FOREST commissioner's REPORT. l6l 



Value. 



The resolve under which this investigation is made directs 

 the Land Agent to determine the value of these islands. An 

 examination of the above list of islands reported as unconveyed. 

 will show that many of them are small islets and ledges of but 

 little value — for the most part they would not warrant the ex- 

 pense of an examination, and even then any estimate of value 

 would be largely speculative. Of the larger islands reported. I 

 have given their value so far as I could get an opinion of the 

 same by the assessors of the towns in which they are located. 

 I have made an entry of same on my index cards. 



Ownership. 



The above islands appear never to have been conveyed by 

 Maine or Massachusetts. A number of them, especially those 

 near the mainland, are claimed by various persons who have 

 been in possession of them for years and paid the taxes assessed 

 upon them. I have in mind one island — York, just east of 

 Isle au Haut — of which I find no such conveyance, and yet find 

 records of its conveyance by its claimants as early as 1798. Of 

 such islands, I have made entry on my index cards of such facts 

 as I have been able to learn as to their claimants. 



Has the State title to such islands? There are two things to 

 be considered, which I will discuss briefly : 



I. Bar Islands: There are many islands either barred to the 

 mainland, or some larger island, by bars which are laid bare at 

 some stage of the tide, which have always been claimed by the 

 owners of the adjoining lands and conveyed by them in their 

 conveyances of such, or claimed by the successive owners of 

 such lands. 



It seems to me that such an island is no less a separate and 

 distinct island because of the fact of its being connected either 

 to the mainland or another island by such a bar, and being such, 

 would not pass in deeds from the State as appurtenant thereto. 



Of course, in some instances, this fact might depend upon 

 the construction of a particular deed given by the State of such 

 adjoining land. If such lands or islands were deeded by refer- 

 ence to a plan, the plan would control — this might show the 

 ■ barred island as a separate island, or as part of the adjoining 



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