increasing in numbers, more private interests are involved, and the region in dispute becomes more valuable to either claimant. There is great indifference to the question on our side of the line, but in the Dominion it is well understood, and Parliament and public opinion have taken their stand. Canadian maps now differ from United States maps of that northwestern region, and this boundary question promises to provoke more international bitterness than the present Bering Sea dispute concerning the interests of a single company of fur-traders.

By his ukase of 1821, forbidding all foreign vessels from approaching within one hundred Italian miles of his possessions on either shore of the North Pacific, the Emperor of Russia purposely brought about the conferences of 1824 and 1825. Then were adjusted the claims of Russia, England, and the United States to various sections of the northwest coast of America. As the result, Russia was secured in the possession of the coast and adjacent islands, from the Arctic Ocean down to the line of 54° 40', on the ground of Russian discovery and settlement, together with the northernmost third of the uninhabited and useless interior.

All overtures from England for the purchase of " the thirty mile strip" of coast accorded to Russia and now known as Southeastern Alaska were refused, but the tract was leased by the Russian government to the Hudson's Bay Company until 1867, when the Treaty of Washington, consummating the Seward purchase, once more defined its boundaries:

ARTICLE I.

His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias agrees to cede to the United States, by this convention, immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications thereof, all the territory and dominion now possessed by his said Majesty on the continent of America and in the adjacent islands, the same being contained within the geographical limits herein set forth, to wit: The eastern limit is the line of demarcation between the Russian and the British possessions in North America, as established by the convention between Russia and Great Britain, of February 28-16, 1825, and described in Articles III and IV of said convention, in the

following terms:

Commencing from the southernmost point of the is

land called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the 131st and the 133d degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same meridian); and finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean.

"IV. With reference to the line of demarcation, laid down in the preceding article, it is understood

"Ist. That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to Russia" (now, by this cession, to the United States).

"2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast from the 56th degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia as above mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the possessions ceded by this convention) shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom."

The first contention as to the position of the boundary line between Alaska and British Columbia arose in 1873-74, when thousands of miners of different nationalities rushed to the Stikine River and the Cassiar region at its head-waters. Gold commissioners, customs officers, and sheriffs were alike defied; mining camps on the Stikine were first under one flag and then under another; the custom house was moved from place to place, and criminals escaped trial upon mere technicalities, until a temporary and approximate line on the thirty mile basis was agreed upon by the British Columbian officials and the United States military authorities, then in control of Alaska. The custom house and Hudson's Bay Company's post still remain, as then placed, at a distance of sixty miles from the mouth of the winding river.

Since 1878, prospectors, often to the number of five hundred in a single season, have crossed the Chilkat Pass to the rich placer regions along the Upper Yukon. Coarse gold and dust to the value of $40,000 or $50,000 have been carried out each year. A few seasons since, the Canadian gold commissioner visited the camps on Forty Mile Creek to collect fees and prevent unlicensed miners from working. The men claimed that they were within Alaskan boundaries, and as they were a rough and muscular set the commissioner retreated, and the question of miners' licenses in that region was waived until the two governments should determine and mark the line of the 141st meridian, which there forms the international boundary line.

The official Canadian map of 1887 places Forty Mile Creek that many miles within British limits. Although no official publication has been made, returning miners have brought word that the Turner and McGrath parties of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey have determined that the meridian line crosses the Yukon almost at the mouth of Forty Mile Creek, leaving those rich placers in Alaska.

During the sessions of the Fisheries Conference at Washington, 1887-88, an informal discussion of this boundary question was arranged by Secretary Bayard and Sir Charles Tupper. Dr. W. H. Dall of the Smithsonian Institution and United States Geological

Survey, and Dr. G. M. Dawson of the Dominion Geological Survey were chosen as conferees, both being personally acquainted with the region in dispute. Dr. Dall is the most eminent authority on Alaskan matters, his close connection with the territory dating from his camping on the Upper Yukon in 1866-68. Dr. Dawson has for almost the same time devoted himself to surveys and scientific work in British Columbia.

By the Canadian interpretation in 1887 of the treaty's phrases, a considerable portion of the "thirty mile strip" which Russia had declined to sell to Great Britain, and which had always been mapped as Russian or United States possessions, is now claimed as British territory. Dr. Dawson's arguments were reinforced by a report and map made by Major-General R. D. Cameron of the British army, and parliamentary instructions had been given him to insist upon General Cameron's lines and yield nothing. Dr. Dall's report and memoranda of the discussion, including the papers and charts pertaining thereto, were published as "Extra Senate Document No. 146, 50th Congress -2d Session," and there the subject was dropped.

