PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 41 



Of the many questions which arose, however, the most impor- 

 tant was in regard to the line which should mark the outer limit 

 of the River St. Lawrence. During the discussion which pre- 

 <;eded the settlement of the Northeastern Boundary, the British 

 Government indirectly claimed that the mouth of -that river was 

 defined by a line drawn from Cape Rozier to the Island of Anti- 

 costi, and thence to the Mingan Islands on the north shore, and 

 until very lately the Gazetteers and many maps have assigned to 

 it the same relative position. The British Commissioner under 

 the Reciprocity Treaty presented a claim to the same line which, 

 if it had been yielded to, would have excluded the fishermen of 

 the United States from a part of the sea more extensive than the 

 Bays of Chaleur, Fundy, Delaware, and Chesapeake put together. 

 To meet this claim, the river from Quebec to the Gulf was exam- 

 ined, and an argument prepared, based upon the discharge of the 

 inland current of fresh water ; the parallelism or divergence of 

 the banks ; the freshets and their effects, the tides and currents ; 

 and the depth, specific gravity, and coldness of the water between 

 the mouth of the Saguenay and the Island of Anticosti', which 

 showed that the river and its mouth terminated perhaps at Red 

 Island Bank, and certainly at Pr. de Mouts. The area embraced 

 within the two lines claimed respectively by the United States 

 and Great Britain contained over 10,000 square miles of sea, 

 valuable for its fisheries. 



The British Commissioner finally yielded, and the outer limit 

 of the mouth of the St. Lawrence was established by a line drawn 

 from Pr. de Monts to Cape Chatte. The watei's between that 

 line and the Island of Anticosti constitute the northwest arm of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



19th Meeting. January 21, 1872. 



The President in the Chair. 



Mr, J. J. Woodward made some remarks 



ON the -DESIRABILITY OF REPRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHS OF SCIEN- 

 TIFIC OBJECTS, AND ESPECIALLY OF MAGNIFIED MICROSCOPICAL 

 PREPARATIONS, IN A PERMANENT FORM BY SOME PHOTO-MECHAN- 

 ICAL METHOD. 



