibition of this kind. There are mountains each side of the glacier, the one upon the right, or south shore, being the highest. High up on the bare walls are seen the scoriated and polished surfaces produced by glacial action. The present glacier is retrograding quite rapidly, as may be seen by many evidences of its former extent, as well as by the concurrent testimony of earlier visitors. On either side is a moraine half a mile in width, furrowed and slashed by old glacial streams which have given place in turn to others higher up the defile as the glacier recedes. These moraines are composed of earth and coarse gravel, with occasional large boulders. On the north side the material is more of a clayey sort, at least in part, and the stumps of an ancient forest have been uncovered by the action of a glacial river, or overwhelmed by the icy flood. Some scientists claim these forests are in reality pre-glacial, and many thousands of years old. The interior of the great moraines is yet frozen, and at the head of one of the little ravines formed by former glacial river discharges, a little stream still trickles forth from a diminutive ice cavern. Notwithstanding the contiguity of the ice itself, and the generally frigid surroundings, blue-bells and other flowers bloom on the moraine. In the centre of the glacier, some two miles from its snout, is a rocky island, the top of some ancient peak the great mill of ice has not yet ground down.

It is interesting to see how the massive stream of ice conforms itself to its shores, separating above the obstacle and reuniting below. On approaching or departing from Muir Inlet, the voyager may look back upon this literal sea of ice and follow its streams up to the snowfields of the White Mountains, which form the backbone of the peninsula between Glacier Bay and Lynn Canal. The following facts relating to the Muir glacier, its measurement and movement, are derived wholly from Professor Wright's notes. Roughly speaking, the Muir glacier may be said to occupy an amphitheatre which has the dimensions of about twenty-five miles from north to south, and thirty miles from east to west. The opening of this amphitheatre at Muir Inlet is toward the south south-east. It is two miles across from the shoulder of one mountain to the other at the outlet. Into the amphitheatre pour nine glaciers, and the sub-branches that are visible make the affluents more than twenty in number. Four of the main branches come in from the east, but these have already spent their force on reaching the focus of the amphitheatre. The first tributary from the south-west also practically loses its force before reaching the main current. The main flow is from two branches coming from the north-west and two from the north. The motion is here much more rapid. Observations made upon three portions of the main glacier, respectively 300, 1,000 and 1,500 yards from the front, showed the movement to be 135 feet at the first point, 65 at the second and 75 at the third, per day. The summit of the lower point was a little over 300 feet above the water, the second 400 feet and the third considerably more, probably 500 feet. The motion rapidly decreased on approaching the medial moraines brought down by the branches from the east. Along a line moving parallel with that of the greatest motion, and half a dozen miles east from it, the rate observed at two points was about 10 feet per day. Thus we get an average daily motion in the main channel of the ice flow, near its mouth, of about 40 feet across a section of one mile. The height of the ice above the water in front, at the extreme point, was found to be 226 feet. Back a few hundred feet the height is a little over 300 feet, and at a quarter of a mile 400 feet. A quarter of a mile out in front of the glacier the water is 85 fathoms, or 510 feet deep. Thus Professor Wright estimates that a body of ice 735 feet deep, 5,000 feet wide and 1,200 feet long passed out into the bay in the thirty days he was there, this movement and discharge taking place at the rate of 149,000,000 cubic feet per day. He says that after the fall of a large mass of ice from the glacier into the bay, the beach near his camp two and one-half miles distant from the glaciers, would be wrapped in foam by the waves. One of many large masses he saw floating about projected some 60 feet out of water, and was some 400 feet square. Estimating the general height of the berg above the water to be 30 feet, and its total depth 250 feet, the contents of the mass would be 40,000,000 cubic feet.