READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 27 



territory from the Lake of the Woods to the 

 Pacific Ocean. No serious controversy devel 

 oped over this matter, not because the views 

 of the two parties were entirely harmonious, 

 but because the occupation of the vast wilder 

 ness concerned was as yet on too limited a scale 

 to raise any immediate issue. From the Lake 

 of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Moun 

 tains it was easily agreed that the forty-ninth 

 degree of latitude should be the boundary. As 

 no one knew the position of the lake with refer 

 ence to the parallel, but all felt sure that a 

 meridian from the lake would cross the parallel 

 somewhere, it was provided that from the 

 northwestern point of the lake a north and 

 south line should be run, if necessary, to inter 

 sect the parallel, and this line, with the paral 

 lel, should mark the boundary. West of the 

 Rocky Mountains, however, the Oregon coun 

 try, with its great rivers and its long and much 

 indented Pacific coast, presented problems and 

 possibilities of such obvious magnitude that 

 neither party was especially eager to press for 

 a definitive adjustment till fuller knowledge 

 was forthcoming. Both British and American 

 merchants had established fur-trading stations 

 on the coast, and from the opposite direction 



