CONSTITUTION 17 



JURISDICTION. ART. XV 



channel of the Shoshone or Snake river ; thence follow down the 

 middle of the main channel of Snake river to a point opposite 

 the mouth of the Kooskooskia or Clear Water river ; thence due 

 north to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude ; thence west 

 along said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of 

 the channel which separates Vancouver's Island from the conti- 

 nent, that is to say to a point in longitude 123 degrees, 19 min- 

 utes and 15 seconds west; thence follow the boundary line be- 

 tween the United States and British possessions through the 

 channel which separates Vancouver's Island from the continent 

 to the termination of the boundary line between the United 

 States and British possessions at a point in Pacific ocean equi- 

 distant between Bonnilla point on Vancouver's Island and Ta- 

 toosh Island lighthouse; thence running in a southerly course 

 and parallel with the coast line, keeping one marine league off 

 shore, to place of beginning. 



Consent of Congress to adjustment of Columbia River boundary: 

 Laws, sec. 638, post. 



Appointment of boundary commission: Laws '09, p. 1039. 



The middle of the north ship channel of the Columbia river, described as the 

 boundary in the act of Congress admitting Oregon into the Union (11 Stat. L., 

 383) remains the boundary, subject to changes in it which result from accretion ; 

 and the boundary does not shift to another channel because, in the course of 

 years, the latter may become the more important and is properly called the main 

 channel of the river: Washington v. Oregon, 211 U. S. 127 (53 L. Ed., 118). 

 Same, 214 U. S. 205 (53 L. Ed., 969). 



Desdemona Sands and Snag Island are within the boundaries of the state of 

 Oregon : idem. 



ART. XXV, SEC. 1. JURISDICTION. 



The consent of the State of Washington is hereby given to 

 the exercise, by the congress of the United States of exclusive 

 legislation in all cases whatsoever over such tracts or parcels 

 of land as are now held or reserved by the government of the 

 United States for the purpose of erecting or maintaining thereon 

 forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, lighthouses, and other 

 needful buildings, in accordance with the provisions of the 

 seventeenth paragraph of the eighth section of the first article 

 of the constitution of the United States, so long as the same shall 

 be so held and reserved by the United States : Provided, That a 



