Vol. XIV, No. 3 



WASHINGTON 



March, 1903 



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THE CANADIAN BOUNDARY 



A Review of the Methods by which the L,ine has been Adjusted 



and Marked 



By Hon. John W. Foster, Ex-Secretary of State 



IN view of the interest which has 

 been awakened in the boundary 

 question by the Hay-Herbert 

 treaty, recently ratified, for the settle- 

 ment of the line between Alaska and 

 Canada, I have been asked by the edi- 

 tors to furnish for the National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine a review of the 

 history of the delimitation of the bound- 

 ary line between the United States and 

 Canada since the independence of our 

 country. 



The treaty of peace of 1783, between 

 the United States and Great Britain, 

 sought to fix with accuracy the bound- 

 aries of their respective possessions. 

 These boundaries are laid down in de- 

 tail in Article II of the treaty, the 

 opening words of which are as follows : 

 "And that all disputes which might 

 arise in future, on the subject of the 

 boundaries of the said United States 

 may be prevented, it is hereby agreed 

 and declared, that the following are, 

 and shall be their boundaries," etc. 



Notwithstanding the good intentions 

 of the negotiators, the provisions as to 



the boundary proved to be a source of 

 disagreement, and sometimes of violent 

 dispute, for nearly a century. The dis- 

 agreements arose mainly from a want 

 of correct geographic knowledge on the 

 part of the negotiators. For example, 

 the initial point on the east was fixed at 

 the mouth of St Croix River in the Bay 

 of Fundy. But when it was sought to 

 establish the boundary line, it was found 

 that there was no river in that locality 

 popularly known as the St Croix, but 

 that there were two considerable rivers 

 emptying into the Bay of Fund}', both 

 of which had other names than that 

 mentioned in the treaty. The United 

 States claimed that the most eastern of 

 these was the river designated in the 

 treaty as the St Croix, and Great 

 Britain claimed the western river as the 

 treaty boundary. 



Throughout almost the entire length 

 of line of contact with Canada laid 

 down in the treaty, geographic diffi- 

 culties of interpretation have arisen, and 

 the inaccuracy of knowledge of the nego- 

 tiators is especially conspicuous in their 



