ts
adjournment in February, 1899.

The boundary between Alaska and the Dominion was the only bit of the
border line not yet determined. As in former cases of boundary disputes,
the inaccuracies of map makers, the ambiguities of diplomats, the clash
of local interests, and stiff-necked national pride made a settlement
difficult. In 1825 Russia and Great Britain had signed a treaty which
granted Russia a long panhandle strip down the Pacific coast. With
the purchase of Alaska in 1867 the United States succeeded to Russia's
claim. With the growth of settlement in Canada this long barrier down
half of her Pacific coast was found to be irksome. Attempt after attempt
to have the line determined only added to the stock of memorials in
official pigeonholes. Then came the discovery of gold in the Klondike
in 1896, and the question of easy access by sea to the Canadian back
country became an urgent one. Canada offered to compromise, admitting
the American title to the chief ports on Lynn Canal, Dyea and Skagway,
if Pyramid Harbor were held Canadian. She urged arbitration on the model
the United States had dictated in the Venezuela dispute. But the United
States was in possession of the most important points. Its people
believed the Canadian claims had been trumped up when the Klondike
fields were opened. The Puget Sound cities wanted no breach in their
monopoly of the supply trade to the north. The only concession the
United States would make was to refer the dispute to a commission of
six, three from each country, with the proviso that no area settled by
Americans should in any event pass into other bands. Canada felt that
arbitration under these conditions would either end in deadlock, leaving
the United States in possession, or in concession by one or more of
the British representatives, and so declined to accept the proposed
arrangement.

Finally, in 1903, agreement was reached between London and Washington
to accept the tribunal proposed by the United States, which in turn
withdrew its veto on the transfer of any settled area. Canada's
reluctant consent was won by a provision that the members of the
tribunal should be "impartial jurists of repute," sworn to render a
judicial verdict. When Elihu Root, Senator Lodge, and Senator Turner
were named as the American representatives, Ottawa protested that
eminent and honorable as they were, their public attitude on this
question made it impossible to consider them "impartial ju