Latest / Around the Clock in Europe : A Travel Sequence / National Geographic Magazine Vol. 10 - 11. November 1899-National Geographic Society

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National Geographic Magazine Vol. 10 - 11. November 1899-National Geographic Society · Around the Clock in Europe : A Travel Sequence

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Speaker 1: Section one of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November
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Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Betty B.
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Speaker 1: The Alaskan Boundary, Part one by Honorable John W. Foster,
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Speaker 1: Ex Secretary of State, in the letter of the President
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Speaker 1: of the Geographic Society inviting me to prepare a paper
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Speaker 1: for the National Geographic Magazine. He expressed a desire that
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Speaker 1: I should discuss the Alaskan Boundary, because it was a
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Speaker 1: subject that most deeply concerns our people, and the paper
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Speaker 1: would be a timely contribution toward its proper consideration. In
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Speaker 1: accepting the invitation, I feel that I must confine my
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Speaker 1: presentation of the topic to the facts accessible to any
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Speaker 1: student of the events of the Peers, and avoid all
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Speaker 1: reference to pending negotiations. Haply, however, the material at hand
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Speaker 1: for an accurate understanding of the subject is abundant and
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Speaker 1: within reach of the inquirer. Its history had its inception
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Speaker 1: three quarters of a century ago. Yet few negotiations among
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Speaker 1: nations of such a date are accompanied by so great
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Speaker 1: a mass of concurrent documents and facts to explain the
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Speaker 1: motives and objects held in view by the interested parties,
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Speaker 1: and to make a parent the understanding of these parties
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Speaker 1: as to the effect of the negotiations after their conclusion.
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Speaker 1: The Alaskan boundary is fixed by the Treaty of eighteen
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Speaker 1: twenty five between Russia and Great Britain, and every step
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Speaker 1: of the anterior negotiations was carefully recorded at the time,
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Speaker 1: and the seventy or more years following the celebration of
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Speaker 1: the treaty are marked by repeated acts of the contracting
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Speaker 1: parties and those claiming under them explaining their interpretation of
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Speaker 1: that instrument. The Treaty of eighteen twenty five grew out
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Speaker 1: of the issuance by the Emperor of Russia of an
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Speaker 1: imperial u case in eighteen twenty one, the purpose of
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Speaker 1: which briefly stated was one acclaim by Russia to exclusive
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Speaker 1: jurisdiction on the High Sea extending one hundred miles from
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Speaker 1: the coast of Asia above latitude forty five degrees fifty
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Speaker 1: seconds north and from the northwest coast of America above
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Speaker 1: latitude fifty one degrees north, and two a prohibition to
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Speaker 1: all foreign vessels to land upon or trade with the
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Speaker 1: natives on any part of the coasts indicated. This u
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Speaker 1: case brought forth a prompt and vigorous protests from both
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Speaker 1: United States and Great Britain, which was soon followed by
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Speaker 1: negotiations between Russia and the two latter governments. It was
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Speaker 1: early made known that Russia was prepared to withdraw its
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Speaker 1: claim to exclusive jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean and would
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Speaker 1: not insist upon its territorial claim to the coast of
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Speaker 1: America below latitude fifty five degrees, As the United States
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Speaker 1: was advancing no serious claim to the territory north of
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Speaker 1: that line. It found little difficulty in reaching an accord,
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Speaker 1: and a treaty between Russia and the United States was
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Speaker 1: signed April seventeenth, eighteen twenty four, nearly a year before
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Speaker 1: an agreement was reached with Great Britain. The chief object
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Speaker 1: had in view by Great Britain in its protest and
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Speaker 1: subsequent negotiations was to secure the withdrawal by Russia of
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Speaker 1: her claims to exclusive jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean. At
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Speaker 1: that period, Great Britain was the rising power of the
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Speaker 1: world in maritime commerce. The United States being its next
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Speaker 1: competitive and it made good use of the latter to
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Speaker 1: aid in bringing about this withdrawal. At that day, the
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Speaker 1: vast territory of North America, lying between the Rocky Mountains
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Speaker 1: and the Pacific Ocean above latitude fifty five degrees, was
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Speaker 1: almost a terra incognita, and with the immense areas to
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Speaker 1: the east of the mountains still unoccupied except by a
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Speaker 1: few trading posts, the country was held in little estimation
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Speaker 1: by Great Britain. A few navigators had skirted the coast,
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Speaker 1: and enterprising American traders had held some intercourse with the
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Speaker 1: Indians living immediately on tidewater, but none but the Russians
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Speaker 1: had penetrated any distance inland. Only one British trading post
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Speaker 1: was established in this region west of the Rocky Mountains,
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Speaker 1: on the line of fifty five degrees, and that one
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Speaker 1: hundred twenty miles from the ocean, and there was not
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Speaker 1: one above that line. But we are not to infer
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Speaker 1: from these historical facts what was the ruling motive and
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Speaker 1: object of Great Britain in opening and prosecuting negotiations with Russia,
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Speaker 1: For these are explicitly stated in the instructions given by
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Speaker 1: the Secretary for Foreign Affairs George Canning to the British
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Speaker 1: negotiators at the very inception of the negotiations. He directed
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Speaker 1: the attention of the first negotiator, Sir Charles Baggett, to
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Speaker 1: the extravagant assumption of maritime jurisdiction as the essential point
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Speaker 1: to be adjusted, and as Russia was prepared to waive
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Speaker 1: her pretensions, the mode and degree of disavowal was to
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Speaker 1: be so made as to least offend the national dignity
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Speaker 1: of Russia. It was therefore determined that it would be
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Speaker 1: made more easy for Russia to retire from its maritime
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Speaker 1: claim under cover of a treaty of limits. This is
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Speaker 1: made clear in the instruction given by the British Secretary
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Speaker 1: for Foreign Affairs December eighth, eighteen twenty four, to Sir
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Speaker 1: Stratford Canning, who had succeeded mister Baggett in the negotiations.
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Speaker 1: He says, the whole negotiation grows out of the U
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Speaker 1: case of eighteen twenty one. So entirely and absolutely true
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Speaker 1: is this proposition that the settlement of the limits of
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Speaker 1: the respective possessions of Great Britain and Russia on the
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Speaker 1: northwest coast of America was proposed by US as a
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Speaker 1: mode of facilitating the adjustment of the differences arising from
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Speaker 1: the U case, by enabling the Court of Russia, under
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Speaker 1: cover of the more comprehensive arrangement, to withdraw with less
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Speaker 1: appearance of concession, the offensive pretensions of that edict. It
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Speaker 1: is comparatively indifferent to us whether we hasten or postpone
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Speaker 1: all questions respecting the limits of territorial possession on the
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Speaker 1: continent of America. But the pretensions of the Russian UK
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Speaker 1: of eighteen twenty one to exclusive dominion over the Pacific
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Speaker 1: could not continue longer unrepealed, without compelling us to take
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Speaker 1: some measure of public and effectual remonstrance against it. You
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Speaker 1: will declare, without reserve that the point to which alone
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Speaker 1: the solicitude of the British government and the jealousy of
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Speaker 1: the British nation attach any importance, is the doing away
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Speaker 1: in a manner as little disagreeable to Russia as possible
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Speaker 1: of the effect of the U Case of eighteen twenty one.
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Speaker 1: Near the close of this instruction, which was quite lengthy,
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Speaker 1: Secretary Canning, impressed with the importance of the main object,
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Speaker 1: repeats himself in these words quote. It remains only in
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Speaker 1: recapitulation to remind you of the origin and principles of
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Speaker 1: this whole negotiation. It is not, on our part, essentially
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Speaker 1: a negotiation about limits. It is a demand of the
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Speaker 1: repeal of an offensive and unjustifiable irrigation of exclusive jurisdiction
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Speaker 1: over an ocean of unmeasured extent. We negotiate about territory
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Speaker 1: to cover the remonstrance upon principle. With this object in
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Speaker 1: view and under these instructions, the negotiations were initiated at
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Speaker 1: Saint Petersburg. It will not be possible to follow them
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Speaker 1: in all their details, which are set forth in the
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Speaker 1: published correspondence of the British negotiators with the Foreign Office
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Speaker 1: and of the Russian negotiators with their ambassador in London.
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Speaker 1: I can only give the leading features. It having been
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Speaker 1: determined that the treaty of limits should be agreed upon
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Speaker 1: as a cover to the more essential stipulation to be
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Speaker 1: contained in it, to wit the disavowal of the maritime jurisdiction.
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Speaker 1: The negotiators, in the first instance address themselves to a
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Speaker 1: fixation of the east and west line, or more particularly
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Speaker 1: to the point on the northwest coast of America, which
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Speaker 1: should limit the possessions of the two governments. From the
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Speaker 1: first moment the boundary was broached. Russia had indicated that
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Speaker 1: it would rest its claim to territory on the line
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Speaker 1: of latitude fifty five degrees, being the limit fixed by
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Speaker 1: the Emperor Paul in the Charter of seventeen ninety nine
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Speaker 1: to the Russian American Company, and which had never been
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Speaker 1: objected to by Great Britain. Sir Charles Baggett, however, in
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Speaker 1: the first instance, proposed a line drawn through Chatham straight
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Speaker 1: to the head of Lynn Canal, thence northwest to the
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Speaker 1: one hundred forty degree of longitude. This line was rejected
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Speaker 1: by the Russian negotiators, and at the request of mister Baggot,
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Speaker 1: they submitted a counter proposal which was in effect the
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Speaker 1: same as that suggested in the first instance. Above mentioned
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Speaker 1: the line of latitude fifty five degrees, but as the
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Speaker 1: parallel of fifty five degrees would divide Prince of Wales Island,
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Speaker 1: they proposed to start the boundary line at the southern
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Speaker 1: extremity of that island, and thence follow Portland Channel up
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Speaker 1: to the mountains which border the coast The Russian proposal
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Speaker 1: was met by a second proposition from Sir Charles Baggett
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Speaker 1: to wit a line traced from the west toward the
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Speaker 1: east along the middle of the Channel, which separates Prince
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Speaker 1: of Wales and Duke of York Islands from all the
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Speaker 1: islands situated to the north of the said islands until
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Speaker 1: it touches the mainland. This was likewise rejected, and he
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Speaker 1: then made a third and final proposal of a line
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Speaker 1: drawn from the southern extremity of the strait called Duke
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Speaker 1: of Clarence Sound, through the middle of this strait to
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Speaker 1: the middle of the Strait, which separates Prince of Wales
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Speaker 1: and Duke of York Islands from all the island lying
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Speaker 1: north of those islands, thence toward the east through the
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Speaker 1: middle of the same strait to the mainland. This last
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Speaker 1: British proposition was rejected by the Russian negotiators. In a
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Speaker 1: paper of some length in which they set forth the
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Speaker 1: situation of the parties in interest and why it was
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Speaker 1: impossible for Russia to modify its proposal. They show that
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Speaker 1: the parties whose interests were involved were on the British side,
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Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay Company, which was pushing its posts across
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Speaker 1: the Rocky mountains towards the coast, and the Russian American Company,
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Speaker 1: which was in possession of the islands and maintaining a
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Speaker 1: profitable trade with the natives on the mainland, and that
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Speaker 1: unless the latter was protected by a strip of the
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Speaker 1: coast on the mainland, that company would be without support
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Speaker 1: poin d'apui and would be exposed to the competition of
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Speaker 1: establishments on the mainland land, which was their purpose to exclude.
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Speaker 1: The motive of the Russian negotiators in insisting upon a
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Speaker 1: strip of the coast is also shown in the report
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Speaker 1: of Monsieur Poleetica, one of the Russian planipotentiaries to the
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Speaker 1: Ministry for Foreign Affairs, of the earliest conferences with mister Baggett,
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Speaker 1: in which he said the Russian American Company had mainly
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Speaker 1: in view the establishment of a barrier at which would
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Speaker 1: be stopped once for all to the north and to
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Speaker 1: the west of the coast allotted to our American company
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Speaker 1: the encroachments of the English agents of the Hudson's Bay Company,
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Speaker 1: Monsieur Politica to Count Nesselroad, November three, eighteen twenty three.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, the main purpose of the British
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Speaker 1: Planipotentiary in the particular negotiation above referred to, was to
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Speaker 1: secure for British traders a foothold on the Pacific Ocean
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Speaker 1: as far about the latitude of fifty four degrees forty
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Speaker 1: seconds as possible. In reporting the result of his conferences
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Speaker 1: to the British Foreign Offices, he says, our chief objects
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Speaker 1: were to secure the ambushors of such rivers as might
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Speaker 1: afford an outlet for our fur trade into the Pacific.
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Speaker 1: He further states that his object in presenting the line
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Speaker 1: of Clarence Strait was to preserve uninterrupted our access to
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Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean, and he adds that the line of
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Speaker 1: the Portland Channel would deprive his Britannic Majesty of sovereignty
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Speaker 1: over all the inlets and small bays lying between latitude
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Speaker 1: fifty six degrees and fifty four degrees forty five feet
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Speaker 1: of essential importance to its Hudson Bay's commerce. The negotiators
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Speaker 1: were brought face to face with their conflicting claims, the
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Speaker 1: one side insisting that it must have a strip of
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Speaker 1: territory on the main land and in order to keep
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Speaker 1: the Hudson's Bay Company from the ocean opposite their islands,
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Speaker 1: and the other insisting that the Hudson's Bay Company must
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Speaker 1: have possession of such part of that territory and the
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Speaker 1: inlets as would afforded access to the ocean. Mister Maggot
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Speaker 1: informed the Russian negotiators that he had made his ultimate proposition, and,
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Speaker 1: being told by them that the Emperor's final decision was
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Speaker 1: that they must continue to insist upon the demarcation as
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Speaker 1: described by them, he announced that he should consider the
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Speaker 1: negotiations as necessarily suspended, and they were accordingly broken off.
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Speaker 1: Count nessel Road sent to the Russian ambassador in London
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Speaker 1: an account of the negotiations and their abrupt termination, a
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Speaker 1: copy of which was handed to Secretary Canning. In this report,
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Speaker 1: he insists that Russia had gone to the extreme of
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Speaker 1: liberality in its concessions to Great Britain. These were first
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Speaker 1: an agreement to disavow the Mariti i Am jurisdiction, second
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Speaker 1: to yield its claim to territory from latitude fifty one
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Speaker 1: degrees to fifty four degrees forty seconds. Third, to grant
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Speaker 1: free access to the British posts in the interior by
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Speaker 1: the rivers which may cross the Russian strip on the mainland,
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Speaker 1: and fourth to open Sitka to British trade. The count,
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Speaker 1: after showing that his country was only seeking to hold
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Speaker 1: what its enterprise had gained, and contrasting the spirit of
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Speaker 1: the two nations we wish to keep and the English
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Speaker 1: company wished to obtain, refer to the point upon which
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Speaker 1: the negotiations were broken off the strip of territory on
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Speaker 1: the mainland, and impressed upon the ambassador the necessity which
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Speaker 1: impelled the Emperor to insist upon it, and then made
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Speaker 1: the following emphatic declaration, Russia cannot stretch her concessions further.
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Speaker 1: She will make no others, and she is authorized to
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Speaker 1: expect some concers on the part of England. The expectations
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Speaker 1: of Russia were not to be disappointed, for in the
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Speaker 1: month following Secretary Canning informed the Russian ambassador in London
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Speaker 1: that Sir Charles Baggot would be instructed to admit, with
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Speaker 1: certain qualifications, the terms last proposed by the Russian government.
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Speaker 1: The qualifications related to the width of the strip of
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Speaker 1: land required by Russia on the continent to the boundary
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Speaker 1: in the vicinity of Mount Saint Elias, and the free
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Speaker 1: use of the rivers, seas, straits and waters which the
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Speaker 1: limits assigned to Russia would comprehend. In his instructions to
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Speaker 1: Sir Charles Baggot, Secretary Canning said, there are two points
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Speaker 1: which are left to be settled by your excellency, the
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Speaker 1: first the eastern boundary of the strip of land to
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Speaker 1: be occupied by Russia on the coast, and second the
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Speaker 1: right of resorting to the territory and waters conceded to Russia.
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Speaker 1: The second negotiations were mainly confined to the second point.
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Speaker 1: In the interval, a treaty had been signed between Russia
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Speaker 1: and the United States, whereby the latter had secured the
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Speaker 1: right for ten years to frequent the interior seas, gulfs, harbors,
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Speaker 1: and creeks upon the coast north of fifty four degrees
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Speaker 1: forty seconds for the purpose of trading with the natives
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Speaker 1: of the country. Beggett was instructed to obtain a like
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Speaker 1: privilege for Great Britain, but to secure a longer term
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Speaker 1: than ten years, if possible. He thereupon made a demand
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Speaker 1: for the privilege not for a term of ten years,
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Speaker 1: but forever, as to the coast along the strip of
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Speaker 1: land Licierge up to latitude sixty degrees, and as to Sitka,
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Speaker 1: and for ten years as to all the other Russian
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Speaker 1: territory in the north. Russia refused the demand on the
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Speaker 1: ground that such a perpetual concession was repugnant to all
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Speaker 1: national feeling and was inconsistent with the very idea of sovereignty,
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Speaker 1: and the negotiations were again broken off. Thereupon, Sir Charles
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Speaker 1: Baggett was recalled and Sir Stratford Canning, one of the
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Speaker 1: ablest British diplomatists of the present century, was transferred from
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Speaker 1: Washington to Saint Petersburg, and the negotiations were again renewed.
