302 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
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Map No. 29. Mitchell, 1755, second edition. 
Tracing from Copy in ‘‘ Statement on the 
Part of the United States ” ; 

X 
Evidently they investigated the 
legal boundaries of those coun- 
tries, for in the treaty they use 
the language, as we have seen, 
of their legal foundations. In 
establishing the north-west 
angle in another place how- 
ever, they still retained the 
phrase of their instructions, 
which fitted the new position 
as well as the old." 
In both instructions and treaty 
the phrase north-west angle of 
Nova Scotia is used, not as a 
proper name but simply as a 
descriptive phrase, to describe 
acertain point. The treaty was 
describing the boundaries of the 
United States, and must have 
for them a starting place, which 
must be a definite determined 
point capable of description by 
a descriptive name ; these re- 
quirements the north-west angle 
of Nova Scotia well fulfilled, 
and no doubt there was no place 
on the whole circumference of 
the States which fulfilled them 
better. 
However, this may be, the 
fact is that the description does 
start there, and proceeds around 
the circumference of the United 
States back to this point. But 
naturally, since the north-west 
angle of Nova Scotia was simply 
a descriptive phrase, and not a 

1 The desire to appear to adhere 
as closely as possible to their in- 
structions was of course a natural 
one, despite their liberty to deviate 
from them when needful. We have 
already seen (page 291) into what 
an absurdity an adherence to the 
language of the instructions with 
a change in their substance led 
them elsewhere. 
