386 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
it was used to meet the expenses of the arbitration of 1851 and of mark- 
ing out the line in 1853-1855. 
In the above-cited letter of Governor Colebrooke (Sept. 30, 1842), 
he pointed out the unsettled condition of the boundary, and the unex- 
plored state of the country in which the boundary should run ; he has 
had the Restigouche explored by Gesner, the provincial geologist (whose 
report accompanies the letter, and is of interest), and had sent 
Mr. Wilkinson 1 to explore the country east of the St. Francis, and sug- 
gests that a regular survey of the region in dispute should be made 
without delay. Gesner had considered the Kedgewick as the main 
Restigouche, and Governor Colebrooke states that it is navigated by the 
lumberers of New Brunswick for over 100 miles; he then continues :— 
Besides the ordinary objections to a River Boundary, the Restigouche 
would thus constitute a very inconvenient Frontier between Canada and New 
Brunswick ; and recurring to the natural principle of the Boundary Settle- 
ment of 1788, that of a Line along the Highlands dividing the waters flowing 
in opposite directions, I am inclined to think that the most eligible Line of 
separation between the two Provinces would be a direct one from the Saint 
Francis to the heights which formed the limits of the American claims, and 
which their Surveyors explored in the last year, and along those Heights 
to the eastward. 
(Northern Boundary, CIII.) 
A later reference in the letter shows that by a direct line from the 
Saint Francis he means the continuation of the international straight 
line terminating there (maps No. 30, 33). 
This letter shows the New Brunswick opinion was much the same 
as earlier, and that she still claimed to the northern highlands and still 
ignored the fact that she had no legal claim westward of the north line, 
although by this time some claim might justly be set up by her on the 
ground of her long occupation of Madawaska. Governor Colebrooke’s 
proposition, however, was the first proposal to yield to Quebec the great. 
tongue of land between the northern highlands and the international 
boundary west of the St. Francis (map No. 30), a territory which on 
the ground of convenience of administration appertains naturally to 
Quebec but is useless to New Brunswick. 
In his reply, Oct. 25, 1842, Lord Stanley concurs in the desir- 
ability of a settlement of the boundary, and directs Governor Colebrooke 
to place himself in communication with the Governor-General of Canada 
on the subject. It was evidently the desire of the Home Government. 
that the questions should be settled by mutual agreement between the 

1 Mr. Wilkinson made a Report upon the subject, cited by Wells in his 
Report of 1844, but I have been unable to find a copy of it. In it he proposed 
a number of conventional lines as substitutes for the natural boundaries. 