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Speaker 1: Sir Stratford Canning was instructed to recede from the demand
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Speaker 1: made by his predecessor, and to accept the language of
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Speaker 1: the Russo American treaty as to the use of the
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Speaker 1: territorial waters of the strip of land Licier is left
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Speaker 1: only the eastern boundary of this strip to be definitely fixed.
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Speaker 1: It was from these instructions to Canning that I have
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Speaker 1: quoted the liberal language in which occur the expressions, it
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Speaker 1: is not on our part essentially a negotiation about limits,
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Speaker 1: and we negotiate about territory to cover the remonstrance upon principle.
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Speaker 1: In this connection, it is proper to note that, in
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Speaker 1: the early stage of the negotiations, when Sir Charles Bagget
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Speaker 1: reported that Russia had indicated latitude fifty five degrees as
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Speaker 1: the line of division, Secretary Canning replied, it does not
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Speaker 1: appear how far the line proposed was intended to run
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Speaker 1: to the eastward. If to the Rocky Mountains, it obviously
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Speaker 1: would be wholly inadmissible by us, And later in the
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Speaker 1: instruction he says, quote, it would be expedient to a
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Speaker 1: sign with respect to the mainland southward of that point
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Speaker 1: the head of Lynn Harbor, a limit, say of fifty
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Speaker 1: or one hundred miles from the coast, beyond which the
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Speaker 1: Russian posts should not be extended to the eastward. We
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Speaker 1: must not, on any account admit the Russian territory to
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Speaker 1: extend at any point to the Rocky Mountains. With this
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Speaker 1: instruction in his possession, Sir Charles Baggot at the outset
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Speaker 1: of the Nago unciations, in response to the Russian demand
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Speaker 1: for a strip of territory the siere upon the mainland,
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Speaker 1: which would be parallel to the sinuosities of the coast
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Speaker 1: propose that the eastern line of this strip should run
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Speaker 1: always at a distance of ten marine leagues from the
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Speaker 1: shore as far as the one hundred forty degrees of longitude.
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Speaker 1: Russia suggested that the line should run along the mountains
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Speaker 1: which follow the sinuosities of the coast. When the second
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Speaker 1: negotiations were resumed, Secretary Canning sent mister Baggot a draft
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Speaker 1: of a treaty in which it was provided that this
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Speaker 1: line should be carried along the coast in a direction
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Speaker 1: parallel to the sinuosities, and at and within the seaward
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Speaker 1: base of the mountains by which it is bounded. In explanation,
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Speaker 1: the Secretary said, if pressed by Russia, mister Baggot might
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Speaker 1: substitute the summit of the mountains, if a limit to
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Speaker 1: the east was fixed, beyond which the line should not go.
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Speaker 1: The British draft proposal of the seaward base of the
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Speaker 1: mountains was rejected by Russia, and its counter draft was
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Speaker 1: that the line shall not be wider on the continent
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Speaker 1: than ten marine leagues. But Sir Charles Baggett's attention was
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Speaker 1: so occupied with the other points of the treaty that
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Speaker 1: the matter of the width of the strip did not
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Speaker 1: receive serious consideration until the final stage of the negotiations
21:28
Speaker 1: was undertaken by Sir Stratford Canning, and as Great Britain
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Speaker 1: had by that time receded from all the other contentions,
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Speaker 1: it only remained for him to adjust the eastern line
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Speaker 1: of the strip of the mainland, which was to be
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Speaker 1: held by Russia. In his draft of the treaty, it
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Speaker 1: was proposed that the line should follow the crest of
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Speaker 1: the mountains, provided that if the crest of the mountains
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Speaker 1: should be more than ten marine leagues from the ocean,
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Speaker 1: the line should follow the sinuosities of the coast, so
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Speaker 1: that it should at no point be more than ten
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Speaker 1: leagues from the coast. This was in accordance with his instructions.
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Speaker 1: The Russian negotiators objected to the proviso and insisted that
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Speaker 1: the crest of the mountains should be the invariable line,
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Speaker 1: arguing that the natural frontier was the mountains following the coast.
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Speaker 1: End of Section.
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Speaker 2: One Section two of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten,
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Speaker 2: November eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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Speaker 2: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
22:39
Speaker 2: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
22:43
Speaker 2: Melissa Marie. The Alaskan Boundary by Honorable John W.
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Speaker 3: Foster.
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Speaker 2: Much of the difficulty in reaching an agreement on this
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Speaker 2: point grew out of the imperfect geographic knowledge of the period.
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Speaker 2: In seventeen ninety two to ninety five, George Vancouver, under
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Speaker 2: the direction of the British Admiralty, made the first accurate
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Speaker 2: and scientific survey of the northwest coast of North America,
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Speaker 2: and his charts were published in seventeen ninety eight. These
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Speaker 2: charts were for more than a generation the basis and
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Speaker 2: source of information of all maps of that region. His
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Speaker 2: survey was confined to the coast, as he made no
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Speaker 2: exploration of the interior of the mainland beyond what was
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Speaker 2: visible from his vessels. From these he saw at all
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Speaker 2: points in the region under consideration a continuous array of mountains,
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Speaker 2: and upon his charts there appears delineated a regular mountain
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Speaker 2: chain following the sinuosities of the coast.
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Speaker 3: Line around all the inlets. We know that the.
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Speaker 2: Negotiators of the Treaty of eighteen twenty five had before
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Speaker 2: them Vancouver's charts and two other maps one issued by
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Speaker 2: the Quartermaster General's Department, Saint Petersburg eighteen o two, which
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Speaker 2: reproduces the mountains as laid down by Vancouver. The other
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Speaker 2: Aerosmith's latest map being the one published in London in
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Speaker 2: eighteen twenty two with the additions of eighteen twenty three,
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Speaker 2: and this map omits all mountain features in the region
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Speaker 2: being entirely blank. The published correspondence frequently shows that as
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Speaker 2: to the interior of the mainland, the negotiators were in
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Speaker 2: great ignorance of its topography, and as we have seen
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Speaker 2: that even the Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company
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Speaker 2: was no better informed. Secretary Canon referred to the mountains
24:26
Speaker 2: which run parallel to the coast, and which appear, according
24:29
Speaker 2: to the map, to follow all its sinuosities. But he
24:33
Speaker 2: asked the British Plenipotentiary to explain to his Russian colleagues
24:38
Speaker 2: the difficulty had with the United States arising out of
24:41
Speaker 2: the maps of the eastern side of the continent on
24:44
Speaker 2: which mountains were laid down and which were found afterwards
24:47
Speaker 2: to be quite differently situated. And he adds, should the
24:51
Speaker 2: maps be no more accurate as to the western than
24:55
Speaker 2: as to the eastern mountains, we might be assigning to
24:58
Speaker 2: Russia immense tracks of inland territory where we only intended
25:03
Speaker 2: to give, and they only intended.
25:04
Speaker 3: To ask a strip of seacoast.
25:07
Speaker 2: The British Minister's fear was, as we have seen, lest
25:11
Speaker 2: an invariable line of the summit of the mountains might
25:15
Speaker 2: carry the Russian line even to the Rocky Mountains, and
25:18
Speaker 2: it was to avoid such a contingency that he insisted
25:21
Speaker 2: on a specific limit to the Russian strip of the mainland.
25:25
Speaker 2: The Russian negotiators reluctantly yielded to the British view, and
25:29
Speaker 2: the treaty was concluded. The correspondence and documents thus reviewed
25:33
Speaker 2: by me clearly established three facts as the result of
25:37
Speaker 2: the negotiations. First, that Russia was to have a continuous
25:41
Speaker 2: strip of territory on the mainland around all the inlets
25:44
Speaker 2: or arms of the sea. Sir Charles Baggett fully understood this,
25:49
Speaker 2: and hence his repeated efforts to push the southern boundary
25:52
Speaker 2: of Russia as far north as possible so that the
25:55
Speaker 2: Hudson's Bay Company might come down to Tidewater with its
25:58
Speaker 2: trading posts. Recognizing that this could not be done in
26:02
Speaker 2: front of the Russian line. The purpose for which the
26:05
Speaker 2: strip was established would be defeated if it was to
26:08
Speaker 2: be broken in any part of its course by inlets
26:11
Speaker 2: or arms of the sea extending into British territory. Second,
26:15
Speaker 2: with the Strip of Territory so established, all the interior
26:19
Speaker 2: waters of the ocean above its southern limit became Russian
26:23
Speaker 2: and would be inaccessible to British ships and traders, except
26:27
Speaker 2: by express license. It was because the Russian negotiators refused
26:31
Speaker 2: to make this license perpetual that the negotiations were a
26:35
Speaker 2: second time broken off, and only renewed when Great Britain
26:39
Speaker 2: yielded on this point. Third, the strip of territory was
26:43
Speaker 2: to be ten marine leagues wide in all its extent,
26:46
Speaker 2: unless inside that limit a chain of mountains existed, which
26:50
Speaker 2: constituted a natural boundary or watershed between the two countries.
26:55
Speaker 2: The seaward base proposed by Great Britain was rejected, and
26:59
Speaker 2: there is no indication that isolated peaks were to constitute
27:03
Speaker 2: the line. A fourth fact not material to explain the treaty,
27:07
Speaker 2: is apparent from the record of the negotiations, and especially
27:11
Speaker 2: secretary canyons instructions of January fifteenth, eighteen twenty four, already
27:17
Speaker 2: cited to wit that while the British government sought to
27:21
Speaker 2: restrict the limits of Russian territory as much as possible,
27:24
Speaker 2: it was prepared in return for the revocation of the
27:27
Speaker 2: UKs of eighteen twenty one, if Russia was persistent to
27:32
Speaker 2: accept an east line of the strip distant from the
27:35
Speaker 2: ocean one hundred miles, and to have the line to
27:38
Speaker 2: the Arctic Ocean drawn along the one hundred thirty fifth
27:41
Speaker 2: degree of longitude, thus giving to Russia a strip more
27:45
Speaker 2: than three times as wide as she obtained, and the
27:48
Speaker 2: whole of the Yukon Gold districts. We come now to
27:52
Speaker 2: the provisions of the treaty, and I confine my examination
27:55
Speaker 2: to those respecting which there are existing differences. Article three,
28:01
Speaker 2: in delineating the first section of the boundary, provides that,
28:04
Speaker 2: commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince
28:08
Speaker 2: of Wales Island, which lies in the parallel fifty four
28:12
Speaker 2: degree forty minute north latitude, the said boundary line shall
28:17
Speaker 2: ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel,
28:20
Speaker 2: as far as the point of the continent where it
28:23
Speaker 2: strikes the fifty sixth degree of north latitude.
28:27
Speaker 3: The United States holds that.
28:28
Speaker 2: Under this provision, the line starting from the extremity of
28:31
Speaker 2: the Prince of Wales Island shall enter the broad, deep,
28:34
Speaker 2: and usually navigated opening of Portland Canal or Channel, and
28:38
Speaker 2: pass up to its head, and thence on the continent
28:41
Speaker 2: to the.
28:42
Speaker 3: Fifty sixth degree of latitude.
28:44
Speaker 2: The present contention of Great Britain is understood to be
28:48
Speaker 2: that the line from the extremity of Prince of Wales
28:50
Speaker 2: Island should enter the tortuous and narrow channel now known
28:55
Speaker 2: on the British Admiralty and American charts as Pierce Canal,
28:58
Speaker 2: and thence up Portland Canal to the fifty sixth degree
29:02
Speaker 2: of latitude, thus placing Whales Pierced and a few small
29:06
Speaker 2: islands in British territory. The second portion of the line
29:10
Speaker 2: in dispute is described in the treaty as follows. From
29:14
Speaker 2: this last mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow
29:18
Speaker 2: the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast
29:21
Speaker 2: as far as the point of intersection of the one
29:24
Speaker 2: hundred forty first degree of west longitude. Whenever the summit
29:28
Speaker 2: of the mountains which extend in a.
29:30
Speaker 3: Direction parallel to the coast, shall prove.
29:33
Speaker 2: To be at the distance of more than ten marine
29:36
Speaker 2: leagues from the ocean. The limit between the British possessions
29:40
Speaker 2: and the strip of coast, which is to belong to Russia,
29:43
Speaker 2: as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel
29:46
Speaker 2: to the sinuosities of the coast, and which shall never
29:49
Speaker 2: exceed the distance of ten marine leagues. Therefrom this language
29:54
Speaker 2: of the treaty presupposes that there existed a defined mountain
29:58
Speaker 2: chain to repeat its terms, situated parallel to the coast,
30:02
Speaker 2: or which extend in a direction parallel to the coast.
30:06
Speaker 2: But the surveys of the region made since the territory
30:09
Speaker 2: of Alaska was ceded to the United States have established
30:12
Speaker 2: the fact that there is no such defined chain or
30:15
Speaker 2: watershed within ten marine leagues of the sinuosities of the coast,
30:19
Speaker 2: except at two points, namely White and Chilcoot Passes. Hence,
30:25
Speaker 2: the United States claims that the boundary of the strip
30:27
Speaker 2: has placed ten marine leagues from the coast at all
30:30
Speaker 2: points except at White and Chilcoot Passes, and that the
30:34
Speaker 2: strip is an unbroken belt of territory on the mainland
30:37
Speaker 2: following the sinuosities of the coast around the inlets of
30:40
Speaker 2: the sea. On the other hand, the British claim is
30:44
Speaker 2: that the line from the fifty sixth degree runs directly
30:48
Speaker 2: to the coast and follows the mountains nearest to the
30:50
Speaker 2: outer shore line, and crosses not less than ten or
30:54
Speaker 2: twelve arms of the sea or inlets, thus breaking the
30:58
Speaker 2: strip of mainland into as many different sections and transferring
31:02
Speaker 2: all the water of the bays and inlets to the
31:04
Speaker 2: British possessions. The remaining article to be noted is the seventh,
31:09
Speaker 2: which provides that for the space of ten years, the
31:12
Speaker 2: vessels of the two powers, or those belonging to their
31:15
Speaker 2: respective subjects, shall mutually be at liberty to frequent, without
31:20
Speaker 2: any hindrance whatever, all the inland seas, the gulfs, havens,
31:24
Speaker 2: and creeks on the coast mentioned in Article three, for
31:28
Speaker 2: the purposes of fishing and of trading.
31:30
Speaker 3: With the natives.
31:31
Speaker 2: I have already referred to the fact that the negotiations
31:34
Speaker 2: were broken off because the British Plenipotentiary insisted that the
31:39
Speaker 2: liberty to frequent those inland seas, gulfs, havens, and creeks
31:43
Speaker 2: should be made perpetual, and that the negotiations were renewed
31:47
Speaker 2: upon the basis of the privilege granted in the Rousseau
31:50
Speaker 2: American Treaty of eighteen twenty four, the language of Article four,
31:55
Speaker 2: of which, as Secretary Canyon informed Sir Charles Baggett, was
31:59
Speaker 2: copied in the British Treaty. This ten years privilege is
32:03
Speaker 2: inconsistent with any other interpretation of the treaty than the
32:07
Speaker 2: complete sovereignty of Russia over not only a strip of
32:11
Speaker 2: territory on the mainland which follows around the sinuosities of
32:14
Speaker 2: the sea.
32:15
Speaker 3: But also of the waters of all bays or.
