Wichita eagle., 1888-06-03

travels through the country itself by which
the information was gained; and there is
certainly nothing more interesting than
travel and exploration through such varied
country as Alaska.
One of the most comm On popular fallacleS
about this distant colony of ours is that re-
garding its size, and it seems TO be the hard
est 10 remove For years Alaska has been
compared with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Da-
kota and other States and Territories, or
! with France, Germany and other European
countries when il would have conveyed a
more correct idea Of its enormous area to
havo compared it with the United States or
with Europe themselves than with any Of
their subdivisions. One cause Of this is
partially to be found In the few maps seen
Of that far-a!vay country which are gener-
allv to be found in one corner OF a map OF
the United States, and drawn on q scale of
a thousand miles TO the inch II that OF the
mother country is on a scale Of Cne-tenth as
much. Looking at such charts. area for
area. Alaska is no larger than Alabama or
Dakota at the outside, when in reality It IS
as large as that portion of the United States
east of the Mississippi river with probably
the line OF the Gulf States removed. There
Is an area il Alaska greater than the great
State of Texas that has never yet been
trodden by the foot Of civilized man, while
its coast line no doubt exceeds that OF the
whole of the United States on the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans and Gulf OF Mexico put
together. It IS very hard to realize its en-
ormous size while we think Of it only aS
Territory to be compared with our petty
Territories at home along side OF any of
which it is almost continent. ! have tray
eled dozen times across the United States
from ocean to ocean, on nearly every par
alIel, and some way 1t seems to be mitch
smaller than Alaska, across whose breadth
7 have been bat once. Probably because the
former trips were mostly by railroad while
the latter was by slow, drifting along AL
aska's greatest river, the ukon, that the
erroneous impression exists: but | must &C
knowledge that l nave acquired it in some
way And vet this error OF mine Is less an
exaggeration than that Of the popular opin
ion in the other way as to its small size, II
they will insist on comparing it with various
States and Territories Of the Union.
I lectured one evening before a scientific
society in the East on that portion of Alaska
over which l had Travelled, and they fur
nshed me with an immense map OF that
territory. the construction of which | super
intended. The unexplored parts Of the
| country l did not FIJI in with hypothetical
rivers and mythical mountain ranges, as is
so often the case with maps of new coun-
tries, and TO which Alaska is no exception,
and as consequence there were many
large blank spaces left on the huge chart
which almost filed the end of the hall. l
thought it would be a good idea to convey
proper comprehension of the size Of our col
ony to pin q black paper silhouette map of
the State in which l was lecturing up in the
| corner of the big white chart and refer to it
early in my lecture, but this part l forgot,
not mentioning it till the last, when some
friends told me. after my talk was over,