The official Canadian map of 1887 shows General Cameron's lines, which disregard the old acceptation of the meaning of the treaties' clauses, previous maps, and even British admiralty charts. Dr. Dawson claims that "the crest (or summit) of the mountains situated parallel to the coast" means the summit of the first range of precipitous foot-hills, "everywhere rising immediately from the coast and which borders upon the sea. . . . and probably at an average distance of considerably less than five miles from it." The phrase "Ten marine leagues from the coast" is never considered, and as the coast presents no windings nor indentations to General Cameron's eye, he draws his line from Mount St. Elias southward without regard to such irregularities, or to the explicit instructions that the boundary line should run parallel to those windings. The Cameron line leaps bays and inlets, and breaks that portion of the Alaska coast into alternating patches of British and United States territory. This line does not even follow "along the channel known as Portland Channel" (to quote the treaty), but along Clarence Strait, Boehm Canal, and Burroughs Bay, thus including within British limits Revillagigedo and many smaller Alaskan islands, and a great peninsula as well.

By this picturesque method of partitioning Alaska, the boundary line would cross almost at the mouth of Glacier Bay, of Lynn Canal, and Taku Inlet; and on the Stikine River the boundary line would slip fifty miles down stream. Were it accepted, many canneries and settlements, the mining camps of Berners Bay and Seward City, the rich Silver Bow and Dix Bow basins back of Juneau would pass under the British flag, and the Muir, Taku, and other great tidewater glaciers our most unique scenic possessions on this continent - would be taken from us.

On the first of July, 1891, the citizens of Alaska may, for the first time, enter town sites, purchase and obtain titles to their holdings, other than mineral claims, and legally cut timber; and this recent extension of the general land laws will rapidly attract settlers and investors into the region claimed as part of British Columbia. The completion of the Nowell tunnel and other costly pieces of mining engineering,

opening basins back of Juneau, the erection of new stamp mills in remote cañons, and further discoveries of gold placers and silver leads must invite the attention of the Canadian authorities to all this unlicensed mining, if the Dominion is to contest its claim. No one knowing the American miner, prospector, and frontiersman doubts that there will be forcible resistance to British officers, if necessary.

In any appeal to arms, the United States would be at every disadvantage in protecting Alaska, the impossibility of defending that possession being the chief reason for Russia's sale of it. There is no military force in Alaska, and no telegraphic communication beyond Nanaimo, British Columbia; there are no complete charts of its intricate water-ways, no lighthouses, and only one small man-of-war at Sitka. The British Asiatic squadron of twenty-four modern ships can reach Bering Sea in five days from its summer rendezvous at Hakodate, and Sitka but a few days later; and their naval force at Esquimault is sufficient to close Puget Sound and the inside passage northward.

To illustrate the importance which British and Canadian officials attach to an early settlement of this boundary dispute, it will be remembered that Sir Charles Tupper and his colleagues were instructed to discuss this matter with Secretary Blaine at the informal conference concerning a reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States, which these commissioners had hoped to hold in Washington in April, 1891.

Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore.

Similar Musical Phrases in Great Composers. I HAVE thought it interesting to note some curious instances of the same musical phrase being conceived by different great composers. Those, that to the best of my knowledge I imagine to have been the first, I have put in the original key:

e

MENDELSSOHN," If with all your hearts." "Elijah."

SCHUMANN, Berceuse.

WEBER, Aria, "Der Freischütz."

WAGNER, "Tannhäuser" March.

WEBER, "Oberon," Finale No. 15.

MENDELSSOHN, "Midsummer Night's Dream." In this instance, the harmony differs somewhat.

GOUNOD, "Faust," duo, Garden Scene.

MENDELSSOHN, Overture "Melusine."

Wagner, Music Drama, “Rheingold."

MENDELSSOHN, Rondo Capriccioso.

The peculiar part of all this is, that the sentiment expressed in both cases is very much the same, whether the case be "Elijah" or the "Redemption," " Melusine" or the "Rhine Maidens," the "Midsummer Night's Dream" or the "Oberon" fairies. Of course we must exonerate Beethoven from participating in the "Faust" scena, but his phrase is taken from what is generally known as the Devil's Sonata, probably on account of its difficulty.

Here is a remarkable case of the same music being equally beautiful in both instances:

All'o. pp

Flutes.

BELLINI," Puritani," last act.

pp

WEBER, Opera of "Oberon," 1st Fairy Chorus, Ist

act.

Andante.

CHOPIN, Nocturne in E flat, 2d part.

BEETHOVEN, Concerto, C minor, 2d movement.

GOUNOD, "Faust," Cavatina, No. 8.