32:18
Speaker 2: Inlets extending from the ocean into the mainland. This is
32:23
Speaker 2: the more manifest when the subsequent history, respecting the provision
32:27
Speaker 2: of Article four of the American and Article seven of
32:31
Speaker 2: the British Treaty, as recalled. At the expiration of the
32:34
Speaker 2: term of ten years, the Russian Minister in Washington gave
32:38
Speaker 2: notice to the government of the United States that the
32:41
Speaker 2: privilege had expired, and a notification to that effect was
32:44
Speaker 2: made in the public press of the United States. Persistent
32:48
Speaker 2: efforts were made by the United States to have the
32:50
Speaker 2: privilege extended for another period of ten years, but it
32:54
Speaker 2: was firmly refused by Russia. The British privilege was likewise
32:58
Speaker 2: terminated upon the experts of the ten years mentioned, and
33:02
Speaker 2: this article of the treaty was never again revived. Having
33:06
Speaker 2: reviewed the negotiations preceding the Treaty of eighteen twenty five
33:09
Speaker 2: and examined the provisions of that instrument now in dispute,
33:14
Speaker 2: I passed to a statement of facts since the celebration
33:16
Speaker 2: of the Treaty, showing the views of the high contracting
33:20
Speaker 2: parties and those claiming under them as to the stipulations
33:23
Speaker 2: of that convention, as soon after the treaty as the
33:27
Speaker 2: data could be compiled to wit. In eighteen twenty seven,
33:31
Speaker 2: a map was published in Saint Petersburg by order of
33:36
Speaker 2: His Imperial Majesty, on which the boundary line of the
33:39
Speaker 2: Russian possessions on the continent of North America was drawn
33:43
Speaker 2: from the head of Portland Channel at a distance of
33:46
Speaker 2: ten marine leagues from Tidewater, around the head of all
33:50
Speaker 2: the inlets to the one hundred forty first degree of longitude,
33:53
Speaker 2: and thence following that longitude to the Arctic Ocean. Along
33:58
Speaker 2: this line on the map is inscribed the legend lemite
34:01
Speaker 2: possion rousse ej angres ta pre la trete de miluit
34:06
Speaker 2: Saint vincing so far from this map exciting any protest
34:10
Speaker 2: or criticism. Its delineation was adopted and followed by the
34:14
Speaker 2: cartographers of his Britannic Majesty of the Government of Canada,
34:19
Speaker 2: and by all the map makers of the world. John Arrowsmith,
34:23
Speaker 2: the most authoritative cartographer of London, whose map was used
34:27
Speaker 2: by the British negotiators of the Treaty of eighteen twenty five,
34:30
Speaker 2: published a map of the Northwest Coast in eighteen thirty two,
34:34
Speaker 2: which states that it contains the latest information which the
34:38
Speaker 2: documents of the Hudson's Bay Company furnish.
34:41
Speaker 3: It will be seen that it.
34:42
Speaker 2: Exactly follows the line laid down by the Russian Imperial
34:46
Speaker 2: Map of eighteen twenty seven. Aerosmith's map was preceded in
34:50
Speaker 2: eighteen thirty one by a map of the northern part
34:54
Speaker 2: of North America prepared by Joseph Bouchett, Deputy Surveyor General
34:59
Speaker 2: of the Province of Lower Canada, and published as the
35:03
Speaker 2: Act Directs by James Wilde, geographer to the King London,
35:07
Speaker 2: made second eighteen thirty one. It is with His Majesty's
35:13
Speaker 2: most gracious and special permission, most humbly and gratefully dedicated
35:17
Speaker 2: to His most excellent Majesty, King William the Fourth. Compiled
35:22
Speaker 2: from the latest and most approved astronomical observations authorities and
35:27
Speaker 2: recent surveys, this map traces the Russian boundary on the
35:31
Speaker 2: continent in conformity to the Russian Imperial Map of eighteen
35:35
Speaker 2: twenty seven, and all later publications, either official or unofficial,
35:40
Speaker 2: of Canada followed the same course, as illustrative of which
35:44
Speaker 2: I reproduce the map which bears the following title. Map
35:48
Speaker 2: of the Northwest part of Canada, Indian Territories and Hudson's Bay,
35:53
Speaker 2: compiled and drawn by Thomas Divine, Provincial Land Surveyor and Draftsman,
35:58
Speaker 2: by order of the eye Honorable Joseph Kauchon, Commissioner of
36:03
Speaker 2: Crown Lands, Crown Department, Toronto, March eighteen fifty seven.
36:08
Speaker 3: So far as I.
36:09
Speaker 2: Have been able to examine, the map makers of all
36:13
Speaker 2: foreign countries followed the boundary line drawn by Russia in
36:16
Speaker 2: eighteen twenty seven. This was notably the case with the
36:20
Speaker 2: French cartographers, who have held a high place in the
36:23
Speaker 2: profession for accuracy and authenticity. From the great number of publications,
36:29
Speaker 2: I have selected one which appeared in eighteen forty four,
36:34
Speaker 2: first because it was based upon the actual observations of
36:37
Speaker 2: a voyage of exploration made by a French official, and
36:40
Speaker 2: second because it was published by order of the King
36:43
Speaker 2: under the auspices of the President of the Council of
36:47
Speaker 2: Ministers and of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It will
36:51
Speaker 2: be seen that on this map has inscribed the line
36:54
Speaker 2: of the Trete entre la Russi a l'angretaire du then
36:59
Speaker 2: where Miluit Vansink, as indicated on the Russian Imperial Map.
37:05
Speaker 2: No map accompanied the Treaty of eighteen sixty seven between
37:08
Speaker 2: Russia and the United States for the Session of Alaska,
37:12
Speaker 2: but immediately after it was signed, the Secretary of State
37:16
Speaker 2: caused a map to be compiled and published to indicate
37:18
Speaker 2: the territory acquired by that convention, and it delineates the
37:22
Speaker 2: strip of territory on the mainland, just as it had
37:26
Speaker 2: been claimed.
37:26
Speaker 3: By Russia forty years before.
37:29
Speaker 2: A multitude of maps might be reproduced to show that,
37:32
Speaker 2: with the exception of certain maps published in British Columbia
37:36
Speaker 2: in and after eighteen eighty four. All such publications, whether
37:40
Speaker 2: emanating from British and Canadian or from disinterested foreign sources,
37:45
Speaker 2: from the time the Treaty of eighteen twenty five became
37:48
Speaker 2: known up to the meeting of the Joint High Commission
37:51
Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety eight, were of the same character as
37:55
Speaker 2: those already described and reproduced. But I will limit myself
37:59
Speaker 2: to one of the most This was published in the
38:02
Speaker 2: Scottish geographical magazine Edinburgh, the July number eighteen ninety eight,
38:08
Speaker 2: to accompany an article entitled the Yukon District by William Ogilvie,
38:13
Speaker 2: Astronomer and land surveyor. This map, it will be seen,
38:18
Speaker 2: lays down the line according to the American claim. It
38:21
Speaker 2: is not cited to establish any authoritative fact, but simply
38:25
Speaker 2: to show that even after the Joint High Commission had
38:28
Speaker 2: been agreed upon, the best informed British cartographers had not
38:33
Speaker 2: become aware of any conflicting claim. Soon after the expiration
38:37
Speaker 2: of the ten years privilege enjoyed by British vessels and
38:40
Speaker 2: traders to visit the inland seas, the gulfs, havens and
38:43
Speaker 2: creeks enclosed by the Russian strip on the mainland, an
38:47
Speaker 2: important event occurred which is decisive of the interpretation of
38:51
Speaker 2: the treaty given to it by the two nations who
38:54
Speaker 2: were the contracting parties. I have referred to the two
38:57
Speaker 2: competing trading companies in whose intro the negotiations were carried on,
39:02
Speaker 2: and for whose benefit mainly the treaty was made. The
39:05
Speaker 2: Russian American Company, which was the virtual government of the
39:09
Speaker 2: territory of Russian America, is described by Bancroft in his
39:14
Speaker 2: History of Alaska as a powerful monopoly firmly established in
39:19
Speaker 2: the favor of the Imperial government, many nobles of high
39:23
Speaker 2: rank and several members of the royal family being among
39:26
Speaker 2: its shareholders. The correspondence shows that the Russian negotiators were
39:31
Speaker 2: chiefly concerned to so frame the treaty as to meet
39:34
Speaker 2: the wishes of the representatives of this company, which was
39:37
Speaker 2: an intimate conference with them at Saint Petersburg. The Hudson's
39:42
Speaker 2: Bay Company is so conspicuous a part of the history
39:45
Speaker 2: of British North America that I need hardly refer to
39:48
Speaker 2: its part in the government and development of that vast
39:51
Speaker 2: region of our continent. At the date of the negotiations,
39:55
Speaker 2: it had recently absorbed its rival, the Northwest Company, and
39:59
Speaker 2: it was at the height of its power and influence.
40:02
Speaker 2: It was the only representative of British authority in all
40:05
Speaker 2: the region west and north of the Providence of Ontario.
40:09
Speaker 2: At that date, and for several years after the middle
40:12
Speaker 2: of the present century. The British negotiators of the Treaty
40:16
Speaker 2: of eighteen twenty five were influenced almost entirely in their
40:19
Speaker 2: negotiations by the views and interests of this company. Its
40:23
Speaker 2: representatives were in constant communication with Secretary Canning, by personal
40:28
Speaker 2: interviews and by letters. The boundary line which they recommended
40:32
Speaker 2: was accepted and urged by the British government, and when
40:35
Speaker 2: negotiations were broken off, they were not resumed till this
40:39
Speaker 2: company was heard from and its views were again adopted
40:43
Speaker 2: and pressed.
40:44
Speaker 3: It is safe to assert.
40:46
Speaker 2: That no one understood so well as the officials of
40:48
Speaker 2: these two companies the territorial rights of their respective governments
40:52
Speaker 2: and subjects secured by the Treaty. A British vessel in
40:56
Speaker 2: the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Dryad, reached
41:00
Speaker 2: the Russian post of Fort Wrangel, destined, as it was
41:04
Speaker 2: alleged for the British territory in the interior. At the
41:08
Speaker 2: headwaters of the Stikine River, the vessel was detained and
41:12
Speaker 2: not allowed to proceed on its voyage. The British government
41:16
Speaker 2: protested to the Russian government and presented to it a
41:19
Speaker 2: large claim for damages. The Russian government, being hard pressed
41:23
Speaker 2: by the British minister, urged the Russian American Company to
41:27
Speaker 2: come to some settlement with the Hudson's Bay Company, and
41:30
Speaker 2: thereupon the governor of the latter and one of the
41:32
Speaker 2: directors of the former company, with the express authorization of
41:36
Speaker 2: the two governments, meten Hamburg in eighteen thirty nine. As
41:41
Speaker 2: a result of their conferences, the Russian American Company agreed
41:46
Speaker 2: to lease to the Hudson's Bay Company the strip of
41:49
Speaker 2: territory on the mainland and all the bays, inlets, estuaries,
41:53
Speaker 2: rivers or lakes in that line of coast secured to
41:56
Speaker 2: Russia under the treaty, in consideration of the abandonment or
42:01
Speaker 2: satisfaction of the claim for damages on account of the dryad,
42:04
Speaker 2: and also of an annual payment by the Hudson's Bay Company.
42:09
Speaker 2: This lease was approved by both the Russian and British Governments,
42:12
Speaker 2: and in accordance with its terms, the Hudson's Bay Company
42:16
Speaker 2: entered upon and occupied the strip of territory, and at
42:19
Speaker 2: the expiration of the term of years stated the lease was,
42:23
Speaker 2: with the approval of the two governments, extended for another
42:27
Speaker 2: like term, and afterwards prolonged to about eighteen sixty five.
42:32
Speaker 2: The planipotentiary on behalf of Great Britain and the Hudson's
42:36
Speaker 2: Bay Company who negotiated and signed this lease was Sir
42:39
Speaker 2: George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had
42:43
Speaker 2: assumed that office five years before the Treaty of eighteen
42:46
Speaker 2: twenty five. He was fully conversant with the negotiations, and,
42:50
Speaker 2: as he testified before the Parliamentary Committee, was familiar with
42:54
Speaker 2: the least strip of territory, having traveled over it in
42:57
Speaker 2: the course of his duties as governor. The language of
43:01
Speaker 2: the lease is sufficiently explicit as to the particular territory
43:04
Speaker 2: and waters to which it applied, But we have.
43:07
Speaker 3: An addition, an.
43:08
Speaker 2: Authoritative ocular proof of what land and water this lease
43:12
Speaker 2: embraced end of section two, section three of the National
43:24
Speaker 2: Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November eighteen ninety nine. This is
43:29
Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
43:33
Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
43:37
Speaker 2: Read by Melissa Marie The Alaskan Boundary by Honorable John W.
43:43
Speaker 3: Foster.
43:45
Speaker 2: In eighteen fifty seven, a select Committee of the House
43:48
Speaker 2: of Commons of the British Parliament was appointed to consider
43:51
Speaker 2: the state of those British possessions in North America which
43:55
Speaker 2: are under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company or
43:58
Speaker 2: over which they possess license of trade. Among the members
44:03
Speaker 2: of this committee are found the names of Lord John Russell,
44:06
Speaker 2: Lord Stanley, Mister Roebuck, and Mister Gladstone. Another member was
44:11
Speaker 2: mister Ellis, a native of Canada and a director of
44:14
Speaker 2: the Hudson's Bay Company. There was also an attendance on
44:18
Speaker 2: the sessions of the committee as a representative of the
44:21
Speaker 2: Government of Canada. Chief Justice Draper of Canada, Sir George Simpson,
44:26
Speaker 2: was examined before this committee and was questioned in detail
44:30
Speaker 2: respecting the lease and his testimony confirms the foregoing statement.
44:35
Speaker 2: To explain and accompany his testimony, he exhibited to the
44:38
Speaker 2: committee a map of the territory in question, and said,
44:42
Speaker 2: there is a margin of coast marked yellow on the
44:45
Speaker 2: map from fifty four degrees forty minutes up to Cross Sound,
44:49
Speaker 2: which we have rented from the Russian American Company for
44:52
Speaker 2: a term of years. And he proceeded at some length
44:56
Speaker 2: to explain the territory and the reasons for the lease.
45:00
Speaker 2: No question was raised by any member of the Committee
45:03
Speaker 2: or by the Representative of Canada as to the validity
45:06
Speaker 2: of the lease or to the correctness of the map,
45:09
Speaker 2: which was printed as part of the report submitted to Parliament.
45:13
Speaker 2: An examination of this map will show that the least
45:16
Speaker 2: strip of territory is continuous and is carried around all
45:20
Speaker 2: the inlets and interior waters, in conformity with the present
45:24
Speaker 2: claim of the United States.
45:26
Speaker 3: This lease was followed by.
45:28
Speaker 2: Another act on the part of the two governments confirming
45:31
Speaker 2: their approval of the transaction. During the Crimean War, at
45:35
Speaker 2: the request of the two companies, the territory embraced in
45:39
Speaker 2: the lease was, by order of both the British and
45:42
Speaker 2: Russian governments, exempt from the operations of the war. This
45:47
Speaker 2: fact is shown by the Alaska Archives and by the
45:50
Speaker 2: testimony of Sir George Simpson before the Parliamentary Committee. About
45:56
Speaker 2: the time of the session of Alaska to the United States,
45:59
Speaker 2: gold was discovered in the Cassier region of British Columbia,
46:02
Speaker 2: reached through the Sticcaine River, and the passage of miners
46:05
Speaker 2: made it desirable to have the eastern boundary of the
46:08
Speaker 2: strip where it crosses that river more accurately marked, and
46:12
Speaker 2: this led to a movement in eighteen seventy three to
46:15
Speaker 2: four on the part of the British and United States
46:18
Speaker 2: governments for a joint survey of the boundary. In a
46:22
Speaker 2: conference at Washington February fifteenth, eighteen seventy three, between Secretary
46:29
Speaker 2: Fish and the British Minister, Sir Edward Thornton, it was
46:33
Speaker 2: stated by mister Fish that a survey of the entire boundary,
46:36
Speaker 2: as estimated by the engineers, would cost for the United
46:40
Speaker 2: States alone about one million, five hundred thousand dollars, and
46:45
Speaker 2: it was suggested that it would be found sufficient to
46:48
Speaker 2: fix the boundary at certain determined points, and there were
46:51
Speaker 2: named the head of Portland Canal, the point where the
46:55
Speaker 2: boundary line crosses the rivers Scoot Staquin, Takou, Iselcas and Chilcat,
47:02
Speaker 2: Mount Saint Elias Et cetera. The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia,
47:07
Speaker 2: in petitioning the Canadian government for a survey, refers to
47:11
Speaker 2: it as the boundary of the thirty mile belt of
47:14
Speaker 2: American territory. Sir Edward Thornton communicated to the Foreign Office
47:20
Speaker 2: the result of his conference with Secretary Fish, and it
47:23
Speaker 2: was then submitted through the Colonial Office to the Canadian Government,
47:27
Speaker 2: by whom it was referred to the Surveyor, General Dennis,
47:31
Speaker 2: who reported favorably upon the plan. He restated the points
47:35
Speaker 2: to be determined and enumerates the rivers Scoot, Stachin, tacou
47:40
Speaker 2: Izelcat and Chilcot, and says that, in his opinion, it
47:45
Speaker 2: is unnecessary at present, and it may be for all
47:48
Speaker 2: time to incur the expense of any other survey than
47:52
Speaker 2: that named. It was thereupon determined that such a joint
47:56
Speaker 2: survey should be made, the total cost of which the
47:59
Speaker 2: British Boundary Commissioner Major Cameron estimated might reach two million,
48:04
Speaker 2: two hundred thirty thousand dollars. The plan was not at
48:08
Speaker 2: that time carried into execution because of the failure of
48:11
Speaker 2: the United States Congress to vote the appropriation. This fact
48:16
Speaker 2: is cited to show that in eighteen seventy two to three,
48:19
Speaker 2: the British and Canadian officials understood that the eastern boundary
48:23
Speaker 2: of the Strip crossed the rivers named at some point
48:26
Speaker 2: above their mouths, which are at the head of inlets,
48:30
Speaker 2: including Lynn Canal, and that the boundary could not therefore
48:34
Speaker 2: cross any of these inlets. In eighteen seventy six, a
48:37
Speaker 2: Canadian official was conducting one Peter Martin, charged with some
48:42
Speaker 2: offense from Canadian territory across the strip of American territory
48:46
Speaker 2: traversed by the Stikine River. Having camped for the night
48:50
Speaker 2: at a point thirteen miles above the mouth of the river, Martin,
48:54
Speaker 2: in an attempt to escape, committed an assault on the officer,
48:58
Speaker 2: for which, on his arrival at Victoria b C. He
49:02
Speaker 2: was tried and condemned to imprisonment. Martin complained to the
49:06
Speaker 2: consul that he was an American citizen, and the Secretary
49:10
Speaker 2: of State presented the case to the British government. A
49:13
Speaker 2: surveyor was dispatched by the Canadian government to the Sticicine
49:17
Speaker 2: River to locate the exact spot of the assault, which
49:20
Speaker 2: he reported to be in United States territory. Under the
49:23
Speaker 2: Treaty of eighteen twenty five. Thereupon, the Canadian Privy Council,
49:28
Speaker 2: following the indication of the British Foreign Office, decided that
49:32
Speaker 2: as the offense for which Martin was convicted was committed
49:35
Speaker 2: in American territory, he must be released, and he was
49:39
Speaker 2: accordingly set at liberty. A further indication of the views
49:44
Speaker 2: of the British government respecting the boundary line of the
49:47
Speaker 2: strip is found in the action of the two governments
49:50
Speaker 2: in agreeing upon a provisional line on the Stikine River.
