28 READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 



the Oregon country had been penetrated by 

 the hardy and enterprising agents of great com 

 mercial interests centring respectively at Saint 

 Louis and Montreal. All that was provided 

 by the treaty was that the whole region, so far 

 as claimed by either Great Britain or the United 

 States, should for ten years be free and open to 

 the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two 

 powers. 



The most satisfactory feature of the conven 

 tion of 1 8 1 8, so far as concerned delimitation of 

 territory, was the provision by which a thou 

 sand miles of the boundary was made dependent 

 upon the fairly certain mechanical processes 

 of the surveyor. An astronomical line will in 

 deed vary with the personality of the men 

 and the precision of the instruments employed 

 in determining it, but it is certainty itself as 

 compared with most other customary means 

 of demarcation. A -priori one might suppose 

 that geographical features, such as rivers and 

 mountains, fixed by nature beyond the ordinary 

 power of man to change, would furnish the 

 most satisfactory boundaries. Experience has 

 proved, however, that this is very far from the 

 truth. Not until the present century, when 

 almost every mile of the thousands in North 



