Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 163, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1913 — Is Longest Straight Boundary in World [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Is Longest Straight Boundary in World

RUNNING the longest straight line boundary in the world, between Alaska and Canada, has finally been completed. It measures from beginning to end exactly 1,507 miles, and runs as straight as the crow flies from Mount St. Elias directly north, over moving glaciers and some of the highest mountains in the world, to the Arctic ocean. It took seven years’ labor of seventy-five men to accomplish this difficult task. It cost the United States government in round figures 4750,000, with the Canadian government contributing a like amount, the cost of the whole work amounting to 41,500,000. The story of this great work reads like some of the romances written years ago of the so-called wild and wholly west. The men who took part in the work tell tales rivaling those of Admiral Peary in his search for the north pole, and of Amundsen in his hunt for the south pole. As a memento of the hazardous nature of the w6rk the bones of some of the heroic scientist explorers lie today, whitening •dong the bleak and desolate trail of the international boundary line in ' ( The American party was made up of nine engineers, surveyors, and topographers, with thirty assistants, packers, instrument men, and others. It was In charge of Thomas Riggs, Jr., of Washington, D. C., with W. B. Raeburn, W. B. Gilmore, W. C. Guerin, P. S. Ryus, C. V. Guerin, D. W. Eaton, Asa C, Baldwin apd E. C. Guerin. The Canadian party was in charge of J. D. Craig, a celebrated civil engineer of the Canadian government , Old Resident In Charge. Thomas Riggs is am old resident of Alaska.' He acquired the gold fever during the wild rush of 1897, and promptly packed his kit and hiked to the new Eldorado of the northwest. He remained there about four years, prospecting in .many sections of the country, but at last becoming discouraged, returned home. Just about this time Uncle Sam was looking around for likely men to run the international boundary line between the United States and Canada along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. This was another Job similar in character to the Alaska boundary, but not nearly so difficult. Riggs applied for the job, and wps promptly entployed. With a number of other engineers and surveyors, he put in the following live years on this work. Then in 1906 he was appointed engineer in charge to run the Alaska-Canadian boundary, which has now been brought to a successful conclusion. The Alaska boundary is marked by 188 stone monuments set three miles apart from Mount St. Ellas on the Pacific coast to the Arctic ocean. Most exploring parties usually follow the line of least resistance. These men, however, were compelled to follow the line laid down by the treaty between the United States and Canada. This resulted in great difficulty, especially ilfc transportation and field work. The past year the men had to eross the British mountains, which rise to a height of more than 7,000 feet. From the summit of these mountains could be seen the Arctic ocean in all its terrifying silence, frozen as fan as the eye could see. It was at this point that the first bad luck happened to the party. Raeburn was taken ill with pneumonia and laid up for three weeks without medical assistance of any kind. Two members of the party made a hurried return trip to Herschel island, 176 miles away, where the steam whaler Belvldere was wintering, in the hopes of obtaining medicine. In order to reach the whaler, they had to cross a body of water more than three miles wide, frozen solid in places and in others broken up. On the shore they found a prospector. The three roped themselves together and suited on the perilous trip across the ice to the island. It took three and a half hours to make the trip. Upon reaching the whaler they found It frozen solid in ice. Obtaining some medicine from CapUln Cottle, they started on the return journey and reached camp after two weeks’ absence. Skeletons Pound. Near the Arctic ocean the engineers found the skeletons of three men

who had perished in one of the terrific arctic blizazrds. The skeletons were huddled together on the side of a little wind-break made up of some boughs and moss, k little farther en they found another skeleton back of another little wind-break, where the lonely traveler had evidently crawled in a futile effort to escape the same blizzard. They found here the remnants of a small tent, with U few camp utensils and a notebook so badly blurred that it could not be read. A little farther away they found the prospector’s gun. But there was nothing to identify any of the skeletons. At Demarcation Point, which Sir John Franklin determined upon as being the boundary line between'Russian and British possessions, the remains of an Eskimo village was found, which contained at one time about one hundred igloos—Eskimo houses. Most of these Rouses appealed to be very old, showing that at one time a large tribe of natives made this point their permanent home. The place was a regular hunters’ paradise. Here were discovered animal skulls and the horns of a musk-ox. This is the first time that a musk-ox- was ever found west of the McKenzie river. Caribou were seen in herds of several thousand. These animals, are Very stupid and also exceedingly inquisitive. Some of them would gallop up to the party and after due inspection quietly return to the herd. Great( numbers of mountain sheep were seen, and several superb specimens were brought back for the Smithsonian Institution. Ptarmigan were also very plentiful, and fish were found in every stream. While game of all kinds was in great abundance, several reasons were apparent why the Eskimos had left. Mosquitoes were there by the millions. They were not ordinary mosquitoes, such as are usually seen in civilized parts. Some of them were as big as a silver dollar. In fact, the surviving members of the onslaught say the mosquitoes were so vicious that they had to build a huge smudge fire to keep them away from the horses. It was laughable and yet at the same time pretty hard on the poor horses. The animals would stand in the smoke in prefernce to being eaten alive by the insects. Then they would wander out for a little grass, bub in a few minutes come rushing back tag, the smudge. The men had to work with veils over the face and gloves tied around the wrists. Every one had to sleep in a mosquito-proof tent in order to get any sleep at all. While eating, it was necessary to sit in smoke so dense as to be almost suffocating.

SURVEYORS CLIMBING MOUNTAIN