49:53
Speaker 2: In eighteen seventy eight, the Canadian and American customs outposts
49:58
Speaker 2: on that river came in conflict in the vicinity of
50:00
Speaker 2: a point approximately thirty miles in a straight line from
50:04
Speaker 2: its mouth, and caused considerable friction. The Canadian government dispatched
50:09
Speaker 2: a surveyor on its own account to survey the river
50:12
Speaker 2: and fix a boundary line. He having been supplied with
50:15
Speaker 2: the text of Articles three and four of the Treaty
50:18
Speaker 2: of eighteen twenty five, he made his report and claimed
50:22
Speaker 2: to have found a range of mountains filling the requirements
50:25
Speaker 2: of the treaty at a point which crossed the river
50:27
Speaker 2: about twenty five miles above its mouth, or about twenty
50:31
Speaker 2: miles in a straight line from the coast.
50:34
Speaker 3: A copy of this report.
50:35
Speaker 2: And accompanying map were sent through the British Foreign Office
50:39
Speaker 2: to the Minister at Washington, by whom it was submitted
50:42
Speaker 2: to the Secretary of State with a view to securing
50:45
Speaker 2: his acceptance of this boundary, and Secretary Everts, consented to
50:50
Speaker 2: accept it as a provisional line without prejudice to the
50:53
Speaker 2: rights of the parties when the permanent boundary came to
50:56
Speaker 2: be fixed. The foregoing citations show that when whenever the
51:00
Speaker 2: British Government or those holding interests under it, have had
51:04
Speaker 2: occasion to express their views as to the strip of
51:06
Speaker 2: territory secured to Russia under the Treaty of eighteen twenty five,
51:10
Speaker 2: they have made it plain that they regarded it as
51:13
Speaker 2: an unbroken strip on the mainland following around the inlets
51:17
Speaker 2: of the sea, and that the interior waters enclosed in
51:20
Speaker 2: such a strip were Russian or American territorial waters. When
51:26
Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty two, the Duke of Wellington was about
51:29
Speaker 2: to depart as the British plenipotentiary to the International Congress
51:34
Speaker 2: of Verona, he carried with him an instruction from Secretary
51:38
Speaker 2: Canning to bring the protest of his government against the
51:41
Speaker 2: UKUS of eighteen twenty one to the attention of the
51:45
Speaker 2: Russian plenipotentiaries at that Congress. After obtaining the opinion of
51:50
Speaker 2: the great English lawyer, Lord Stowell, he wrote, Enlightened statesmen
51:55
Speaker 2: and jurists have long held as insignificant all titles of
51:59
Speaker 2: terror that are not founded on actual occupation, And that
52:04
Speaker 2: title is, in the opinion of the most esteemed writers
52:07
Speaker 2: on public law, to be established by practical use. There
52:12
Speaker 2: is no claim or pretense that the British authorities or
52:15
Speaker 2: subjects ever occupied any of the territory now in dispute,
52:19
Speaker 2: except under the lease sighted, or ever exercised or attempted
52:23
Speaker 2: to exercise any acts of sovereignty over the strip of
52:26
Speaker 2: waters enclosed by it. On the other hand, let us
52:30
Speaker 2: examine the acts of occupation and sovereignty exercised by Russia
52:34
Speaker 2: and the United States. First, we have seen that very
52:38
Speaker 2: soon after the Treaty of eighteen twenty five, the Russian
52:41
Speaker 2: government published a map claiming the strip of territory and
52:45
Speaker 2: all the interior waters of the sea enclosed by it. Second,
52:49
Speaker 2: the Russian American Company established forts and trading posts within
52:53
Speaker 2: the strip. Third, by virtue of the lease sighted, which
52:57
Speaker 2: was a recognized assertion of its sovereignty, it temporarily transferred
53:02
Speaker 2: these forts and posts to the British Company. Fourth, at
53:05
Speaker 2: the termination of the extended lease, it re entered and
53:09
Speaker 2: took possession, and remained in possession till the Session of
53:12
Speaker 2: Alaska to the United States. Fifth, it received the allegiance
53:17
Speaker 2: of the Native Indians inhabiting the strip and exercised control
53:21
Speaker 2: and supervision over them. Sixth, immediately after the session in
53:26
Speaker 2: eighteen sixty seven, the Department of State of the United
53:30
Speaker 2: States likewise caused a map to be published setting forth
53:34
Speaker 2: the bounds of Alaska in accordance with the Treaty of
53:37
Speaker 2: eighteen twenty five, and the same claim as to the
53:40
Speaker 2: strip was thereon made as by Russia in its map
53:43
Speaker 2: of eighteen twenty seven. Seventh, upon the transfer of Alaska,
53:48
Speaker 2: a portion of the United States Army was dispatched to
53:51
Speaker 2: occupy the territory, and a detachment was stationed for some
53:55
Speaker 2: time on the strip of the mainland. Eighth. Since the session,
54:00
Speaker 2: post offices and post routes have been established and maintained
54:04
Speaker 2: at various points on the Strip. Ninth, custom houses have
54:08
Speaker 2: likewise been established and duties collected therein. Tenth, government and
54:14
Speaker 2: mission schools have been maintained, and notably so for near
54:17
Speaker 2: twenty years at the head of Lynn Canal. Eleventh, the
54:22
Speaker 2: revenue vessels of the United States have continuously, since the
54:25
Speaker 2: date of the Session patrolled the interior waters surrounded by
54:29
Speaker 2: the Strip to enforce the revenue and other laws of
54:32
Speaker 2: the United States.
54:34
Speaker 3: Twelve.
54:35
Speaker 2: The naval and revenue vessels of the United States have,
54:38
Speaker 2: for the same period exercised acts of sovereignty over the
54:42
Speaker 2: Indian tribes inhabiting the Strip, especially about the head of
54:46
Speaker 2: Lynn Canal, and the latter have yielded unquestioned allegiance to
54:50
Speaker 2: the United States.
54:52
Speaker 3: Thirteen.
54:53
Speaker 2: In the census of eighteen eighty and eighteen ninety, all
54:57
Speaker 2: the Indian tribes inhabiting the Strip were included in the
55:00
Speaker 2: population of the United States and so published in the
55:04
Speaker 2: official reports.
55:06
Speaker 3: Fourteen.
55:07
Speaker 2: The Territorial government of Alaska has exercised various and repeated
55:11
Speaker 2: acts of sovereignty over the Strip and interior waters enclosed
55:15
Speaker 2: by it, and the writs of the United States Courts
55:19
Speaker 2: have run throughout its whole extent fifteen, under the territorial
55:24
Speaker 2: claim of the United States and the protection of the government,
55:27
Speaker 2: citizens of the United States have entered and occupied the strip,
55:31
Speaker 2: built cities and towns, and established industrial enterprises thereon. All
55:36
Speaker 2: the foregoing acts have taken place without a single protest
55:40
Speaker 2: or complaint on the part of the British or Canadian governments,
55:43
Speaker 2: except that some friction has occurred between the Custom's outposts
55:47
Speaker 2: as to the exact demarcation of the eastern line of
55:50
Speaker 2: the Strip. For the first time, a statement was presented
55:54
Speaker 2: by the British government to the Government of the United
55:57
Speaker 2: States on the first of August eighteen ninety eight, developing
56:01
Speaker 2: the fact that a difference of views existed respecting the
56:04
Speaker 2: provisions of the Treaty of eighteen twenty five relating to
56:08
Speaker 2: the strip of territory and the waters embraced by it.
56:11
Speaker 2: Two months previous, an agreement had been reached between the
56:15
Speaker 2: two governments for the appointment of a joint Commission for
56:18
Speaker 2: the adjustment of pending questions of difference between the United
56:22
Speaker 2: States and Canada. Soon after the Commission met at Quebec
56:27
Speaker 2: on August twenty third, eighteen ninety eight, it was made
56:30
Speaker 2: known for the first time that the British government would
56:33
Speaker 2: claim that the boundary line should run from the extremity
56:36
Speaker 2: of Prince of Wales Island along the passage known on
56:40
Speaker 2: modern maps as Pierce Canal to the head of Portland Canal,
56:44
Speaker 2: thence directly to the coast, and follow the nearest mountains
56:48
Speaker 2: to the coast, crossing all the inlets of the sea
56:51
Speaker 2: up to Mount Saint Elias. Such a line would give
56:54
Speaker 2: the United States a strip of an average width of
56:57
Speaker 2: less than five miles, broken at short intervals by the
57:01
Speaker 2: arms of the sea, and would transfer the greater portion
57:04
Speaker 2: of all the inlets to British territory. As the Canadian Government,
57:09
Speaker 2: with the consent of the British Foreign Office, has made
57:12
Speaker 2: public the Protocol or official Journal of that Joint High
57:16
Speaker 2: Commission showing the result of its deliberations on the boundary,
57:21
Speaker 2: I violate no diplomatic propriety in referring to these facts.
57:25
Speaker 2: The protocol shows that after sessions of several months, the
57:29
Speaker 2: commissioners were unable to agree in a failure of concurrence
57:34
Speaker 2: as to the language of the Treaty of eighteen twenty five.
57:37
Speaker 2: One of the two methods of adjustment was proposed by
57:40
Speaker 2: the British Commissioners. The first was a conventional boundary by
57:44
Speaker 2: which Canada should receive by session or perpetual grant Pyramid Harbor,
57:50
Speaker 2: Online Canal, and a strip of land connecting it with
57:54
Speaker 2: Canadian territory to the northwest, and the remaining boundary line
57:59
Speaker 2: to be drawn in in the main conformable to the
58:02
Speaker 2: contention of the United States. The American Commissioners not being
58:07
Speaker 2: prepared to accept this proposition, the alternative was submitted by
58:11
Speaker 2: the British Commissioners of an arbitration of the whole territory
58:15
Speaker 2: in dispute in conformity with the terms of the Venezuelan arbitration,
58:20
Speaker 2: and in response to an inquiry from their American colleagues
58:24
Speaker 2: whether the selection of an umpire from the American continent
58:27
Speaker 2: would be considered, the British Commissioners replied that they would
58:31
Speaker 2: regard such a selection as most objectionable. The American Commissioners
58:37
Speaker 2: declined the British plan of arbitration and stated that there
58:41
Speaker 2: was no analogy between the present controversy and the Venezuelan dispute,
58:46
Speaker 2: that in the latter case, the occupation of the territory
58:49
Speaker 2: in question had from the beginning been followed by the
58:52
Speaker 2: constant and repeated protests and objections of Venezuela, and the
58:56
Speaker 2: controversy was one of long standing, but that in the
59:01
Speaker 2: case of the Alaskan Territory, there had been a peaceful
59:04
Speaker 2: and undisputed occupation and exercise of sovereignty for more than
59:08
Speaker 2: seventy years, and that no question respecting this occupation and
59:12
Speaker 2: sovereignty had been raised by the British government until the
59:16
Speaker 2: present Commission had been created. They challenged their British colleagues
59:21
Speaker 2: to cite a single instance in history where a subject
59:23
Speaker 2: attended with such circumstances had been submitted to arbitration, And
59:29
Speaker 2: in declining the British proposition, they proposed the plan of
59:32
Speaker 2: Settlement which had been framed by Secretary Olney and Sir
59:37
Speaker 2: Julia Pounce Vote in eighteen ninety seven. The treaty which
59:41
Speaker 2: these two distinguished statesmen framed so carefully, marked the most
59:46
Speaker 2: advanced stage yet attained for the peaceful settlement of international
59:50
Speaker 2: questions not susceptible of adjustment by diplomatic negotiation, And that
59:55
Speaker 2: convention drafted with a view to consecrating by treaty the
59:59
Speaker 2: princip of international arbitration.
1:00:02
Speaker 3: They provided that all.
1:00:03
Speaker 2: Such questions should be submitted to arbitrators and an umpire,
1:00:08
Speaker 2: except territorial claims. They recognized that territorial questions affected so
1:00:15
Speaker 2: vitally the sovereignty and honor of nations that as to them,
1:00:19
Speaker 2: a different method was necessary, and they provided that these
1:00:23
Speaker 2: should be submitted to a tribunal of three judges of
1:00:26
Speaker 2: the highest standing in each country, and that a binding
1:00:30
Speaker 2: decision could only be rendered by a vote of five
1:00:33
Speaker 2: of the six judges. The American Commissioners embodied this plan
1:00:38
Speaker 2: in their proposition for the settlement of the Alaskan Boundary Dispute,
1:00:42
Speaker 2: with the modification that a binding decision might be rendered
1:00:46
Speaker 2: by four of the six judges. This proposition was rejected
1:00:50
Speaker 2: by the British Commissioners, and no other plan being brought forward.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: The Joint High Commission adjourned with the understanding that the
1:00:59
Speaker 2: boundary question should be referred back to the two governments
1:01:02
Speaker 2: for further diplomatic negotiations. End of section three.
1:01:14
Speaker 4: Section four of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November
1:01:20
Speaker 4: eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
1:01:24
Speaker 4: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
1:01:28
Speaker 4: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Greg Giordano, Newport, Ritchie, Florida.
1:01:37
Speaker 4: Life on a Yukon Trail by Alfred Pearce Dennis PhD.
1:01:44
Speaker 4: Continued from the October number. On Saturday, April nine, forty
1:01:50
Speaker 4: two days after our departure from Southern British Columbia, actual
1:01:55
Speaker 4: work was begun on the railway survey. The experience of
1:01:59
Speaker 4: snowshoeing ten or twelve miles with the day's work thrown
1:02:03
Speaker 4: in between, was trying at first. Any One who has
1:02:07
Speaker 4: worked on snow shoes can estimate the labor of moving
1:02:10
Speaker 4: that distance over rotten snow. The crust yields at every plunge,
1:02:16
Speaker 4: and many pounds of snow pour in upon the shoes
1:02:19
Speaker 4: like loose gravel. The dead weight must be lifted when
1:02:23
Speaker 4: the shoe is withdrawn above the crust for the next step.
1:02:26
Speaker 4: The strain tells severely upon the back in the adductor
1:02:30
Speaker 4: muscles of the lower limbs about five p m. Actual
1:02:34
Speaker 4: work on the line ordinarily ceased, but the return to
1:02:38
Speaker 4: camp would not infrequently require as much as three hours.
1:02:44
Speaker 4: And one of these outings had happened that the line
1:02:47
Speaker 4: lay along a sunny slope of the mountain. Everyone's moccasin
1:02:51
Speaker 4: feet got thoroughly soaked. After leaving this genial spot, who
1:02:56
Speaker 4: at moccasins became frozen. The back chainmen and the rod
1:03:00
Speaker 4: men were the first to exhibit signs of human weakness.
