Russia agreed to limit her claims
to the country north of 54.40 deg.. The States subsequently acquired
California and other adjoining states during their war with Mexico
in 1848, just before gold was discovered in the Sacramento valley.
The land between California and Alaska was held in joint possession
between Great Britain and the States, and was known as the Oregon
Territory. Lewis and Clarke had explored the Columbia River, while
Vancouver had much earlier examined the island which now bears his
name, so that both countries appear to have some rights of discovery
to the district. At one time the inhabitants of the States were
inclined to claim all the country as far as the Russian boundary
54.40 deg., and a war-cry arose "54.40 deg. or fight;" but in 1846 the
territory was divided by the 49th parallel, and at this date we may
say the partition of America was complete, and all that remained
to be known of it was the ice-bound northern coast, over which so
much heroic enterprise has been displayed.

The history of geographical discovery in America is thus in large
measure a history of conquest. Men got to know both coast-line and
interior while endeavouring either to trade or to settle where
nature was propitious, or the country afforded mineral or vegetable
wealth that could be easily transported. Of the coast early knowledge
was acquired for geography; but where the continent broadens out
either north or south, making the interior inaccessible for trade
purposes with the coasts, ignorance remained even down to the present
century. Even to the present day the country south of the valley
of the Amazon is perhaps as little known as any portion of the
earth's surface, while, as we have seen, it was not till the early
years of this century that any knowledge was acquired of the huge
tract of country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.
It was the natural expansion of the United States, rendered possible
by the cession of this tract to the States by Napoleon in 1803,
that brought it within the knowledge of all. That expansion was
chiefly due to the improved methods of communication which steam
has given to mankind only within this century. But for this the
region east of the Rocky Mountains would possibly be as little
known to Europeans, even at the present day, as the Soudan or
Somaliland. It is owing to this natural expansion of the States,
and in minor measure of Canada, that few great names of geographica