BEETHOVEN, Concerto in C, 2d movement.

This was adapted from the above chorus, and is universally admired as a hymn tune. The rest of the tune can be found by tracing the chorus, the same harmonies being retained.

Perhaps the story of Balfe's method of making melodies when his inspiration failed him may be new to some readers of this article. He put the letters of the musical alphabet on separate bits of paper, duplicating each letter several times, and then drew them one by one, from a hat, and noted them down, having previously decided on the key, time, and value of the notes; and certainly the reiterated notes of some of his melodies warrant the truth of the story.

"The heart bow'd down" and "I dreamt that I dwelt" from the "Bohemian Girl."

CHOPIN, Funeral March (Trio).

The next two examples at least have a family like

ness.

Richard Hoffman.

Talleyrand.

THE paragraphs from the Memoirs which did not reach us in time to follow the passage given in the June CENTURY simply threw out the idea that Maubreuil, who accused Talleyrand of the desire to bribe him to assassinate the fallen Emperor, in 1814, probably obtained his passports for a "secret mission" merely as one of the numerous emissaries sent out by the royalists to all points in France to proclaim the "legitimate" government. Talleyrand again denies the attempted accusation, and shows, moreover, how absurd and useless it would have been, as well as infamous.

An Incident of "General Miles's Indian Campaigns."

GENERAL NELSON A. MILES, after seeing the proofs of Major G. W. Baird's article in this number of THE CENTURY, wrote to the editor as follows:

Referring to the desperate fight with the Nez Percés in September, 1877 [see pages 363-364], in which Major G. W. Baird states that a staff officer went from me to give certain orders to Captain Hale and found that officer dead, Major Baird very modestly omits his own name, which should be inserted, as he was adjutant at that time, and in carrying the order he found Captain Hale and Lieutenant Biddle dead, and received two desperate wounds himself, one shattering his left arm and the other cutting the side of his head.

Arrival of Overland Trains in California in “'49." WITH the fall of '49 came to California the vanguard of the immense immigration that braved the hardships of weather, Indian perils, cholera, fevers and starvation, in that long march across a continent in pursuit of gold. Not only men, but delicate women and children shut their eyes to every comfort and association of home, and faithfully shared these dangers and perils, or were buried in nameless graves on prairie, mountain, or desert.

In every subsequent year the State of California, with liberal appropriation and abundant supplies, sent out her citizens with open hand to welcome and aid the feeble and exhausted with every necessary assistance at the latter end of their long journey. But in 1849 there was no organized effort for systematic succor. The emigrants of that year were numbered by thousands, and circumstances made it impossible, except to a very limited extent, to meet and greet them even with words of good cheer. It was only through individual effort that aid could be extended them, and almost every individual was in some respects as hard pressed as they.

I can find only one instance upon the official records where Government protection was thrown around them, and that is in General Riley's report to the War Department, under date of August 30, 1849, in which he says, in reference to his need of soldiers in place of those who had deserted: "The detachment of dragoons on their march to the Department with the collector of this district and the Arkansas emigrants, have not yet arrived." Among those who contributed individual effort in going out to meet the trains I can name only a few first of all General Sutter; Sam Brannan of Sacramento, who was identified with the so-called "Mormon battalion "; Colonel Gillespie, formerly United States consul for Lower California, then a merchant in Sacramento; General Morehouse, Dr. Semple, and, I may safely say, the business men of Sacramento generally. There were others, but at this late day it is impossible to name them. Even the name of the comrade who accompanied the writer is forgotten.

Among those who came to Auburn in May, 1849, was Dr. Deal of Baltimore, a physician and a Methodist preacher. He was very enthusiastic in stating his purpose to become one of the "honest miners," and calling a gathering together with a long tin dinner-horn,

he expressed his intention to dig with them, and to institute divine worship the next Sunday, and he closed by making the hills echo with a cheery hymn. Monday morning's sunrise saw the doctor in the mines with tin pan, pick, and shovel. Eleven o'clock saw him with his shovel battered, his pick broken, his hands bruised and blistered, and his clothes muddy, placing his tools and tin horn in a wagon bound for Sutter's Fort. It was well he did, for together with another good Samaritan he leased a part of Sutter's Fort for a hospital, and when the forlorn bands of immigrants reached the Fort they found medical attention and care, which in many cases saved life or eased the passage to the grave.

