The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-25
THE ALASKA BOUNDARY.
Miners Fear the Provisional Line
VIII BE Made Permanent.

Fear that the provisional boundary Ia
Alaska. as established by the modus vi
vendi Of October 20 1889. particularly in
the neighborhood of the Dalton trail will
be made permanent. is believed to be the
ground for the protests from the Ameri-
can miners in Alaska. by Otto H. Tit
mann. Assistant Superintendent of the
United States Coast and Geodetic Sur
vey, and American member Of the Alaska
Boundary Commission.
With Mr.. King the Canadian Commits
sfoner. Mr. Tittmann. staked out the pro-
visional line in accordance with the terms
of that agreement He has just returned
from Alaska and went over the whole
subject last night.
Before entering upon the discussion Mr.
Tittnlann emphasized the point that the
line of the modus viyendi was not set
Element of the boundary question in any
sense but simply an agreement on the
part of both governments to have their
citizens treated fairly and justly in Ger
tain disputed districts pending perma-
nent adjustment
1.-THE lines run by the Canadian Com
missioner and myself under the proyi-
sioRs of the modus yivendi' he continued,
'Ieave the whole of the Porcupine Greek
and its afIiuents under American jurfsdic-
ton.
1T will also be seen that while this line
is from five to ten miles inside Of the ten
marine-Ieague boundary it is from fifty to
sixty miles above the line claimed by the
British before the Joint High Commits
sion discussion. II excludes the British
from access to tidewater except through
American territory
Asked whether the Commissioners found
the maps on which the modus vivendi mad
been founded were in any way incorrect
Mr.. TittmanE REPLIED:
"A very excellent general map was made
of the whole region in 1888 before any min
ing claims whatever had been located,
based entirely on the photo-t topographic
method. These photographs enabled the
negotiators Of the modus vivendi TO trace
the contemplated lines exactly as they
we're afterward run by the surveyors who
have just returned. We could have identi-
fed the mountain peaks that were specified
ia the modus vivendi from the photographs
alone. but. Of course, there were maps anG
other means available also
Many claims" explained Mr.. Tittmann,
have been located on Glacier and Boulder
creeks. which parallel the Poreupine, but
little if any mining is being done on these
claims which. under the modus yivendi,
are QudtF liS uIlSutStipu VI me SeALle@IAS'A4
Government
AS these two streams are within the
ten-marine-I league limit the miners who
had staked them cut and who are nov en-
gagged on the Porcupine believed that their
explorations were being made in American
territory.
The protests that are being made by the
Porcupine miners are, l am informed on
account of this fact. They have great
faith in the gold bearing character Of this
region, and naturally haEe strong desire
% have it American territory, as they had
always believed il 70 be.
The claims that can be staked out IN
der the British mining laws are much
smaller than the American claims. Under
the terms OF the modus viyendi, however,
the miners who have staked out claims on
the Canadian side OF the provisional line
cannot suffer. as the modus viyendi eX-
pressly provides that claims already stalk
ed out shall not be disturbed -