FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. II5 



"That the Land Agent under the direction of the Governor 

 and Council is hereby authorized and required to sell all the 

 islands on the coast belonging to the State, at public, auction, 

 after suitable plans and examination shall have been made, and 

 proper notice given of the time and place of such sale in such 

 newspapers as may be deemed necessary." 



Under this act the Land Agent, Edwin C. Burleigh, made an 

 investigation of island titles along the coast with an idea of 

 determining what islands the state still owned, a committee from 

 the Council visiting many of the islands. The result of this 

 investigation is shown in the Land Agent's report for 1876: 



"Under the provisions of the statute of 1876, Chapter 79, 

 entitled 'An Act to authorize the sale of islands belonging to 

 the State,' a very thorough examination was made into the title 

 of the very many islands which skirt the coast of Maine, in 

 order to ascertain what had been sold, also to determine what 

 remained to be sold under the act. The search necessarily car- 

 ried the examination back to the earliest history of the State, 

 even to the time of the Revolution and before, and involved 

 a great amount of labor and research among the archives of 

 Massachusetts and Maine. The investigation thus instituted 

 disclosed certain conveyances and grants of very many of the 

 islands at different times, the perpetuation of which informa- 

 tion has been thought of sufficient interest and importance to 

 warrant their publication in connection with this report. The 

 schedules H and I annexed contain lists of all such, with the 

 dates of the grants and names of grantees or purchasers. 



"Besides those thus granted and conveyed, a list of sixty-six 

 in number remained, the title of which appears never to have 

 passed from the State. As many of these were more or less in 

 occupation of individuals, the committee of the Council on 

 public lands visited the islands so far as they are located west 

 of the line of Washington County, and ascertained the facts 

 respecting them. This investigation leads to the conclusion 

 that the title of all of these was still in the State, and therefore 

 subject to be sold under the Act referred to. 



"A public sale of all of these was accordingly made at Rock- 

 land on the 2 1 St day of November, 1876, previous notice having 

 been given according to the Act. Payment has since been made 

 and deeds executed of the whole list, except those which will 



