FOREST commissioner's REPORT. I29 



islets lying within ten leagues directly opposite to the mainland 

 zmthin the said bounds." 



The Governor and Assembly were authorized to make grants 

 within the Province of Maine — Portsmouth to the Kennebec — 

 but provided "no grant or grants of land between Sagadahoc to 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence to be of any force, validity or effect 

 until approved by the King." 



It will be seen that the rig'ht to govern the territory east of 

 the Kennebec was granted to Massachusetts, but the right to 

 the soil remained in the King. This continued during the re- 

 mainder of the Colonial Period. This point was under con- 

 sideration in Hill vs. Dyer, 3 Maine, page 441, lands in the town 

 of Sullivan granted during this period being involved. 



Treaty of Paris — September 3, 1883. 



By this treaty Great Britain acknowledged the independence 

 of the United States and relinquished the claim to the govern- 

 ment and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof. 



The East boundary was defined in this treaty as follows : 



"Ea.st by a line to be drawn along the middle of the River 

 St. Croix from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and 

 from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands, whicli 

 divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those 

 which fall into the River St. Lawrence; comprehending all 

 islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the 

 United States, and lying between lands to be drawn due east 

 from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova 

 Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the other, shall 

 respectively touch the bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean, 

 excepting such islands as now are or heretofore have been 

 within the limits of Nova Scotia." 



It will be seen by this treaty that whatever title remained in 

 the British Crown to the lands and islands of the territory now 

 embraced in the State of Maine, passed to Massachusetts Bay. 

 Thus Massachusetts acquired title to such part of the coast and 

 islands between the Kennebec and St. Croix as remained in the 

 Crown. 



Lands Between the Penobscot and St. Croix. 



Perhaps something should be said here of the French occupa- 

 tion and claims to the eastern part of our coast, although no 



9 



