""">"' BOUNDARY LINES. 15 
All parties engaged in the prosecution of this survey will be sworn before an 
officer duly qualified to . dminister oaths al I he beginning and end of the survey. 
The oath of the chief of party must be taken either before the clerk of the district 
court or a United States commissioner. (See .Manual, page 64.) 
Department of the Interior, 
Washington, June 5, IS07. 
The Director of the Geological Survey. 
Sir: Yonr letter of the 5th instant has been received, submitting for my con- 
sideration and approval instructions relating to the survey of the boundary line 
between Idaho and Montana, for which provision was made in the sundry civil 
appropriation bill, approved June 4. 
The instructions in question have been approved by indorsement thereon and 
are herewith returned. 
Very respectfully, C. N. Bliss, Secretary. 
Department of the Interior, 
United States Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C, June 7, 1897. 
Mr. R. U. Goode, Geographer. 
Sir: The execution of the necessary work in connection with the survey of the 
boundary line between Idaho and Montana, as provided for in the sundry civil 
bill for the fiscal year 1897-98, is placed under your supervision. 
This work will be performed in accordance with instructions approved June 5, 
1897, by the Secretary of the Interior. 
The sum of $7,650 has been appropriated in this connection, and you are author- 
ized, within the limits of the above appropriation, to employ such temporary field 
assistants as may be necessary for the proper prosecution of the survey, and to 
make such journeys and to order your assistants to make such journeys as may 
be necessary in carrying forward the work. 
Very respectfully, Chas. D. Walcott, Director. 
BOUNDARY TWINES. 
Territorial and State lines in the northwestern portion of the United 
States have undergone many changes. Originally this area was in- 
cluded partly in Louisiana and partly in Oregon, the dividing line 
being the crest of the Rocky Mountains. 
Oregon Territory was organized August 14, 1848. Its area a1 thai 
time included the present Slates of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, 
and portions of Wyoming and .Montana. The Territory of Nebraska, 
formed from a portion of the Louisiana Purchase, was organized May 
30, 1854. Its original area extended from Minnesota on the easl to the 
continental watershed on the west, and included the existing State of 
Nebraska andporl ions of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nortih Dakota, 
and South Dakota. The Territory of Dakota was formed March 2, 
L861, from parts of the State of Minnesota and the Territory of Ne- 
braska, and on March 3, L863, the Territory of Idaho was formed of 
portions of Nebraska, Dakota, and Washington, the Latter having 
been organized March 2, L853, from a port ion of t he Territory of ( Oregon. 
Originally, Idaho contained aboul 324,875square miles, but in 1864 it 
