raker.] REPORT BY CAMPBELL, 1869. 73 
1846, that is, to determine and mark the boundary line between the 
United States and British possessions, agreed upon in the trinity, viz: 
From the point on the 49th parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid 
down in existing treaties and conventions between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain terminates, * * * westward along the said 49th parallel of north latitude, 
to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's island, 
and thence southerly, through the middle of the said channel and of Fuca's straits, 
to the Pacific ocean. 
Toward the close of the year the British Government appointed 
Captain Prevost, royal navy, commanding- steamer Satellite, first 
commissioner to determine that part of the line which runs through 
"the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's island," 
and announced that he had started on his way to the vicinity of the 
boundary line, and that Captain Richards, royal navy, second com- 
missioner, would shortly follow. 
Although the powers of the British commission were limited to tne 
determination of the water- boundary alone, while the act of- Congress 
authorized, on the part of the United States, the determination of the 
boundary from the crest of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean, 
the President decided to carry out the law by the appointment of 
officers authorized thereby, and to notify the British government of 
the difference between the powers of the two commissions. In Feb- 
ruary, 1857, 1 was appointed commissioner, Lieutenant John G. Parke, 
United States army, chief astronomer and surveyor, and G. Clinton 
Gardner, assistant astronomer and surveyor, on the part of the United 
States. 
Under instructions from the State Department, the United States 
commission was duly organized and directed to repair to Fuca's straits, 
via San Francisco, to meet the British commission. At the close of 
June, I met Captain Prevost, the British commissioner, at Esquimalt 
harbor, at the southern end of Vancouver's island, and was informed 
by him that until the arrival of Captain Richards, second commissioner, 
with the surveying party, he was not prepared to enter upon the 
determination of the water boundary. The United States commis- 
sioner therefore proceeded to the western terminus of the 49th parallel, 
on the main land, and established a depot and located an observa- 
tory, for the commencement of the survey along the 40th parallel, 
eastward, to the crest of the Rocky mountains. The British govern- 
ment not yet having provided a commissioner for that part of the 
boundary line, we were obliged to commence the work without its 
co-operation. Reconnoissances and explorations in the vicinity of the 
boundary line were at once commenced, and continued as long as the 
season permitted field operations. Before the spring, four astro- 
nomical points on the 49th parallel were determined, and the country 
thoroughly reconnoitered in the vicinity of the parallel, for a consider 
able distance eastward. 
