FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 1 39 



"It includes the whole of the present County of Knox, except 

 the Fox Islands, and of Waldo County, except what is now 

 Troy, Burnham, Unity, Freedom, Palermo and a part of Liberty. 

 Subsequent surveys added a portion of Penobscot County." 



This tract came afterwards into the possession of Brigadier 

 General Waldo, and from him descended to the family of Gen- 

 eral Knox. The part of the above grant applicable to islands is 

 as follows : "Together with all islands lying and being within 

 a space of three miles within the space of said land and premises 

 or any of them." 



This grant was confirmed to the heirs of General Waldo by 

 Resolve July 4, 1785. The part applicable to islands reads as 



« 



follows : 



"Together with all islands whose center falls within three 

 miles of any part of the land before described." Other resolves 

 applicable to this grant are: February 17, 1798 — February 23, 

 1798 — February 5, 1800. 



The construction of that part of this grant applicable to islands 

 was before the Maine court on report in Lazell vs. Boardman, 

 reported in 103 Maine, page 292. The issue there was whether 

 Ensign Islands deeded to the plaintiff by Maine in 1879 was 

 within the Waldo Patent, and that point depended on whether 

 the statute of the marine mile was contemplated by the terms o{ 

 this grant. The court said : 



"It is not claimed that the State acquired any title to any part 

 of the territory or islands included in the Muscongus Grant or 

 Waldo Patent. It is likewise agreed that the island, if measured 

 by the statute mile, is more than three miles from the mainland, 

 and therefore became the property of the State by the Articles 

 of Separation from Massachusetts; and if measured by the geo- 

 graphical or marine mile, that it is less than three miles from the 

 mainland, and consequently became a part of the Muscongus or 

 W'aldo Patent, and was never owned by the State." 



The court held that the three mile limit should be measured 

 by the marine mile, which defeated the title granted by the State. 



A great many islands lie within these limits none of which 

 appear in the index of Islands Granted at the Land Office as 

 ever having been conveyed. As per the scale of the coast charts 

 which I adopted as a basis for this work, such islands as appear 

 to be within the three mile limit, as above defined, I have entered 



