358 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
strongly American, seem to me remarkably calm and clear expositions 
of the subject. 
But the full monographic history of the north-west angle contro- 
versy is yet to be written, and offers an inviting field to some future 
historian. 
(d)—The Final Water Line. 
The assignment of the Passamaquoddy Islands under the fourth 
article of the Treaty of' Ghent already considered (pages 278-295), gave 
by implication a boundary line between those islands, but did not locate 
it in detail. With the increasing population in this region, however, 
the need for a more exact location of the boundary began to be felt. 
Certain ledges good for fishing were claimed by the fishermen of both 
nations, and disputes as to their ownership often became violent. Again, 
smugglers or other lawbreakers captured on the water often claimed that 
they were taken within the limits of the other nation. These difficulties 
became finally of sufficient importance to induce the two governments to 
attempt to settle the question, and accordingly in July, 1892, a con- 
vention was signed between Great Britain and the United States pro- 
viding for a commission to determine the question. There was ap- 
pointed on the part of Great Britain Hon. W. F. King, of Ottawa, and 
for the United States, Professor T. C. Mendenhall. An account of the 
work of the commission has been published by Professor Mendenhall,* 
and from this the following description of the operations of the com- 
mission has been taken. 
The commissioners met at Washington in March, 1893. It was 
decided that, since neither the physics of the estuary nor the topography 
of the shores indicated a boundary, the principle should be followed of 
giving to each nation as nearly as possible equal water areas. It was 
agreed, also, in view of the impossibility of marking out curved lines on 
the water, that the boundary should be marked by straight lines fixed 
by buoys and range-marks set up upon the shores, and that such lines 
should be as few as possible in number. It was also decided to mark 
the entire boundary left unmarked by the earlier commissions, namely, 
from the mouth of the St. Croix at Joes Point to West Quoddy Head in 
the Bay of Fundy. Upon these principles the greater part of the bound- 
ary was laid down upon a large scale chart, but the commissioners were 
unable to agree upon certain minor points. Accordingly the commis- 

1 “Twenty unsettled Miles of ,the Northeastern Boundary.’ Report of 
the Council of the American Antiquarian Society, 1897, 24pp. and sketch map. 
The paper opens with an historical discussion of the boundaries in this region, 
not entirely accurate, nor characterized always by that fairness which one 
expects from a boundary Commissioner and a distinguished man of Science. 