1:03:04
Speaker 4: They halted, sat down on a log, and wept with
1:03:08
Speaker 4: pain and vexation. A fire was kindled, and the tearful
1:03:12
Speaker 4: rotaman and weeping back chainmen were thought out. This circumstance
1:03:18
Speaker 4: was regarded as a singularly felicitous one during the remainder
1:03:23
Speaker 4: of our stay in the wilderness, from the standpoint of
1:03:26
Speaker 4: such men as Dan the Axemen, whose sense of humor,
1:03:30
Speaker 4: it seems, had been exquisitely developed. There was always a
1:03:35
Speaker 4: period of reviving spirits after the midday lunches of bacon
1:03:38
Speaker 4: and beans, which Calgary carried on the line in his
1:03:42
Speaker 4: old lard can. But after four or five hours more
1:03:47
Speaker 4: of work, the men would drag into camp about dark,
1:03:50
Speaker 4: one at a time, tired and bedraggled. So the days
1:03:54
Speaker 4: went by one much like another. Toward the first of May,
1:03:59
Speaker 4: it was possible to leave the cumbersome snow shoes and
1:04:02
Speaker 4: camp Plunging through the rapidly sinking snow with low rubber
1:04:06
Speaker 4: shoes and Dutch socks was much less fatiguing, although it
1:04:10
Speaker 4: involved wet garments to the knees. Our survey line was
1:04:15
Speaker 4: completed to the Big Taunton. We ascended this valley to
1:04:19
Speaker 4: the source of the stream in the second divide. Here,
1:04:23
Speaker 4: at an altitude of about two thousand, six hundred feet,
1:04:26
Speaker 4: we crossed the frozen surface of two beautiful lakes, Upper
1:04:30
Speaker 4: and Lower Colquhetsie, crossing the summit. The general direction of
1:04:35
Speaker 4: the water courses lay to the northwest. Launching on the
1:04:39
Speaker 4: Dudidantuya one night float to Inkland and thence down the
1:04:43
Speaker 4: Taku to its mouth near Juneau, Alaska. Indians who professed
1:04:49
Speaker 4: to be familiar with the voyage down the Tacou to
1:04:52
Speaker 4: the coast lived in folorn hovels near the Chelsea River.
1:04:57
Speaker 4: They were not of the Taltan tribe and had no
1:05:00
Speaker 4: dealings with them. All the young bucks of the settlement
1:05:03
Speaker 4: were off on a caribou chase. A withered old man
1:05:07
Speaker 4: who was crouching over some dying embers and is wikiup
1:05:10
Speaker 4: with some grimy clutches, gave us to understand that the
1:05:15
Speaker 4: winter had been a hard one and that salmon were
1:05:17
Speaker 4: expected soon in the Shesley. These Shesley Indians are anthropologically
1:05:24
Speaker 4: of a Mongolian type, with low foreheads, flat noses, and
1:05:29
Speaker 4: brachiocephalice skulls. The principal occupation of the born to drudgery
1:05:34
Speaker 4: women is to neglect fuel for the fires which smolder
1:05:38
Speaker 4: in the wretchedly damp and chili wikiops. No one could
1:05:42
Speaker 4: complain that laundry work was a burden in such a settlement.
1:05:46
Speaker 4: Like the inhabitants of a thingelate rancheria, these people seemed
1:05:52
Speaker 4: to have turned the old Greek and Roman religion of
1:05:55
Speaker 4: external cleanliness into a sin. But if the outward and
1:05:59
Speaker 4: visible signs of sanctity can never take the form of uncleanness,
1:06:03
Speaker 4: certainly the order of sanctity can never again be considered
1:06:07
Speaker 4: a mere figure of speech. Three out of five of
1:06:10
Speaker 4: these miserable creatures seemed to suffer from lung or throat diseases.
1:06:15
Speaker 4: The Stykhin opened on May seventh, two weeks earlier than usual,
1:06:20
Speaker 4: and a week later our mail, which had arrived in
1:06:23
Speaker 4: Glenora by steamboat, was sent into us by a special
1:06:27
Speaker 4: messenger of the company. Most of the letters and papers
1:06:30
Speaker 4: were two months old. It was noticeable that few of
1:06:34
Speaker 4: the men received any letters who invinced any interest in
1:06:37
Speaker 4: the arrival of the mail. One man in the party
1:06:40
Speaker 4: admitted that he had not written to any of his
1:06:43
Speaker 4: home people in the east for nine years, and others
1:06:47
Speaker 4: had allowed several years to pass without writing. By May twenty,
1:06:52
Speaker 4: small light laden parties were slowly pushing along the trail
1:06:56
Speaker 4: toward Teslin Lake, with their entire outfit stowed upon them,
1:07:00
Speaker 4: their dogs backs and upon their own They reported the
1:07:04
Speaker 4: daily arrival of steamers at Glenora, and told of the
1:07:07
Speaker 4: vast accumulation of freight and of the congestion of the Klondikers.
1:07:12
Speaker 4: At that point. Many of these men, it seemed, had
1:07:15
Speaker 4: failed in their attempt to reach Glenora over the ice.
1:07:19
Speaker 4: They had been forced to camp on the river bank
1:07:22
Speaker 4: until the ice broke up. In this situation, their horses,
1:07:26
Speaker 4: on which they had relied on packing their outfits to Tesslon,
1:07:30
Speaker 4: had perished on arrival in Glenora by steamer. The men
1:07:34
Speaker 4: had either sacrificed their provisions and were pushing into the
1:07:38
Speaker 4: Yukon with only a few months stores where else were
1:07:41
Speaker 4: sitting idly by their outfits on the banks of the
1:07:45
Speaker 4: sty kind once swarthy frontiersman was taking in three hundred
1:07:49
Speaker 4: and fifty pounds distributed on the backs of himself, his partner,
1:07:54
Speaker 4: his dog, and his squaw. Others with rude wheelbarrows were
1:07:58
Speaker 4: making five or six miles day with a load of
1:08:01
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty pounds. Usually a well trained dog
1:08:05
Speaker 4: tugged indefatigably in the traces ahead. The narrowness of the
1:08:10
Speaker 4: pathway absolutely excluded any ordinary two wheeled vehicle from the trail.
1:08:15
Speaker 4: The exigencies of the situation brought out some remarkable one
1:08:20
Speaker 4: wheeled concerns. The go devils, to use the technical name
1:08:24
Speaker 4: of these vehicles, were fashioned in the wilderness with only
1:08:28
Speaker 4: an axe and whipsaw as instruments of construction. Thongs of
1:08:32
Speaker 4: buckskin bound the parts together, nails being reserved for future
1:08:37
Speaker 4: use in boat building. Where the center of gravity of
1:08:40
Speaker 4: these go devils was low, two men could balance a
1:08:43
Speaker 4: load of five or six hundred pounds. In the roughest places.
1:08:48
Speaker 4: Men now appeared whose faces were familiar. They were men
1:08:51
Speaker 4: whom we had passed on the river more than three
1:08:53
Speaker 4: months before. These belated wayfarers had an exceedingly rough appearance.
1:08:59
Speaker 4: The venture sure seemed to have particularly attracted the bronze
1:09:02
Speaker 4: beards and barbarosas a tangle of long hair worn in
1:09:07
Speaker 4: poor tears over the ears in an unkempt bushy beard,
1:09:11
Speaker 4: commonly of a reddish hue, half concealed but also strongly
1:09:16
Speaker 4: revealed in all their stern aspects, faces which bore the
1:09:20
Speaker 4: sad traces of hardships, of deprivations, of bitter disappointments. Nearly
1:09:25
Speaker 4: all had tales of losses of provisions through the ice,
1:09:29
Speaker 4: of losses of animals from starvation, of exorbitant transportation rates
1:09:34
Speaker 4: over distances which they had hoped to traverse without financial loss.
1:09:39
Speaker 4: Failure was not more clearly written on the ranks of
1:09:42
Speaker 4: the Grand Army in its retreat through the snows of Moscow.
1:09:46
Speaker 4: These pilgrims to the shrines of Mammon, who longer expressed
1:09:50
Speaker 4: the feverish, fanatical hopes of the inexperienced gold seeker, confidence
1:09:55
Speaker 4: had waned, and they spoke of their mission apologetically and
1:09:59
Speaker 4: not with enthusias chasm. All regretted that they had chosen
1:10:02
Speaker 4: this route, and they told of men who unable to
1:10:06
Speaker 4: take steamer passage were descending the Stichan in small boats
1:10:10
Speaker 4: to make an attempt to reach the Yukon Valley by
1:10:13
Speaker 4: other routes. When naturally asks why these stranded Klondikers did
1:10:18
Speaker 4: not have their outfits packed into Teslon Lake on horses.
1:10:22
Speaker 4: The condition of the trail precluded. This means the minimum
1:10:26
Speaker 4: rates for transportation over the one hundred and fifty mile
1:10:29
Speaker 4: stretch of mountain, forest and swamp was eight hundred dollars
1:10:32
Speaker 4: per ton. Horses were expensive and rarely lasted through the journey.
1:10:37
Speaker 4: Sixty miles of high level trail to a point beyond
1:10:41
Speaker 4: the Schesley River was easily passable for a pack train
1:10:45
Speaker 4: when we left the country, but the region beyond was
1:10:48
Speaker 4: a wild chaos of willow swamps and muskeg morasses, permeated
1:10:53
Speaker 4: with streams of all sizes from tiny rivulets to the
1:10:57
Speaker 4: unfordable Nalen and some places in the lowlands. The ice
1:11:02
Speaker 4: still lay intact beneath the heavy carpet of moss and
1:11:05
Speaker 4: heather as late as the middle of June. But for
1:11:08
Speaker 4: this moss, the swamps would have rapidly dried out under
1:11:11
Speaker 4: the eighteen hours of sunlight, as did the class of
1:11:14
Speaker 4: men met on the trail to the Yukon. They were,
1:11:17
Speaker 4: as a rule rough and commonplace, as might have been expected.
1:11:22
Speaker 4: Nearly all had the outward appearance of desperadoes. Their dress
1:11:26
Speaker 4: contributed to their savage appearance. Wolfskin caps, red mackinaws with
1:11:31
Speaker 4: penitentiary stripes, and yellow blanket lined canvas jackets were most
1:11:37
Speaker 4: in vogue. The award for the most ingeniously bizarre costume
1:11:41
Speaker 4: rightfully belongs to a man from the Paldeus country in Washington,
1:11:46
Speaker 4: attired in a cowl and toga of striped bedtick lined
1:11:50
Speaker 4: with muskrat skins. The wear impartially distributing novelty to the
1:11:55
Speaker 4: eye and malodors to the nose at every stage of
1:11:59
Speaker 4: his progress. Two English actors were encountered who were depending
1:12:03
Speaker 4: upon their voices for means of transportation and making a
1:12:06
Speaker 4: tour of the world. They were stranded on teslaon trail.
1:12:11
Speaker 4: One soon grows familiar with the type of old knockabout
1:12:14
Speaker 4: like Dan the Axemen. In the heart of such a man,
1:12:18
Speaker 4: a good dog supplies much to the place of family, church,
1:12:21
Speaker 4: and state. Such men are not so much immoral as unmoral.
1:12:26
Speaker 4: They are not introspective and harbor no unavailing. Regrets for
1:12:29
Speaker 4: the past were morbid anticipations for the future. Have pleasure
1:12:34
Speaker 4: while you live, say they, for you will be a
1:12:38
Speaker 4: long time dead. During the drudgery of work in the wilderness,
1:12:43
Speaker 4: the mind dwells in complacent reminiscence on some wild bit
1:12:46
Speaker 4: of revelry when last in town, or finally anticipates the
1:12:51
Speaker 4: next opportunity of a squandering a month's wages in one
1:12:54
Speaker 4: night of boisterous bedevelment. The generosity of these men is
1:12:59
Speaker 4: something large larger than any formal rule of moral obligation.
1:13:03
Speaker 4: It extends to the last crust and freely puts life
1:13:05
Speaker 4: in pawn. After the day's work on the line, the
1:13:09
Speaker 4: men would usually gather in the largest of our tents
1:13:12
Speaker 4: for conversation. The talk generally ran to such subjects as
1:13:15
Speaker 4: gains and losses at poker or Pharaoh, the grievances of
1:13:19
Speaker 4: the Cordelaye miners, the scale of wages at butte, or
1:13:24
Speaker 4: personal vicissitudes when dead broke. Occasionally talk drifted to higher themes,
1:13:30
Speaker 4: as when Charlie Collins, who had played a bass horn
1:13:34
Speaker 4: and a fireman's band, ventured on musical discussion, or Jim
1:13:38
Speaker 4: Coyle on literary criticism. Collins remarked one evening that he
1:13:42
Speaker 4: had not been to church since he had picked up
1:13:45
Speaker 4: his knowledge of music. When a man gets to know
1:13:48
Speaker 4: music right, he observed, he can't sit under the bum
1:13:52
Speaker 4: out of singing of a church choir. The sweetest music
1:13:56
Speaker 4: I ever heard, added Calgary, the teamster was the bell
1:14:01
Speaker 4: on the neck of my old lead mare. On the
1:14:03
Speaker 4: Edmonton Trail one Sunday evening, Coyle Literatoor reviewed coolvadis in
1:14:10
Speaker 4: the cook tent. He brought out very prominently the decadent
1:14:15
Speaker 4: institutions of the eternal city under Nero. At the close
1:14:19
Speaker 4: of the recital, Collins, who had listened attentively, remarked that
1:14:23
Speaker 4: Rome under that tough mayre must have been run as
1:14:26
Speaker 4: wide open as Wrangell. We were working one warm June day,
1:14:31
Speaker 4: about four miles from camp, on a surface of wet
1:14:33
Speaker 4: moss and heather and a heavy spruce thicket. The mosquitoes
1:14:37
Speaker 4: had been active for a week, and that day they
1:14:40
Speaker 4: were particularly exasperating. We had no mosquito netting, but everyone
1:14:45
Speaker 4: had swathed neck and face in a cheese cloth fabric
1:14:49
Speaker 4: that had been wound about the bacon. The back flagmen
1:14:52
Speaker 4: and the transit man had just kindled for the twentieth
1:14:55
Speaker 4: time that day smudges to enjoy in the smoke thereof
1:15:00
Speaker 4: a few minutes respite from the tormenting insects. At this
1:15:03
Speaker 4: conjuncture a messenger from Glenora appeared the Proclamation of Emancipation.
1:15:09
Speaker 4: He brought the news that the Canadian government had withdrawn
1:15:12
Speaker 4: its support from the railway project, that the building of
1:15:16
Speaker 4: the road had consequently collapsed, that the engineer corps had
1:15:20
Speaker 4: been ordered out of the country. The next day we
1:15:23
Speaker 4: set out for Glenora. Whence, after a wait of three days,
1:15:28
Speaker 4: during which two of the men expended the earnings of
1:15:32
Speaker 4: more than three months, we took steamer passage down the river.
1:15:36
Speaker 4: It is a pleasant thing to quit this country at
1:15:38
Speaker 4: any time, but particularly so in summer. The month's toilsome
1:15:43
Speaker 4: journey up the river over the ice is retraversed in
1:15:46
Speaker 4: twelve hours by the swift river steamers. The must at
1:15:50
Speaker 4: times outrun a twelve knot current in order to get
1:15:54
Speaker 4: steering way. Some day an artist would take a summer's
1:15:58
Speaker 4: outing in the Stacai, and with pencil and palette, make
1:16:02
Speaker 4: its glaciers famous. It is delightful to sit on the
1:16:05
Speaker 4: upper deck of one of the river steamers in the
1:16:08
Speaker 4: mellow light of evening, and shoot down the swollen stream
1:16:12
Speaker 4: long after the sun is dipped behind the mountains. By
1:16:15
Speaker 4: nine in the evening, the untrodden peaks of the giant
1:16:19
Speaker 4: mountains are still a rosy red. At ten o'clock, in
1:16:23
Speaker 4: an arrested riot of jagged ridge and crest, they stand
1:16:27
Speaker 4: forth distinctly in line in color against the pink skyline.
1:16:32
Speaker 4: Here and there, long granite claws picked clean by glaciers
1:16:37
Speaker 4: of a past age, run down into the lowlands and
1:16:40
Speaker 4: are lost there. But best to be observed are the
1:16:44
Speaker 4: glaciers of the present day. High upon the summits, the
1:16:47
Speaker 4: everlasting snow gleams spotless in the fading light. Lower down
1:16:53
Speaker 4: rise the jagged pinnacles in upheaved billows of the glacier
1:16:57
Speaker 4: itself a study in blue, while low it, and nourished
1:17:01
Speaker 4: by its waters, lies the dark green spruce forest fringing
1:17:05
Speaker 4: the banks of the rushing river. By midnight, detail and
1:17:09
Speaker 4: color are lost in dusky shadows, but the rose colored
1:17:13
Speaker 4: light still lingers. Mayhap before the traveler's eyes as he
1:17:18
Speaker 4: realizes that he is speeding southward to home. And to civilization.
1:17:25
Speaker 5: And of section four, Section five of the National Geographic Magazine,
1:17:37
Speaker 5: Volume ten, November eighteen ninety nine. This is a liprivox recording.
1:17:43
Speaker 5: All the privox recordings are in the public domain. For
1:17:46
Speaker 5: more information ought to volunteer, please visit liprivox dot org.
1:17:50
Speaker 5: Recording by AVAI in December twenty twenty two. The Rational
1:17:56
Speaker 5: Element in Geography by W. M. Davis, Professor of Physical
1:18:01
Speaker 5: Geography in Harvard University. Abundant conference and correspondence with teachers
1:18:08
Speaker 5: of all grades in recent years make it evident that
1:18:12
Speaker 5: the introduction of the causal notion in geography, as McMurray
1:18:16
Speaker 5: has phrased it, is warmly welcomed wherever it is well understood.