The" Long Bar " mining claim on Bear Creek, where I was located, lay in the route of arriving immigrants, on the Sutter's Fort trail, a hundred miles from the fort. I shall never forget the sight presented by the tired, starved, sick, and discouraged travelers, with their bony and foot-sore cattle and teams. Men, women, and children, and animals were in every state of distress and emaciation. Some had left everything along the way, abandoning wagons and worn-out cattle to the wolves

leaving even supplies of clothing, flour, and food — and in utter desperation and extremity had packed their own backs with flour and bacon; some had utilized the backs of surviving oxen for the same purpose; and a few of the immigrants had thus made the last 600 miles on foot, exhausted, foot-sore, and starving.

Such as we could we relieved from our simple camp stores of flour, bacon, and coffee. Our blankets were spread on the ground for our nightly rest, always after an evening bath in the cooling snow-waters of Bear Creek, and our sleep was sweet and sound. But there was no comfort or relief for those worn-out men, women, and children. The few of us in that lonely river bed in the mountains did what we could, and then urged them on to Sutter's Fort and Sacramento.

I remember well the arrival of a once stalwart man, reduced almost to a skeleton. His comrades had perished on the way with cholera, his cattle had given out, and, selecting what he could carry that was most essential, he had finished the journey on foot. Reaching the place where we were digging and washing out the gold, he threw himself upon the ground, and said:

"And now I've reached at last where you dig out the gold. For this I have sacrificed everything. I had a comfortable home, but I got 'the fever.' Everything is gone, my comrades are dead, and this is all there is left of me. I thought I would be glad to get here, but I am not. I don't feel the least desire to dig gold now. All I ask for is rest-rest-rest. It seems to me as if I never could get rested again. I want to find home-home-and there is no home here."

He inquired how far it was to Sutter's Fort, and refusing proffered food or a look at the gold, he staggered feebly on again to look for "rest" and "home."

In September the swarm of immigrants became so continuous and their condition was so wretched, that I obtained one of their mules that seemed able to carry me, and giving up my business of gold-digging for a time started with a comrade up the Truckee River route to advise and encourage the new-comers. Here I witnessed many sorrowful scenes among sick and hungry women and children just ready to die, and dead and dying cattle. The cattle were usually reduced to skeletons. There was no grass, and they were fed solely by cutting down trees for them to browse on. But the cattle were too many for this supply of food along the trail. I once counted as many as thirty yoke hitched together to pull an almost empty wagon up a hillside, while to descend an incline it was necessary to chain a large tree to the back of the wagon, with all its limbs attached that they might impede the descent of the wagon, for the cattle were entirely too weak to of fer the necessary resistance. One after another the wagons would follow, and thus slowly work their way up and down the mountain sides of the Sierra pass, while the women and children wearily plodded along in the deep, dry, and exceedingly dusty trail. Some fared better, but I apprehend few would ever care to pass twice through the hardships of the overland journey of '49.

As an instance of courage and suffering: A preacher, of the Methodist Church in Indiana, accompanied by his wife (a delicate little woman) and three children, started overland with ox teams. On the journey he was suddenly attacked with dysentery and had to lie helpless in the bottom of his wagon, vibrat

ing between life and death. His brave little wife took his place, walked by the side of the team and guided them; but she lost her way, and for two weeks, with husband and children to care for, trudged along alone until by good fortune or a good Providence she found the trail again. I afterward made their acquaintance in Columbia, where he was pastor of the Methodist church. Wishing his church sealed inside, he took off his clerical coat, chopped wood, broke up limestone boulders, burned them into lime, and with his own hands plastered the interior of the church in good style.

At first we tried to give the new-comers employment on our mining claims, but in every case but one their strength was not equal to the labor of digging gold, and on they swept, all eager to reach a "settlement." Some in their enthusiasm had, at great sacrifice, dragged along strange, heavy, and wonderful patent devices to work out the gold. Often they had thrown away their flour and bacon, thus reducing themselves to starvation, to make room for their pet machine, which on trial was found utterly worthless, and was left to rust or rot in the mines.

Special relief parties were also sent up the trail with supplies of food, medicine, and other necessaries, as well as with fresh animals, and many immigrants were safely brought in, before the snows fell in the mountains, who otherwise might have perished in the storms of early fall. A. C. Ferris.

A Fourth Survivor of the Gold Discovery Party.

REV. JAMES GILLILAN, of Nephi, Utah, informs us that in addition to the three survivors of the party at Sutter's Mill at the time of the discovery of gold in California- namely, Messrs. Bigler, Smith, and Wimmer, as stated by Mr. Hittell in our February number - there is a fourth survivor, Mr. Wilford Hudson (not "Willis" as printed on page 530 of that number). Mr. Hudson is living at Grantsville, Tooele County, Utah, and his description of the circumstances of the gold discovery, says our informant, substantially accords with Mr. Hittell's account."