y * * .
Che Conservative *
their canoes to drift down the stream
and joyfully enlisted in the baud of
adventurers. They engaged on simi
lar termg with some of the other
hunters. The company was to fit
them out , and keep them supplied
with the requisite equipments and
munitions , and they were to yield
one-half of the produce of their
hunting and trapping. "
These continual meetings with re
turning adventurers are worth think
ing about. The American has at all
times abhorred a vacuum. It is
only five .years since Louis and
Clark's return , and here is a proces
sion of satisfied explorers returning
from the wilderness. Since they all
had perforce to come down the
Missouri , an ascending party could
not possibly miss any of them. But
how many were there left still in the
mountains ?
Hunt's party continued up the
river almost to the North Dakota
line. Here , from the Aricara village
at the mouth of Grand River , they
struck off westward , by a route never
traveled by anyone else before or
since. They passed north of the
Black Hills , crossed the upper waters
of the Little Missouri and Powder
River , passed through the Bighorn
Mountains at some unknown point
and the Wind River Mountains a
fong way north of the later South
Pass , and finally came xipon the head
waters of Snake River. Following
this inhospitable stream down , with
great , suffering and the.loss of some
pf their number , they managed to
make a winter passage of the Blue
Mountains of Oregon , and in February -
ary , scattered in straggling bands ,
they descended the Columbia to
Astoria , their destination.
' Their main enterprise failed , but
they accomplished what no one had
done before them. A . T. R.
THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY.
A timely elucidation of an import
ant matter is found in Mr. Thomas
Willing Balch's monograph just pub
lished in Philadelphia on "The
Alasko-Canadian Frontier. ' ' The
timeliness of this little book consists
in the fact that it throws light upon
the claim now being pressed by the
Canadian government to a boundary
line between the British and Ameri
can possessions in the far northwest ,
materially further west than the line
which has been accepted for eighty
years. This claim , which was first
advanced in August , 1898 , the Cana
dians wish to have submitted to arbi
tration by third particSj If it wore
allowed , > Canada would gain a strip
of land 20 to 40 miles wide and be
tween 300 and 400 miles lonp , in the
vicinity of the Alaska gold fields ,
1
Ml
and would bo given access to the
ocean at a number of points. Be
sides the acquisition of territory , this
latter consideration would be of
great importance to her , because she
has now no Pacific ports above lati
tude 54 degrees , 40 minutes.
The presentation of a claim of this
kind is confusing in the extreme.
One wishes first of all for informa
tion. This can come only from ex
amination of treaties and charts , in
accessible to the multitude. This
lack Mr. Balch ably supplies. His
historical survey covers the events of
the last century , and his book is
illustrated by copies of eight of the
most significant maps , gathered from
Russian , French , English and Ameri
can sources. His conclusion is irre
sistible. Great Britain is merely
claiming that to which she has no
shadow of title , in hopes of picking
up something , no matter how little. ;
anything will be clear profit. It is
not her first attempt in this direc
tion. In 1822-25 she advanced similar
claims upon Russia , then holding the
present territory of Alaska , and after
modifying them three times dropped
them and agreed to Russia's conten
tion. The Russian diplomat Nessel-
rodp , expressed the case epigraminati-
cally thus : "Ainsi nous voulons
couserver , et les Anglais veulent ao-
querir ; " the territory is ours and
wo choose to keep it ; it is not
England's , and she wishes to ac
quire it.
Mr. Balch demonstrates Russia's
original title , confirmad by treaty in
1825 , and transmitted intact to the
United States in 1868 , to the Alaskan
peninsula and a lisiere , or strip of
seacoast , not more than thirty miles
wide between the coast range and
the shore , and following the sinuos
ities of the latter , from the main
tract above Mount St. Elias down to
latitude 54 degrees , 40 minutes.
This lisiere originally extended to
Oregon and barred British America
entirely from Pacific tidewater ; but ;
the break between 49 degrees and 54
degrees , 40 minutes , was insisted
upon with determination by Great
Britain and finally yiplded by Presi ;
dent Polk , whose hands were tied by
the slavery troubles at homo
The unbroken ownership of the
remnant , however , first by Russia
and then by the United States , and
the frequent acknowledgment of
their ownership by Great Britain ,
are shown in detail by Mr. Balch'
who closes with the following con
vincing summing-up :
"Canada wishes , and she has the
support of England , to have her
claim that she is entitled to many
outlets upon tidewater above 54 de
grees , -10 minntop submitted to the
arbitration of third parties. The'
United States should never consent to
any such arrangement. If such a
plan weru adopted and a decision
were given altogether against Can
ada , she would be no worse off than
she has been from 1825 to the present
day , while anything decided in her
favor would be a clear gain to her.
This country , on the contrary , cannot
by any possibility obtain more than
she now has , viz. , that which she
purchased from Russia , to all of
whoso rights she succeeded ; at the
same time the United States can lose
heavily. For the inclusion in Cana
dian territory of only one port like
Pyramid Harbor or Dyea on the
Lynn canal , would greatly lessen for
the United States the present and
future value of the Alaskan lisiere. ' '
The singular coincidence between
the discovery of gold and the ad
vancement of a claim of British
ownership is not observed now for
the first time. R.
MANUFACTURERS.
The statistics as to the manufac
tures of the several states and terri
tories of the union have been given
out. The compilation of them from
the census of 1900 has just been
finished. They show that Nebraska
occupies a respectable rank among the
manufacturing states , coming nine
teenth on the list. It leads all the
southern states as well as Maine , New
Hampshire and Vermont of the
New England group. Iowa , how
ever , stands two places higher than
Nebraska , and Kansas three places.
The four giants of the list are Now
York , Pennsylvania , Illinois and
Massachusetts , which have over $60 , -
000,000,000 worth of products be
tween them for the year 1900. Ne
braska showed $144,000,000. Colorado
is twenty-seventh , convng after most
of the southern states. Hawaii is
forty -first , and leads Utah , for in
stance , and both the Dakotas. Even
Alaska is not the tail-euder , but
forty-ninth in the list. Idaho and
Indian Territory follow it , and Ne
vada brings up thn rear.
CHARMING MOUNTAIN MODESTY.
The Republican is so much superior
to any other paper printed in the
Rocky Mountains that there in hardly
any comparison to be made. It con
tains at all times the fullest , the best
written and the most trustworthy re
ports of current events and the most sens
ible editorial discussions of questions of
interest. Denver Republican.
STOPS THE COUGH AND WORKS OFF
THE COLD.
Laxative Brorao-Quinine Tablets care
a oold in one day. No Cure , no Pay.
Price 25 cents.