1:18:21
Speaker 5: The traditional lists of capes are doubtless still memorized and
1:18:25
Speaker 5: recited in some schools to the exclusion of examples involving
1:18:30
Speaker 5: explanation and correlation as elements of geographical study, but such
1:18:35
Speaker 5: schools do not rouse the pride of progressive superintendence. Enterprising
1:18:40
Speaker 5: teachers are constantly striving toward a more rational treatment of geography,
1:18:46
Speaker 5: and with every advance in their own understanding of its problems,
1:18:50
Speaker 5: empirical statements are replaced by reasonable explanations in their teaching,
1:18:55
Speaker 5: much to the advantage of the scholars. The two chief
1:18:59
Speaker 5: causes of the change now in rapid progress from an
1:19:02
Speaker 5: empirical to a rational geography originated outside of the limits
1:19:07
Speaker 5: of geography proper. One of the causes is the understanding
1:19:12
Speaker 5: of the evolution of landforms that has been contributed by geology.
1:19:16
Speaker 5: The other is the belief in the evolution of organic
1:19:19
Speaker 5: forms contributed by biology. To these must be added the
1:19:24
Speaker 5: better knowledge of meteorology through the application of physics to
1:19:28
Speaker 5: the study of the atmosphere, as well as the results
1:19:31
Speaker 5: of strictly geographical exploration of lands and seas. But all
1:19:36
Speaker 5: this is of secondary importance alongside of the revolution that
1:19:40
Speaker 5: has been worked by the acceptance of inorganic and organic evolution.
1:19:46
Speaker 5: The study of the Earth in relation to man, as
1:19:49
Speaker 5: now illuminated, has become wonderfully more interesting at this end
1:19:53
Speaker 5: of the century than it was in Rita's time in
1:19:56
Speaker 5: the beginning, and we may well believe that the operations
1:20:00
Speaker 5: of the twentieth century will profit greatly by the more
1:20:04
Speaker 5: sympathetic appreciation of nature that geographers will then carry into
1:20:09
Speaker 5: the field. It will not be possible to consider in
1:20:13
Speaker 5: this article any of the organic elements of geography, and
1:20:17
Speaker 5: among the many inorganic elements of the subject, attention can
1:20:21
Speaker 5: now be given only to the lands. The earth as
1:20:25
Speaker 5: a globe, the atmosphere, and the ocean cannot be included. Furthermore,
1:20:31
Speaker 5: only one of the most practical aspects of land study
1:20:34
Speaker 5: will here be touched upon, namely, the art of giving
1:20:38
Speaker 5: an accurate and effective verbal description of landforms, a description
1:20:43
Speaker 5: that shall be at once accurate in representing the essential
1:20:46
Speaker 5: facts of nature and effective in being intelligible to its
1:20:50
Speaker 5: hearers or readers. It is not a simple matter to
1:20:55
Speaker 5: frame a good verbal description of geographical forms. The description
1:21:00
Speaker 5: dous not attempt the impossible, by undertaking to set forth
1:21:03
Speaker 5: facts of form and relief with the fidelity of a
1:21:06
Speaker 5: good model, or by trying to indicate facts of distribution
1:21:11
Speaker 5: as accurately as they are shown on a good map,
1:21:14
Speaker 5: or by seeking to present perspective impressions from a single
1:21:18
Speaker 5: point of view, such as are given in good pictures.
1:21:22
Speaker 5: The patients of the hearer or reader would be sorely
1:21:25
Speaker 5: tried if the perseverance of the speaker or writer tempted
1:21:29
Speaker 5: him to indicate by words the innumerable details that find
1:21:33
Speaker 5: proper expression by plastic, graphic, or pictorial art. Verbal description
1:21:39
Speaker 5: has an object of its own. It must be devoted
1:21:42
Speaker 5: chiefly to summarized facts, whether they are details or generalities,
1:21:47
Speaker 5: and it must deal with new facts by means of
1:21:50
Speaker 5: their likeness or contrast with certain previously known types, whose
1:21:55
Speaker 5: forms serve as the standards upon which descriptive terms are based. Now,
1:22:01
Speaker 5: it is curious that while geographical surveying has a well
1:22:05
Speaker 5: recognized place as a technical art, and while geographical drawing
1:22:09
Speaker 5: and modeling are understood to require well trained skill, there
1:22:14
Speaker 5: has been comparatively little conscious attention given to training students
1:22:18
Speaker 5: in the geographical description of landforms. There can be no
1:22:23
Speaker 5: question that the latter art more generally deserves cultivation than
1:22:27
Speaker 5: the others, for speech is heard and books are read
1:22:30
Speaker 5: upon geographical subjects more often than maps, models, and pictures
1:22:35
Speaker 5: are consulted, Yet practical instruction and exercise in the description
1:22:40
Speaker 5: of landforms are seldom made part of school or college teaching.
1:22:46
Speaker 5: Perhaps it is for this reason that books of travel
1:22:48
Speaker 5: so generally fail to give their readers a clear idea
1:22:52
Speaker 5: of the regions with which they are concerned. As a
1:22:55
Speaker 5: means of correcting this era of omission. Practical exercises should
1:23:00
Speaker 5: be introduced in connection with recitations or lectures in physical
1:23:04
Speaker 5: geography physiography, and serious emphasis should be laid on the
1:23:09
Speaker 5: translation into words of the facts observed, either directly on
1:23:14
Speaker 5: the face of nature during field excursions or upon models,
1:23:18
Speaker 5: maps and pictures in the laboratory. When the attempt is
1:23:23
Speaker 5: made to describe geographical forms in spoken or written language,
1:23:28
Speaker 5: three classes of more or less technical terms may be employed,
1:23:32
Speaker 5: as was shown by Penk in a communication to the
1:23:35
Speaker 5: sixth International Geographical Congress in London eighteen ninety five. One
1:23:42
Speaker 5: class is empirical and well rooted in our language, including
1:23:46
Speaker 5: such nouns as hill and mountain for smaller and larger eminences,
1:23:52
Speaker 5: ridge and value for elongated elevations or depressions, as well
1:23:56
Speaker 5: as many adjectives of geometrical association such as precipitous, steep, rolling, level,
1:24:04
Speaker 5: and so on. Another class introduces phrases suggesting a relation
1:24:09
Speaker 5: between structure and form, and these phrases are all modern,
1:24:13
Speaker 5: such as monoclinical ridge, anti clinical mountain, sinclinical valley, and
1:24:20
Speaker 5: so on. A third class employs terms that imply an
1:24:24
Speaker 5: understanding of the evolution of the forms concerned. And this
1:24:28
Speaker 5: class is the youngest of the three. Here we find
1:24:31
Speaker 5: consequent antecedent and superposed rivers, subsequent and obsequent valleys, maturely
1:24:39
Speaker 5: dissected plateaus, and partly regraded slopes. None of the classes
1:24:45
Speaker 5: contains as many terms as it needs. The first door
1:24:49
Speaker 5: empirical class has the merit of simplicity and safety, and
1:24:53
Speaker 5: some geographers would therefore hold closely to it, as if
1:24:57
Speaker 5: forgetting that such a method of description implies the neglect
1:25:01
Speaker 5: of those mental faculties which have been so successfully employed
1:25:05
Speaker 5: in investigations that make scientific use of the imagination. As
1:25:10
Speaker 5: Tyndall put it, the second or structural class has at
1:25:15
Speaker 5: least a negative merit of not being dangerous, but it
1:25:19
Speaker 5: fails to satisfy the student who has left empiricism in
1:25:23
Speaker 5: search for rationalism in his geographical work. The third, or explanatory,
1:25:29
Speaker 5: rational and genetic class is stimulating to the investigator, but
1:25:34
Speaker 5: it is objected to by conservatives as involving grave risk
1:25:38
Speaker 5: of error because the explanations on which its terms are
1:25:42
Speaker 5: based may be incorrect. It is interesting to inquire which
1:25:46
Speaker 5: of these classes of terms a geographer shall employ in
1:25:50
Speaker 5: his studies, or which a teacher shall use with his scholars.
1:25:56
Speaker 5: The practical worker will at first probably employ some terms
1:25:59
Speaker 5: from all three classes, because he finds no one class
1:26:03
Speaker 5: complete in itself. According to his temperament, he will feel
1:26:07
Speaker 5: a preference for one class or another, and he will
1:26:11
Speaker 5: very likely venture now and then to suggest new terms
1:26:14
Speaker 5: appropriate to his favorite class, if his attention and interest
1:26:18
Speaker 5: are directed closely to a special field of research where
1:26:22
Speaker 5: existing terms are insufficient for his needs. But as soon
1:26:26
Speaker 5: as he begins to use the genetic class, he finds
1:26:29
Speaker 5: that the success of his work is marked by the
1:26:31
Speaker 5: freedom and confidence with which he can use explanatory terms,
1:26:36
Speaker 5: and that just as the greater includes the less, so
1:26:39
Speaker 5: the genetic include the empirical and the structural. The teacher,
1:26:45
Speaker 5: as well as the investigator, will then feel an increasing
1:26:49
Speaker 5: discontent with the blind and dull empirical terms, however safe
1:26:53
Speaker 5: they may be, and with the structural terms, however essential
1:26:58
Speaker 5: they may be, will press forward in the hope that
1:27:02
Speaker 5: all the landforms with which he is concerned may, in
1:27:05
Speaker 5: due time be vouchsafed as full and certain explanatory description,
1:27:10
Speaker 5: as many of them have already received. A double reward
1:27:15
Speaker 5: comes to the teacher who leads his scholars beyond empirical
1:27:18
Speaker 5: description toward rational explanation. A much greater interest is excited
1:27:24
Speaker 5: in geography, as its meaning is found to be richer,
1:27:28
Speaker 5: and soon afterward a greater power of observation is developed
1:27:32
Speaker 5: in response to the discovery of many correlations among the
1:27:35
Speaker 5: elements of landforms that springs from their explanation. Herein lies
1:27:41
Speaker 5: the practical value of a method that may thus far
1:27:44
Speaker 5: seem chiefly theoretical. A concrete case may be illustrated by
1:27:50
Speaker 5: the diagrams on pages four hundred seventy and four hundred
1:27:53
Speaker 5: seventy one. Empirical description will see a narrower and a
1:27:58
Speaker 5: broader canyon of the first consist of cliffs and slopes.
1:28:03
Speaker 5: The walls of the second consist of cliffs, slopes, and platforms.
1:28:08
Speaker 5: No correlation is sought for between structure and form, for
1:28:12
Speaker 5: empirical description does not concern itself with correlations. Structural description
1:28:18
Speaker 5: recognizes a correlation between the horizontal strata of which the
1:28:22
Speaker 5: canyoned plateau is built and the attitude of the belted
1:28:26
Speaker 5: cliffs and slopes in the canyon walls, and between the
1:28:30
Speaker 5: relative resistance of the various layers and their surface expression.
1:28:35
Speaker 5: For the hard strata determine the cliffs and the weaker
1:28:38
Speaker 5: ones determine the slopes. Yet the consideration of structure alone
1:28:43
Speaker 5: will not lead to a just comparison of the two diagrams,
1:28:47
Speaker 5: inasmuch as the structures are alike in both, and the
1:28:51
Speaker 5: forms represented depend on the less development of one and
1:28:55
Speaker 5: the greater development of the other.
1:28:57
Speaker 3: Canyon.
1:28:58
Speaker 5: But structural description takes no account of development or of
1:29:02
Speaker 5: the resulting correlations of form and time. Genetic or explanatory
1:29:09
Speaker 5: description recognizes and employs all that has gone before and
1:29:14
Speaker 5: goes further. The variety of form in the canyon walls
1:29:18
Speaker 5: is seen to be a necessary consequence of the action
1:29:21
Speaker 5: of the weather on horizontal layers of unequal hardness. The
1:29:26
Speaker 5: narrower canyon is soon perceived to be only a younger
1:29:29
Speaker 5: state of the wider one, and the platforms of the
1:29:32
Speaker 5: wider canyon are recognized as characteristic features of an approaching
1:29:37
Speaker 5: maturity of development. Moreover, the platforms are found to be
1:29:42
Speaker 5: systematically placed between the slope from a weaker, faster retreating
1:29:46
Speaker 5: cliff and a stronger cliff next below it, and not
1:29:51
Speaker 5: vice versa. Structure, process, and time are thus all rationally
1:29:56
Speaker 5: correlated with form. And all these elements in tracked most
1:30:00
Speaker 5: suggestively in framing a verbal description. It cannot be doubted
1:30:06
Speaker 5: that a student who has gained an understanding of such
1:30:09
Speaker 5: correlations will give a much better account of forms like
1:30:12
Speaker 5: those here illustrated than one who trusts to observation without explanation.
1:30:19
Speaker 5: Sharp eyed as the student may be, his outer sight
1:30:23
Speaker 5: is greatly aided by his insight. Actively as he may
1:30:27
Speaker 5: traverse his field of work, his path will be determined
1:30:31
Speaker 5: only by a patient endeavor to see everything, unless it
1:30:35
Speaker 5: is guided by a well planned search for critical points.
1:30:39
Speaker 5: Accurate as his notes may be, they run the danger
1:30:42
Speaker 5: of being abundant rather than intelligible if they are empirical
1:30:47
Speaker 5: without being explanatory. And yet, with all the advantages that
1:30:52
Speaker 5: come from successful explanation, the conservative teacher may still hesitate
1:30:57
Speaker 5: to advocate this method of description because of its inherent dangers.
1:31:02
Speaker 5: How then, can its dangers be reduced to so moderate
1:31:06
Speaker 5: a measure that they may be set aside as of
1:31:09
Speaker 5: much less important than its advantages. This question opens the
1:31:13
Speaker 5: whole subject of reform in the teaching of geography. A
1:31:18
Speaker 5: reasonable safety in explanatory description can be attained by well
1:31:23
Speaker 5: taught students who are first practiced on empirical description in
1:31:27
Speaker 5: their elementary work, and who are gradually and systematically led
1:31:32
Speaker 5: forward to an explanatory description based on comprehensive understanding of
1:31:37
Speaker 5: the evolution of landforms. They must be under the direction
1:31:41
Speaker 5: of teachers who have had experience enough in field work
1:31:45
Speaker 5: to recognize, if not to discover, the geographical evolution of
1:31:50
Speaker 5: the home district. Field work must be an essential part
1:31:53
Speaker 5: of instruction in all grades of study, and an equally
1:31:57
Speaker 5: essential part must be a general scheme of geographical classification
1:32:02
Speaker 5: to which the student is gradually introduced and through which
1:32:06
Speaker 5: he may come to appreciate the systematic development of landforms.
1:32:11
Speaker 5: Some idea of the changes that landforms slowly suffer should
1:32:15
Speaker 5: be given with the most elementary teaching. Streams should be
1:32:20
Speaker 5: recognized as not consisting of water alone, but of water
1:32:24
Speaker 5: that bears along the waste of the land. The slow
1:32:27
Speaker 5: crumbling of rocks and the formation of soil under the
1:32:30
Speaker 5: attack of the weather, The slow movement of the soil
1:32:33
Speaker 5: cap by washing and creeping, and the slow changes of
1:32:37
Speaker 5: form that result from weathering and wasting, should all become
1:32:41
Speaker 5: familiar in early school years. A child need not wait
1:32:45
Speaker 5: till he studies chemistry and mineralogy to recognize that iron
1:32:50
Speaker 5: rusts and rocks weather. But when chemistry and mineralogy are
1:32:54
Speaker 5: reached he will gain a fuller understanding of these processes.
1:32:59
Speaker 5: He need not wait for a formal course in geology
1:33:02
Speaker 5: to learn that rock waste, washes and creeps downhill, for
1:33:06
Speaker 5: this topic is as essentially geographical as the movement of rivers,
1:33:11
Speaker 5: ocean currents, and winds. He may very early be convinced
1:33:16
Speaker 5: that the Earth has existed through a long period of time,
1:33:20
Speaker 5: for the changes of form that he soon comes to
1:33:22
Speaker 5: appreciate must have required ages for their accomplishment. Great periods
1:33:28
Speaker 5: of time thus become as familiarly associated with the Earth
1:33:33
Speaker 5: as great distances through space. An excellent introduction to geology
1:33:38
Speaker 5: is thus gained through physical geography, But a true geographical
1:33:43
Speaker 5: flavor is retained by always considering processes of change as
1:33:47
Speaker 5: a means of explaining existing form, rather than an end
1:33:52
Speaker 5: of study in themselves. When the student has grasped the
1:33:57
Speaker 5: idea that existing landforms are the product of changes worked
1:34:01
Speaker 5: by ordinary processes on earlier forms, he should begin the
1:34:05
Speaker 5: systematic study of landforms. The school grade, the school equipment,
1:34:10
Speaker 5: the school surroundings, the textbook, and above all the teacher
1:34:15
Speaker 5: should determine whether this more advanced branch of geography should
1:34:19
Speaker 5: be set forth in one way or another. It may
1:34:23
Speaker 5: be presented inductively, beginning with local examples in the home neighborhood,
1:34:28
Speaker 5: going on through a chosen series of forms illustrated by models,
1:34:33
Speaker 5: maps and pictures, and thus gradually building up broad generalizations
1:34:38
Speaker 5: that will serve as guides for observation, explanation, and description
1:34:42
Speaker 5: in all parts of the world. Or the subject may
1:34:46
Speaker 5: be presented deductively, expanding from simple ideal cases to examples
1:34:52
Speaker 5: of greater and greater complexity, until the systematic scheme embraces
1:34:57
Speaker 5: a wide variety of types, all of which receive verification
1:35:01
Speaker 5: when confronted in due order with examples of actual landforms.
