The Alaska citizen., 1913-12-08

..'''-'EN 't AitiSNah ElacttrS the buNnt- -Fy of Alaska Is located differently from similar international boundaries winch are dcj,rmiucd in relation b "oan,uu ranges and permanent eoa-t-Huss. If the portion of the boundary mar Glacier bay and Muir Elari~r were tp be redrtcrmined now, Asaska would Include portion of what Is British Columbia If the boundary near Mount st Elias and AaEH,at hay had been located early In tHe nineteenth century. Alaska aua.d lave included part of what k nov. fakea Territory.
 Tn" boundary. however. was set }itd in 1909. and for all time. IL ts trn marine leagues. or about B miles. from the coast. Certain ela- gl.r fronts have had advances and rre.ssieHs of % to 60 miles: and as ibtse glaciers, rather than the solid !aH4 determined the coast. an element 'aters into the situation which was mt considered by the Joint Bound trg commission of Great Britain and he United States.
 Most of the glaciers in the world are esciIlatinG at the terminus, some nmss moving forward to more ad- Eaucei position. sometimes melting #f k. Such oscillations are always taking place. In the Alps the advance or ret.eat is measured in feet. in Alaska in miles. The ease described ae low is a typical case Of great re trat in Alaska. whereby 4 bouu lary- line is disturbed
 When capt George Vancouver ,is- -t'd soutasastern Alaska, in the lat ttr fart of tu" eighteenth century. sae siaciers Were at q flood stage TLe ford which We now call Glacier tay Was filled with glacier ice to within two or three miles of the mouth. About 1s14. according to the natives. the great ice tongue of GlA- rier hay Was advancing. ... Between i>f4 and 1S79-s0. when Glacier bay waS visited ana explored by the great American naturalist John Muir. tllere was sisantie retreat of the glacier | was dismtmbcred into nine separ- ate te" tongues, of which one. sub s,4uentiy named Muir glacier. lad melted back 70 to T miles. and anoth- er. Grand Pacific glacier. about 10 lHItos A great ford was rcopenea fo the waters of tHe sea by this re treat"
 Hy 1s9f the retreat of Muir glaefer in the eighty years since 1sl4. had attained over 25 miles. while Granl Pacific glacier had reeeeded 4l miles This k of interest as noted above be- '1use the portion of the Canada-A Alas ka boundary near Glacier bay, settled hy treaty in 1903, was subsequently demarked upon the basis of the gla ,i,r tormini as they were in 1Se4 From lH9i to 1911 Muir glacier re- treated nine miles and Grand Pacific ~lacicr ten miles. Altogether, there Was recession of about GO miles rom 1S1f to 1912, Is miles of this listance in the period of recent visits Following that of Muir in 1879, and about l2 miles since 1894 Thus a tierd as long as the great Hardanger Fiord in Norway has been entirely revealed by the glacier recession of 60 miles in the HIS years since l7st To quote further:
 ''The international boundary crosses the valley occupied by Grand Pacific siactor about l2 miles northwest of fAe ice front of 1894. Here a portion 9f the hoHndary-lne was placed less than &5 statute miles from the sup toS"d head of the bay This was probably in order to run it in direct lin" to Mt Fairweather, which was desired as boundary peak It is certain that this portion of the bound ary was not located in the expeeta ton of such a great retreat of GranJ Pacific glacier as has since taken place.
 "on August l. 1912. the Grand Paci- fife glacier had reeeeded so far that It's terminus was in British Colum- bia rather than in Alaska, and Cana la has acquired a new harbor. At this point the glacier surface rose 1,15O feet above the sea-level in 1894, ut had melted down to 75O feet in 1907. and had all disappeared in This new seaport lies in a snowy desert land and is reached only by ! 'raversins American waters; but in tine spirit of the original treaty Cana da should have no harbor whatever in this region. The international boundary is now fixed and, of course,
 i'll not be changed merely because the terminus of tidal glacier was accepted as the head of the bay and the bay was later enlarged by re- l trogression of its head. If the bound i 'ry had been adjudicated soon after Vancouver made his map in 17s4, with the Muir ice front 34 miles and tn. 1 Grand Pacific ice front 60 miles from it's 1912 position. Canada would have gained hundreds of square miles of territory. If the boundary were under