tittmann: our northern boundaries 41 



In this cursory account we have now reached the summit of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The controversies connected with the Oregon 

 question were formally settled by the Treaty of 1846 which defined 

 the boundary from the summit to the Pacific Ocean. 



That portion of the boundary which was described as running to 

 the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Van- 

 couver's Island and thence southerly thru the middle of said 

 channel and of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific Ocean gave rise to a 

 serious and prolonged controversy as to which channel was meant, 

 a controversy in which insufficient charts played but a minor part, 

 but which would have been avoided if the treaty makers had laid 

 down the line concurrently with the making of the Treaty, This 

 dispute was submitted to the German Emperor who decided in 

 favor of the United States by the award of October, 1872. 



A review of the condition of the demarcation of the northern 

 boundary when Secretaries Hay and Root undertook to perfect it, 

 discloses that from Grand Manan Channel to the headwaters of 

 the St. Croix, a distance of 110 miles, the boundary had not been 

 marked on any series of maps nor had reference monuments been 

 placed on the ground. 



From the headwaters of the St. Croix to the River St. John it 

 was monumented. Thru the St. John and to the headwaters 

 of the St. Francis it was marked on treaty maps. Thence to 

 the St. Lawrence it was monumented and laid down on maps. 



Thru the Great Lakes and thru the water communication, 

 to the northwestern angle of the Lake of the Woods, a dis- 

 tance of 1500 miles it was unmarked, but was laid down on inac- 

 curate maps and therefore impossible of definition on the ground 

 by either government acting for itself. 



It was marked at intervals from the Lake of the Woods to the 

 Gulf of Georgia, but in the region between the summit of the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Georgia, a distance of 410 miles, 

 about 220 miles had never been surveyed, traced or monumented. 

 From Point Roberts on the Gulf of Georgia to the Pacific Ocean 

 it was laid down on a chart, but had never been referred to objects 

 on shore or defined with such accuracy that it could be reproduced 

 without question. This condition was giving rise to international 

 questions on different parts of the boundary. 