1:35:08
Speaker 5: But in either case the student must go on from
1:35:11
Speaker 5: the simple correlations observed between the minor elements of local
1:35:15
Speaker 5: forms in his elementary study and advance toward much broader
1:35:19
Speaker 5: correlations by which the forms of large areas are brought
1:35:23
Speaker 5: into harmonious association. Systematic geography will thus come to serve
1:35:28
Speaker 5: the same important object as systematic zoology or botany. It
1:35:34
Speaker 5: will provide convenient means of assembling a great body of
1:35:37
Speaker 5: facts in what is believed to be their natural relations,
1:35:41
Speaker 5: and it will devise an accurate terminology by which rational
1:35:46
Speaker 5: and effective description can be given to a vast variety
1:35:49
Speaker 5: of landforms through their likeness to or difference from, many
1:35:54
Speaker 5: standard types. In my own experience, the dominating principle of
1:35:59
Speaker 5: czin systematic geography is that of the geographical cycle, of
1:36:04
Speaker 5: which some account has been given on an early page
1:36:07
Speaker 5: of this magazine, Volume one, eighteen eighty nine, page twenty,
1:36:12
Speaker 5: and in various later articles, and of which a fuller
1:36:15
Speaker 5: statement appears in the current number of the London Geographical Journal.
1:36:21
Speaker 5: With increasing experience in its application, the more comprehensive, powerful,
1:36:26
Speaker 5: and practically useful has the principle of the cycle become.
1:36:31
Speaker 5: It is now an indispensable guide in observation as well
1:36:34
Speaker 5: as description, because it leads off a whole procession of facts,
1:36:39
Speaker 5: marshaling them in good order. From its earliest and most
1:36:43
Speaker 5: general application to consequent streams, it is now extended to
1:36:47
Speaker 5: streams of many kinds, systematically acting on one another in
1:36:52
Speaker 5: the re arrangement of their drainage areas during their progressive
1:36:56
Speaker 5: adjustment to the structures on which they work. The cycle
1:37:00
Speaker 5: accommodates itself easily to the peculiar conditions of arid or
1:37:05
Speaker 5: frigid climates and to the special conditions of the seashore.
1:37:10
Speaker 5: It stimulates the recognition of real homologies. The rudimentary conception
1:37:14
Speaker 5: of land drainage as limited to streams of water has
1:37:18
Speaker 5: thus been expanded so as to include all lines of
1:37:21
Speaker 5: downhill movement, whether of water or waste, and the generalized
1:37:26
Speaker 5: river is thus seen to cover all the surface of
1:37:29
Speaker 5: its basin. A graded condition or profile of equilibrium is
1:37:35
Speaker 5: first attained by the trunk river on areas of weak rocks,
1:37:39
Speaker 5: and last attained by the creeping waste near the divides
1:37:42
Speaker 5: on areas of resistant rocks, and the geological theory of
1:37:47
Speaker 5: evolutionary uniformitarianism receives new support from the correspondence between the
1:37:52
Speaker 5: generalizations thus reached and the facts of nature. However theoretical,
1:37:59
Speaker 5: all this may seem to be. I do not believe
1:38:01
Speaker 5: there is any more practical means of landform study than
1:38:05
Speaker 5: is found in the application of the principles here referred to.
1:38:09
Speaker 5: I earnestly urged teachers of whatever grade to make themselves
1:38:13
Speaker 5: acquainted with the geographical cycle and to introduce its elements
1:38:18
Speaker 5: appropriately in their teaching. End of Section.
1:38:22
Speaker 6: Five, Section six of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten,
1:38:34
Speaker 6: November eighteen ninety nine. This is a libribox recording. All
1:38:38
Speaker 6: librebox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
1:38:42
Speaker 6: or to volunteer, please visit liberbox dot org. Read by
1:38:47
Speaker 6: law obituary on Edward Orton, lld. Less than ninety days ago,
1:38:56
Speaker 6: the sessions of the American Association for the advance of
1:39:00
Speaker 6: Science in Columbus were presided over by the distinguished ex
1:39:05
Speaker 6: President of the Ohio State University, doctor Edward Orton. On
1:39:11
Speaker 6: October sixteen, with only a few hours warning, doctor Orton
1:39:16
Speaker 6: passed away. The place which he had won in the
1:39:19
Speaker 6: scientific world will be hard to fill. Doctor Orton graduated
1:39:24
Speaker 6: from Hamilton College in eighteen forty eight. Since eighteen sixty
1:39:29
Speaker 6: nine he has been State Geologist of Ohio and since
1:39:34
Speaker 6: eighteen seventy three Professor of Geology and for some years
1:39:39
Speaker 6: President of the Ohio State University. Many volumes and reports
1:39:44
Speaker 6: on the geology of Ohio and the natural gas supply
1:39:48
Speaker 6: of the United States are the evidence of his original
1:39:52
Speaker 6: investigations in eighteen ninety seven, he was president of the
1:39:56
Speaker 6: Geological Society of America. In its report of the Columbus Meeting,
1:40:02
Speaker 6: has truly described doctor Orton as a man honored and
1:40:07
Speaker 6: beloved of all. End of Section six.
1:40:17
Speaker 7: Section seven of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November
1:40:22
Speaker 7: eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
1:40:27
Speaker 7: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
1:40:31
Speaker 7: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Larry Wilson,
1:40:38
Speaker 7: National Geographic Society. Owing to the press of his official
1:40:43
Speaker 7: duties as the hydrographer of the U S Geological Survey,
1:40:47
Speaker 7: Mister F. H. Newell has been compelled to resign the
1:40:51
Speaker 7: secretaryship of the National Geographic Society, an office which he
1:40:55
Speaker 7: has so ably and zealously filled during the past two years.
1:41:01
Speaker 7: As an evidence of his efficient management, dating from December
1:41:04
Speaker 7: eighteen ninety seven, it may be stated that the membership
1:41:08
Speaker 7: of the Society has increased from one thousand, three hundred
1:41:12
Speaker 7: to more than two thousand, two hundred, and has received
1:41:15
Speaker 7: an impetus that promises in the near future to greatly
1:41:19
Speaker 7: enlarge that number. Frederick Haynes Newell was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania,
1:41:24
Speaker 7: March fifth, eighteen sixty two. After a course at the
1:41:27
Speaker 7: Common Schools of Needham, Massachusetts, he entered the Massachusetts Institute
1:41:32
Speaker 7: of Technology at Boston, where he graduated with high honors
1:41:36
Speaker 7: as a mining engineer and geologist in eighteen eighty five.
1:41:40
Speaker 7: Several years were passed in miscellaneous engineering in Pennsylvania, Virginia,
1:41:45
Speaker 7: and various sections of the United States. In eighteen eighty
1:41:49
Speaker 7: eight he was appointed hydrographer of the U s Geological Survey,
1:41:53
Speaker 7: a department then formed for the first time. Since then,
1:41:57
Speaker 7: mister Newell has planned and organized the systematic measurement of
1:42:01
Speaker 7: the flow and capacity of many rivers in arid regions
1:42:05
Speaker 7: of the West. Is objective being to ascertain the resources
1:42:09
Speaker 7: of water available for the gradual reclamation of the vast
1:42:13
Speaker 7: tracts of desert land. In other words, a great work
1:42:16
Speaker 7: has been begun and is nearing completion in what mister
1:42:19
Speaker 7: Newell has aptly termed the Annexation of the West. Mister
1:42:24
Speaker 7: Newell is the author of Agriculture by Irrigation, Hydrography of
1:42:29
Speaker 7: the United States, the Public Lands of the United States,
1:42:33
Speaker 7: et cetera. As a successor to mister Neuwell the Society
1:42:37
Speaker 7: has been fortunate in securing the acceptance of the secretaryship
1:42:41
Speaker 7: by mister Joseph Stanley Brown. Mister Stanley Brown needs no
1:42:45
Speaker 7: introduction to geographers. His long connection with the U. S
1:42:50
Speaker 7: Geological Survey and with the Geological Society of America, of
1:42:54
Speaker 7: whose publications and proceedings he is the editor, have made
1:42:58
Speaker 7: him personally acquainted with many geographers and diverse geographic interests
1:43:03
Speaker 7: of the country GHG in the section seven.
1:43:14
Speaker 1: Section eight of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November
1:43:19
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
1:43:24
Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
1:43:27
Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Betty B.
1:43:33
Speaker 1: Geographic Literature Mexico and the United States. A study of
1:43:39
Speaker 1: subjects affecting their political, commercial, and social relations, made with
1:43:44
Speaker 1: a view to their promotion by Matteus Romero Large Octavo
1:43:50
Speaker 1: Page's Roman Numeral thirty five plus seven hundred and fifty nine,
1:43:55
Speaker 1: New York G. P. Putnam Sons, eighteen ninety eight. This
1:43:59
Speaker 1: is it's an exceedingly full handbook of Mexico, prepared by
1:44:03
Speaker 1: the man of all men, most competent to do so,
1:44:07
Speaker 1: the late Minister to the United States. It contains accounts
1:44:11
Speaker 1: of the topography, climate, mining, fauna and flora, people and
1:44:15
Speaker 1: their social condition, industries and trade, government and laws. Chapters
1:44:21
Speaker 1: are devoted to the Mexican Free Zone and to the
1:44:24
Speaker 1: workings of the silver standard in Mexico. The work is
1:44:27
Speaker 1: invaluable as a reference book concerning our sister Republic HG Alaska,
1:44:34
Speaker 1: its history and resources. Goldfields, Roots and Scenery by Minor
1:44:40
Speaker 1: Bruce Octavo, pages two hundred thirty seven with fifty three
1:44:44
Speaker 1: illustrations and maps. Second edition, revised and enlarged, New York, G. P.
1:44:50
Speaker 1: Putnam SUNS eighteen ninety nine. This is a popular compendium
1:44:55
Speaker 1: of information upon Alaska. Written in a rather optimistic tone.
1:45:00
Speaker 1: It includes chapters upon history, topography, climate, agriculture, minerals and timber,
1:45:07
Speaker 1: fisheries and other resources, the Eskimaux and Indians, the work
1:45:11
Speaker 1: of the missionaries, the Roots to the interior, the gold fields.
1:45:16
Speaker 1: Encloses with a chapter of suggestions to prospectors and a
1:45:20
Speaker 1: statement of the boundary dispute. The matter of the book
1:45:23
Speaker 1: is for the most part accurate, although in a region
1:45:26
Speaker 1: in which history is being made so rapidly it is
1:45:29
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to keep the printed page abreast of the fact.
1:45:34
Speaker 1: We might be disposed to take exception to the rather
1:45:37
Speaker 1: roseate view which the author appears to have regarding this
1:45:41
Speaker 1: possession of ours. For so far as can be seen,
1:45:45
Speaker 1: Alaska has little future after we have reaped the harvest
1:45:49
Speaker 1: which nature has produced, after we have collected its furs,
1:45:53
Speaker 1: its fish, its gold, and its timber. Hg Rivers of
1:45:58
Speaker 1: North America. A reading Lesson for Students of Geography and
1:46:02
Speaker 1: Geology by Israel C. Russell, Octavo Page's Roman Numeral fifteen
1:46:08
Speaker 1: plus two hundred thirty seven with seventeen full page illustrations
1:46:13
Speaker 1: and twenty three cuts, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, London,
1:46:18
Speaker 1: John Murray eighteen ninety eight. Professor Russell is one of
1:46:22
Speaker 1: the few scientific men who can put the results of
1:46:25
Speaker 1: science in popular form. He comes to this work well
1:46:29
Speaker 1: equipped after a score of years devoted to travel and study.
1:46:33
Speaker 1: In the present book, which forms one of the science series,
1:46:36
Speaker 1: he treats of the life and work of rivers. It
1:46:40
Speaker 1: opens with a chapter on the disintegration and decay of rocks,
1:46:44
Speaker 1: followed by the laws governing the erosion of streams, the
1:46:48
Speaker 1: influence of inequalities and the hardness of rocks, the material
1:46:52
Speaker 1: carried by streams, either in suspension or solution, the deposits
1:46:57
Speaker 1: of streams, stream terraces, the developer of streams, including the
1:47:01
Speaker 1: adjustment of their drainage basins, under stable and unstable conditions
1:47:06
Speaker 1: of surface and climate. Finally, he applies all these principles
1:47:11
Speaker 1: to the rivers of this country. It is a book
1:47:14
Speaker 1: which should be read by all students of physiography.
1:47:18
Speaker 3: HG.
1:47:20
Speaker 1: Man and his work by A. J.
1:47:22
Speaker 4: And F. D.
1:47:23
Speaker 1: Herbertson Black School Geography Series London, Adam and Charles Black.
1:47:30
Speaker 1: This book is a symptom, if not an exponent, of
1:47:33
Speaker 1: a widespread and gratifying movement in modern geography teaching. It
1:47:38
Speaker 1: treats primarily of man's work, chiefly as it is influenced
1:47:43
Speaker 1: by his physical environment. It is intended to dwell on
1:47:47
Speaker 1: the relations between facts and holds consistently to its purpose,
1:47:52
Speaker 1: but the generalizations made are sometimes too sweeping. American skyscrapers
1:47:57
Speaker 1: have not yet been proven more durable than the stone
1:48:00
Speaker 1: castles of medieval times. Not all the soils of temperate
1:48:05
Speaker 1: lands are inferior. No attempt has been made to write
1:48:09
Speaker 1: a pedagogic book. Concrete examples are used to illustrate principles
1:48:14
Speaker 1: previously stated, not to lead to these principles by induction.
1:48:19
Speaker 1: The paragraph headings are generally good topics, though in some
1:48:23
Speaker 1: places irrelevant matter is introduced under them, as on page three,
1:48:28
Speaker 1: where the effect of elevation on trade is treated under
1:48:32
Speaker 1: the heading Elevation and Climate. The use of original narratives
1:48:37
Speaker 1: of travel has added much to the interest of the book,
1:48:41
Speaker 1: but the authors are frequently beguiled into too much detail.
1:48:44
Speaker 1: An exhaustive comparison of the agricultural methods of the Bataux
1:48:50
Speaker 1: and the Diecs is out of place in a textbook
1:48:52
Speaker 1: of this kind. The work needs editing guiding. Feathers were
1:48:56
Speaker 1: never surely discovered on arrows, and dead ancestors cannot be
1:49:01
Speaker 1: commemorated among the living. But the book is interesting from
1:49:06
Speaker 1: cover to cover, and no teacher who has read it
1:49:09
Speaker 1: will again be willing to confine her work to drilling
1:49:12
Speaker 1: on dead facts. The authors have plainly shown in a
1:49:15
Speaker 1: better way. Two Women in the Klondike, the story of
1:49:20
Speaker 1: a journey to the goldfields of Alaska by Mary E. Hitchcock,
1:49:25
Speaker 1: with a map of Alaska and over one hundred illustrations
1:49:29
Speaker 1: from photographs Octavo, pages four hundred eighty five, New York, G. P.
1:49:34
Speaker 1: Putnam's Sons, eighteen ninety nine. This minute personal journal of
1:49:40
Speaker 1: the experiences of two women who went to the Klondike
1:49:44
Speaker 1: with a rush of gold hunters in the spring of
1:49:46
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight is a long story of small discomforts,
1:49:50
Speaker 1: but not a tale of peril or adventures. The ladies
1:49:54
Speaker 1: are introduced and described socially vouched for by Missus Elisha
1:49:59
Speaker 1: Dyer of New York, and the book is dedicated to
1:50:02
Speaker 1: Missus Elisha Dyer. Missus Hitchcock faithfully narrates all that she
1:50:07
Speaker 1: saw and heard and that befell her. Her journey comprised
1:50:10
Speaker 1: the voyage by steamship to Saint Michael's and thence by
1:50:14
Speaker 1: riverboat and barge to Dawson, where she remained a couple
1:50:18
Speaker 1: of months, and then continued by boat up the Yukon
1:50:21
Speaker 1: to the foot of White Pass and over that summit
1:50:24
Speaker 1: to steamship service again. She lived in a great tent
1:50:28
Speaker 1: on the riverside opposite Dawson, save for the three or
1:50:31
Speaker 1: four days given to a heel blistering expedition to El
1:50:36
Speaker 1: Dorado Creek, and the diggings and greater discomforts were probably
1:50:41
Speaker 1: never endured by well to do women for so little
1:50:44
Speaker 1: apparent reason. The reader continually asks why and what for
1:50:49
Speaker 1: as he follows the intimate record of their daily life
1:50:52
Speaker 1: and housekeeping, the repeated dish washings, fire buildings and tent proppings,
1:50:57
Speaker 1: the strange menus of their feasts of cann goods, the
1:51:01
Speaker 1: shivering in heavy clothing and furs, and the frequent dreary rains.
