Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1883 — The Size of Alaska. [ARTICLE]

The Size of Alaska.

Although Sitka and Alaska are almost synonymous with north pole to average minds in the temperate zone, a comparison of maps shows that Sitka and St. Petersburg, Russia, are in the same latitude, and the mouth of Chilcat river, the most northerly point that we visited, is on a line with the south coast of Greenland. The extent of this northwest territory and the vast distances between points are more than bewildering. Alaska itself is equal in area to all of the United States east of the Mississippi river. Counting the Aleutian chain, the Pirbyloff group, and the 1,100 islands of the Alexander archipelago, the total area of the Alaska island is 31,265 square miles. The island of Attu, the last of the Aleutian chain, is as far west of San Francisco as Bangor, Maine, is east of it, and the indented coast-line of Alaska, measuring 25,000 miles, is’ even greater than the whole coast line of the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the United States put together.— Cor. St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.