Charlotte's Island) to the 65th degree of north latitude, — a territory some five hun dred miles in length by four hundred in breadth. After flowing in a nearly direct course westward for about four hundred miles, it crosses the narrow Alaskan coaststrip and discharges into the Pacific Ocean at Frederic Sound, — opposite and nearly eighty miles east of the island on which Sitka is situated, — thus marking off the southern third of the coast-strip. At that period the entire territory west of the Rockies north of the Columbia River was valued chiefly for rental to the fur companies and for the fisheries in the neighboring sea. The discovery of gold on Fraser River, in British Columbia, led to the colonization of the adjacent regions; but few settled as far north as the southern parallel of Alaska until the discovery of gold on the Stikine. This induced the col onization of the valley of that river, — when a large portion of its basin was found to be a fine grazing country. As settlements multiplied and the indus tries of mining, fishing, cattle-raising and lumbering increased, the interposing strip of seacoast assumed larger importance in Brit ish eyes. The view of the settlers on this subject is fairly shown in an article which appeared in "The British Colonist" of Victoria, B. C, in 1863.' It is as follows: "The information which we daily publish from the Stikine River very naturally excites public attention to a great extent. Whether the territory through which the river flows be considered in a political or a commercial light, there is a proba bility that in a short time there will be a still more general interest in the claim. Not only will the intervention of the royal jurisdiction be demanded in order to give to it a complete form of gov ernment, but if the land proves to be as rich as there is now reason to believe it to be, it is not improbable that it will result in negotiations be tween Kngland and Russia for the transfer of the 1 The article as here presented is translated from the Cierman version publisher! in the same year in the Archiv fiir Wissenschafiliche Kurnie von RusslanU of Berlin.
seacoast to the British Crown. It certainly is not acceptable that a stream like the Stikine, which for 170 to 190 miles is navigable for steamers, which waters a territory so rich in gold that it will allure thousands of men, certainly it is not desira ble that the business of such a highway should reach the interior through a Russian door of thirty miles of coast. The English population which occupies the interior cannot be so easily managed by the Russians as the Stikine Indians of the coast manage the Indians of the interior. Our business must be in. British hands. Our resources, our energies, our undertakings cannot be fully developed in building up a Russian emporium at the mouth of the Stikine. We must have for our productions a depot over which the British flag waves. By a treaty of 1825 the navigation of the river is secured to us. The navigation of the Mississippi was also open to the United States be fore the Louisiana purchase, but the growing strength of the North made the attainment of that territory either by purchase or by might an evident necessity. We look upon the seacoast of Stikine land in the same light. The strip of land which stretches along from Portland Canal to Mount St. Elias, with a breadth of thirty miles, and which, according to the treaty of 1825, forms a part of Russian America, must eventually become the prop erty of Great Britain, either as the direct result of the development of gold, or for reasons which are now yet in the beginning, but whose results are certain. For it is clearly undesirable that the strip, three hundred miles long and thirty miles wide, which is only used by the Russians for the collection of furs and walrus teeth, shall for ever control the entrance to our very extensive north ern territory. It is a principle of England to acquire territory as a point of defense. Canada, Nova Scotia, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and the great part of our Indian possessions were all acquired as defensive points. In Africa, India, and China the same rule is to-day followed by the government. With a power like Russia it would perhaps be more difficult to get ready, but if we need the seacoast to help us in our business in the precious metals with the interior, and for de fense, then we must have it. The United States needed Florida and Louisiana, and took them. We need the shore of New Norfolk and New Cornwall. "It is just as much the destiny of our Anglo