1:51:06
Speaker 1: While the great Dane, the parrot, and the canary claim
1:51:09
Speaker 1: one's sympathies, nothing is withheld, and manicuring tender passages, land laws, customs, regulations,
1:51:18
Speaker 1: the running of an anatomoscope, and the descriptions of toilets
1:51:22
Speaker 1: take their turn at equal length. The two women stake
1:51:25
Speaker 1: to claim in the Klondike grub stake. A prospector or
1:51:29
Speaker 1: two built a cabin on their lot opposite Dawson, and
1:51:33
Speaker 1: after being fleeced and swindled in most grotesque ways, came
1:51:37
Speaker 1: away none the sadder apparently. A Constitutional History of the
1:51:43
Speaker 1: American People seventeen seventy six to eighteen fifty by Francis
1:51:49
Speaker 1: Newton Thorpe, illustrated with maps, two volumes Octavo, Volume one
1:51:55
Speaker 1: Page's Roman Numeral twenty seven plus four hundred eighty five,
1:52:00
Speaker 1: Volume two pages, Roman Numeral fifteen plus five hundred twenty
1:52:06
Speaker 1: New York and London, Harper and Brothers eighteen ninety eight
1:52:10
Speaker 1: six dollars. There is suggestive originality in this title. Constitutional
1:52:15
Speaker 1: histories of the state abound, but not constitutional histories of
1:52:19
Speaker 1: a people. Very few among past or still exist in
1:52:23
Speaker 1: peoples afford the field for a constitutional history of themselves,
1:52:28
Speaker 1: Usually the term would be a misnomer. In the preface,
1:52:32
Speaker 1: mister Thorpe states that this work is the record of
1:52:35
Speaker 1: the evolution of government since the Revolution, that constitutional history
1:52:41
Speaker 1: is the history of a constituency which consciously or unconsciously
1:52:46
Speaker 1: is ever striving to promote its own welfare, and that
1:52:50
Speaker 1: the claim of popular government to authority is its identification
1:52:54
Speaker 1: with the great principles of civilization. His first chapter opens
1:52:59
Speaker 1: with the world words in the evolution of Democracy in America,
1:53:04
Speaker 1: and the same phrase evolution of the democracy is emphasized
1:53:08
Speaker 1: on the second page. On the fifteenth page, he strikes
1:53:11
Speaker 1: his keynote. My theme is a history of the evolution
1:53:15
Speaker 1: of democracy in America. To him, American democracy like Greek poetry,
1:53:21
Speaker 1: is the presentation of the whole estate of man. But
1:53:25
Speaker 1: there is scholarly modesty in his words. The historian shrinks
1:53:29
Speaker 1: from attempting to trace the record of democracy in all
1:53:32
Speaker 1: its phases. He must be satisfied and indeed thrice happy,
1:53:37
Speaker 1: if he is able to trace even imperfectly, the record
1:53:41
Speaker 1: of a single phase. He defines his own chosen place
1:53:44
Speaker 1: as the history of political and civil adjustments. This meager
1:53:49
Speaker 1: definition hardly hints at the multifarious nature of the theme,
1:53:54
Speaker 1: or at the research and infinite patience required for its treatment.
1:53:59
Speaker 1: In saintance, was necessary with the numerous decisions of the
1:54:03
Speaker 1: Supreme Court and of the state courts, and with the
1:54:06
Speaker 1: dissenting opinions of the justices in the minority, with countless
1:54:11
Speaker 1: conflicting interpretations of sentences or words in the National Constitution,
1:54:17
Speaker 1: with opposite opinions on scores of subjects advocated in scores
1:54:21
Speaker 1: of constitutional conventions, with the various motions and votes, with
1:54:26
Speaker 1: the names and training and history of the members of
1:54:29
Speaker 1: those conventions. Hundreds of state constitutions formulated, rejected or approved,
1:54:35
Speaker 1: repealed or still in vigor, and tens of thousands of
1:54:39
Speaker 1: state laws passed amended, repealed, or still on. The statute
1:54:43
Speaker 1: book must be scrupulously examined and carefully collated. The data
1:54:48
Speaker 1: must be scrutinized with toilsome and persistent honesty. But the
1:54:53
Speaker 1: horizon must be larger than that of an erudite compiler.
1:54:57
Speaker 1: Broad Minded and philosophic. The writer must be sensitive to
1:55:01
Speaker 1: every political breeze, and keen to appreciate its source and
1:55:05
Speaker 1: influence and direction. Peering with the microscope into minutia, he must,
1:55:11
Speaker 1: above all, with the telescope, sweep the sky. Believing that
1:55:15
Speaker 1: the history of American democracy is a history of political
1:55:19
Speaker 1: thought rather than of individuals, he lingers little upon the
1:55:23
Speaker 1: lives or characters of the apostles of that democracy, and
1:55:27
Speaker 1: still less upon the lives or characters of its opponents.
1:55:31
Speaker 1: The mass of the army, in the direction of its march,
1:55:34
Speaker 1: count more with him than the personality of the chiefs.
1:55:37
Speaker 1: Yet it is curious to note that in his first
1:55:40
Speaker 1: volume he refers by name to Washington nine times, to
1:55:44
Speaker 1: Marshal ten times, and to Hamilton eleven times, while to
1:55:48
Speaker 1: Franklin twenty five times and to Jefferson sixty six times.
1:55:53
Speaker 1: This is not indeed disproportionate for the two latter are
1:55:57
Speaker 1: the real founders of American democracy, the sympathy which he
1:56:01
Speaker 1: makes no effort to hide. He traces the course of
1:56:04
Speaker 1: democratic government in its expanding and magnificent career. In sagacious
1:56:10
Speaker 1: contrast to most historians, he recognizes the decisive share which
1:56:15
Speaker 1: geographic conditions have had in determining our national life. Nowhere
1:56:20
Speaker 1: have they played a more definite part, not even in
1:56:23
Speaker 1: Russia or Spain. But how commonly in American histories are
1:56:28
Speaker 1: they absolutely ignored? Well? Does he say, thus the fate
1:56:32
Speaker 1: of the Republic depended on the course of streams and
1:56:35
Speaker 1: the trend of mountains, as well as on Congress and
1:56:38
Speaker 1: the legislatures. Or again, had gold or silver abounded in
1:56:42
Speaker 1: New England, Pennsylvania, or Virginia, the evolution of democracy on
1:56:47
Speaker 1: the Atlantic seaboard would have been retarded for centuries. The sunny,
1:56:51
Speaker 1: semi tropical climate of Florida and South Carolina and the
1:56:55
Speaker 1: sturdier climate of Massachusetts and Vermont affect the vision and
1:56:59
Speaker 1: the formation of political creeds. With reason, does he exclaim,
1:57:04
Speaker 1: our morality is much a matter of latitude. Through more
1:57:08
Speaker 1: than a thousand pages, does the author interpret American history
1:57:13
Speaker 1: with accuracy and truth he renders evident the sublime fact
1:57:17
Speaker 1: that our national strength and glory are found not in
1:57:21
Speaker 1: what our fathers brought here in the early days, or
1:57:24
Speaker 1: in what has been wafted to us since across the ocean.
1:57:28
Speaker 1: It is what they and later generations wrought out here
1:57:31
Speaker 1: on the virgin soil of this untouched continent that constitutes
1:57:36
Speaker 1: America's contribution to mankind. Nor is the mission of the
1:57:40
Speaker 1: Republic yet accomplished. Still is the region in the western
1:57:44
Speaker 1: hemisphere between the thirtieth and forty fifth degrees of north
1:57:48
Speaker 1: latitude the political laboratory of the world. One cannot but
1:57:53
Speaker 1: regret that mister Thorpe concludes his work in eighteen fifty. Why,
1:57:58
Speaker 1: having weighed in the balance two periods which the nation
1:58:02
Speaker 1: has completed, did he halt before the third period, which
1:58:05
Speaker 1: the nation had likewise completed. The fourth period, which we
1:58:10
Speaker 1: are now traversing, is unfinished. In its earlier events lack perspective.
1:58:15
Speaker 1: But that cannot be said of the years between eighteen
1:58:17
Speaker 1: fifty and eighteen seventy six. It would have been a
1:58:22
Speaker 1: privilege to be led through that storm of words and
1:58:25
Speaker 1: swords and readjustment by so intelligent a guide, as mister Thorpe,
1:58:31
Speaker 1: every page of this constitutional history of the American people
1:58:35
Speaker 1: commands respect and admiration. One may not always agree with
1:58:39
Speaker 1: its premises and conclusions, its dicta sometimes aroused dissent bordering
1:58:46
Speaker 1: upon resentment, but faithfulness of research, honesty of purpose, and
1:58:51
Speaker 1: ability of treatment are manifest throughout the whole. Is a
1:58:55
Speaker 1: splendid work, honorable to its scholarly author, and sure of
1:58:59
Speaker 1: a permanent place among the most valuable contributions to American history.
1:59:05
Speaker 1: Edwin A. Grovener, Amherst College, end of section eight, Section
1:59:17
Speaker 1: nine of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume ten, November eighteen
1:59:22
Speaker 1: ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
1:59:27
Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For information or to volunteer,
1:59:31
Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Betty B. Geographic Miscellanea.
1:59:40
Speaker 1: There has been a steadily growing demand in the last
1:59:43
Speaker 1: few years for better teaching of geography, and as earnest
1:59:47
Speaker 1: an effort on the part of many teachers to meet
1:59:50
Speaker 1: that demand, the National Geographic Magazine proposes to aid the
1:59:54
Speaker 1: work by presenting in its pages a series of articles
1:59:58
Speaker 1: written by those most fitted to sp able geographers who
2:00:02
Speaker 1: are also teachers of renown. Professor William M. Davis of
2:00:06
Speaker 1: Harvard opens this series with an article which appears elsewhere
2:00:10
Speaker 1: in this number, and which is soon to be followed
2:00:13
Speaker 1: by a second from him on field and laboratory methods
2:00:17
Speaker 1: of teaching geography. Commissioner Harris of the Bureau of Education
2:00:21
Speaker 1: will treat the subject in several of its aspects, and
2:00:25
Speaker 1: a number of other equally prominent educators have promised articles
2:00:29
Speaker 1: which are to appear in the magazine within the next
2:00:32
Speaker 1: few months. The Association Review is the title of an
2:00:36
Speaker 1: educational magazine to be published bi monthly during the school
2:00:41
Speaker 1: year by the American Association to promote the teaching of
2:00:45
Speaker 1: speech to the Death, and edited by Frank W. Booth,
2:00:49
Speaker 1: the General Secretary and Treasurer of the Association. The first
2:00:53
Speaker 1: number of the magazine that for October, is an exceedingly
2:00:57
Speaker 1: interesting and instructive number, and clincludes among its contents, the
2:01:02
Speaker 1: Teacher and the State by John M. Tyler, Kindergarten Work
2:01:06
Speaker 1: in Schools for the Death by Edward C. Ryder, Pictures
2:01:10
Speaker 1: and How to Use Them by Florence C. McDowell, and
2:01:14
Speaker 1: a number of briefer papers, an excellent picture of the
2:01:17
Speaker 1: late Honorable Gardener G. Hubbard, is accompanied by a brief
2:01:21
Speaker 1: biographical sketch of his great life work. The number also
2:01:26
Speaker 1: contains the proceedings of the sixth Summer Meeting of the Association,
2:01:31
Speaker 1: held in Northampton, Massachusetts, June twenty second through the twenty eighth,
2:01:36
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, and includes addresses by Honorable F. B. Sanborn, L.
2:01:42
Speaker 1: Clark Cilley, Lld and the address of the President, Doctor
2:01:47
Speaker 1: Alexander Graham Bell. The Scottish Geographical Magazine for October is
2:01:53
Speaker 1: mainly a report of the proceedings of the sixty ninth
2:01:57
Speaker 1: Annual Meeting of the British Association, which was held at
2:02:01
Speaker 1: Dover the second week of September. Oceanography, the title of
2:02:07
Speaker 1: Sir John Murray's presidential address to the Geographical Section is
2:02:12
Speaker 1: published in full and is accompanied by a bathymetrical chart
2:02:16
Speaker 1: of the ocean showing the deeps. According to Sir John Murray,
2:02:21
Speaker 1: from these results, it appears that considerably more than half
2:02:24
Speaker 1: of the seafloor lies at a depth exceeding two thousand fathoms.
2:02:30
Speaker 1: He emphasizes the fact that the recent soundings of the
2:02:33
Speaker 1: German steamship Valdeva in the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans,
2:02:39
Speaker 1: as well as the many thousands of deep soundings taken
2:02:42
Speaker 1: within the last decade, have in but few instances, caused
2:02:46
Speaker 1: any very great alteration in the positions of the contour
2:02:50
Speaker 1: lines on the Challenger maps. The delegates of the National
2:02:55
Speaker 1: Geographic Society to the International Geographical Congress in Berlin, in
2:03:00
Speaker 1: on their return to the United States, report the meeting
2:03:04
Speaker 1: of success in every way. General A. W. Greeley USA
2:03:09
Speaker 1: and mister H. G. Bryant, president of the Philadelphia Geographical Society,
2:03:14
Speaker 1: were elected honorary Vice Presidents of the Congress. The next
2:03:18
Speaker 1: place of meeting was referred to the Executive Committee for decision.
2:03:22
Speaker 1: General Greeley presented a number of papers, among which the
2:03:26
Speaker 1: following may be mentioned. Geographical work of the American Commission
2:03:30
Speaker 1: on the Venezuelan Boundary by Marcus Baker, Late researches by
2:03:35
Speaker 1: the US Weather Bureau by H. C. Frankenfield, Geographical work
2:03:40
Speaker 1: of the US Coast and geodetic survey by J. M. Hayward.
2:03:45
Speaker 1: Geographical work of the US Department of Agriculture by John Hyde,
2:03:50
Speaker 1: United States Geographical Surveys, and geographical work by C. D. Walcott.
2:03:57
Speaker 1: Geographical researches of the US Bureau of f Saology by W. J. McGee,
2:04:03
Speaker 1: Ambassador Andrew D. White, Major H. T. Allen, us A,
2:04:09
Speaker 1: Professor William M. Davis, Miss E. R. Skidmore, Doctor L. A. Bauer,
2:04:15
Speaker 1: and mister Marcus Baker also represented the National Geographic Society.
2:04:20
Speaker 1: An account of the proceedings of the Congress will appear
2:04:23
Speaker 1: in a later number of the magazine. A recent number
2:04:28
Speaker 1: of Nature contains the following interesting statement from the reports
2:04:33
Speaker 1: in the Agricultural Journal published by the Cape Department of Agriculture.
2:04:38
Speaker 1: It appears that much success in exterminating locusts by inoculation
2:04:43
Speaker 1: with the locust disease fungus has been attained in many districts.
2:04:48
Speaker 1: The fungus is prepared and supplied by the Director of
2:04:51
Speaker 1: the Bacteriological Institute, Grahamstown, at a cost of sixpence per
2:04:57
Speaker 1: tube to all applicants residing in Cape co. One of
2:05:01
Speaker 1: the reports upon its use states that over a hundred
2:05:04
Speaker 1: locusts which were inoculated with the fungus disease were distributed
2:05:09
Speaker 1: among a swarm, and on the next morning and the
2:05:12
Speaker 1: following days, large numbers of dead ones were in the
2:05:16
Speaker 1: sand dunes, being killed by the fungus. As microscopical examination
2:05:22
Speaker 1: and further experiments with the bodies proved. The growth of
2:05:26
Speaker 1: fungus from the dead locusts produced a fungus more rapid
2:05:29
Speaker 1: in growth but smaller in size than the government fungus.
2:05:34
Speaker 1: In another case, the fungus was mixed in lukewarm water,
2:05:37
Speaker 1: and young locusts were released after immersion in the liquid.
2:05:41
Speaker 1: After three days rainfall, and on the afternoon of the
2:05:44
Speaker 1: fourth day, locusts were found in heaps in the bushes
2:05:48
Speaker 1: about three miles from where they were immersed. Districts in
2:05:52
Speaker 1: which no such measures are being taken are much more
2:05:55
Speaker 1: infested with locusts than those where the fungus treatment is adopted.
2:06:02
Speaker 1: End of section nine, end of the National Geographic Magazine,
2:06:07
Speaker 1: Volume ten, November eighteen ninety nine.