boundary-line between British and American possessions, from the admiralty surveys by Captains H. Kellett, R. N., 1847, and G. H. Richards, R. N., 1858-1862.

"The boundary-line thus laid down on the chart is a black line shaded red on the side of the British possessions, and blue on the side of the possessions of the United States.

"The boundary-line thus defined commences at the point on the 49th paralled of north latitude on the west side of Point Roberts, which is marked by a stone monument, and the line is continued along the said parallel to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island, that is to say, to a point in longitude 123° 19′ 15′′ W., as shown in the said chart. It then proceeds in a direction about S. 50° E. (true) for about fifteen geographical miles, when it curves to the southward, passing equidistant between the west point of Patos Island and the east point of Saturna Island, until the point midway on a line drawn between Turnpoint, on Stewart Island, and Fairfax Point, on Moresby Island, bears S. 68° W., (true) distant ten miles; then on a course S. 78° W., (true) ten miles to the said point midway between Turnpoint, on Stewart Island, and Fairfax Point, on Moresby Island, thence on a course about S. 12° 30′ E. (true) for about eight and three-quarter miles to a point due east, one mile from the northernmost Kelp Reef, which reef on the said chart is laid down as in latitude 48° 33′ north, and in longitude 123° 15′ west; then its direction continues about S. 20° 15′ E., (true,) six and oneeighth miles to a point midway between Sea Bird Point, on Discovery Island, and Pile Point, on San Juan Island; thence in a straight line S. 45° E., (true,) until it touches the north end of the middle bank in between 13 and 18th fathoms of water; from this point the line takes a general S. 28° 30′ W. direction (true) for about ten miles, when it reaches the centre of the fairway of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which, by the chart, is in the latitude of 48° 17′ north and longitude 123° 14' 40" W.

"Thence the line runs in a direction S. 73° W. (true) for twelve miles, to a point on a straight line drawn from the light-house on Race Island to Angelos Point, midway between the same.

"Thence the line runs through the centre of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, first, in a direction N. 80° 30′ W., about 53 miles to a point equidistant on a straight line between Beechey Head, on Vancouver Island, and Tongue Point, on the shore of Washington Territory; second, in a direction N. 76° W., about 134 miles to a point equidistant in a straight line between Sherringham Point, on Vancouver Island, and Pillar Point on the shore of Washington Territory; third, in a direction N. 68° W., about 303 miles to the Pacific Ocean, at a point equidistant between Bonilla Point, on Vancouver Island, and Tatooch Island light-house on the American shore, the line between the points being nearly due north and south, (true.)

"The courses and distances as given in the foregoing description are not assumed to be perfectly accurate, but are as nearly so as is supposed to be necessary to a practical definition of the line laid down on the chart and intended to be the boundary-line.

"HAMILTON FISH.

"EDWD. THORNTON.
"JAMES C. PREVOST."

In his annual message of December 2, 1872,

Other Boundaries. President Grant, referring to the award of the Emperor of Germany, said: "This award confirms the United States in their claim to the important archipelago of islands lying between the continent and Vancouver's Island, and leaves us, for the first time in the history of the United States as a nation, without a question of disputed boundary between our territory and the possessions of Great Britain on this continent." When this statement was made, the question which has since arisen as to the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions, from the southernmost point of the Prince of Wales Island, in north latitude 54° 40', to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, under the treaty between Great Britain and Russia of 1825, had not been raised. Moreover, the boundary between the United States and the British possessions from the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, though it was clearly defined in the second article of the treaty of October 20, 1818, had not been surveyed and adjusted. By an act of Congress of March 19, 1872, entitled "An act authorizing the survey and marking of the boundary between the territory of the United States and the possessions of Great Britain from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains," the President

1 Annual Message, December 2, 1872. The disagreement of the commissioners in 1857 as to the San Juan water boundary did not prevent the running of the line under the treaty of 1846 from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Georgia. This line was surveyed and marked by commissioners prior to 1870. On February 24 in that year Mr. Fish, Secretary of State, and Mr. Thornton, British minister, signed a protocol declaring that seven maps, certified and authenticated under the signatures of Archibald Campbell, Esquire, the commissioner of the United States, and Col. John Summerfield Hawkins, Her Britannic Majesty's commissioner, and on which the boundary in question was traced, were approved, agreed to, and adopted by both governments. (Treaties and conventions of the United States, 1776-1887, p. 440.)

was authorized to cooperate with the Government of Great Britain in the appointment of a joint commission to determine the boundary between these points. On the part of the United States, Archibald Campbell was appointed commissioner; on the part of Great Britain, Maj. D. R. Cameron; and engineeer officers were detailed for the performance of the work. The labors of the commission were concluded in 1876. The final records and maps were signed in London on the 29th of May in that year, and a protocol was drawn up and signed setting forth the commission's final proceedings. "At the time of the passage of the act of 1872 the boundary * from the Atlantic to the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods, and the land line from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Georgian Bay" had "been surveyed and adjusted."

1Report of Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, Feb. 23, 1877, S. Ex. Doc. 41, 44 Cong. 2 sess. The statement that the line from the Atlantic to the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods had been "surveyed and adjusted" was not entirely accurate. Of the line from the Pigeon River to the Lake of the Woods there has been no joint survey. (H. Report 1310, 54 Cong. 1 sess.) "The Canadian government has not waited for a joint survey to inform itself concerning the actual condition of the boundary, but it has quietly sent out a party of surveyors at its own expense to trace the line from Pigeon Point to the Lake of the Woods. The work was ordered by the commissioner on international boundaries, and is in charge of A. J. Brabazon, for the past three years engaged on the Alaskan boundary survey, who is now on the way to Ottawa to report. He is satisfied that the Treaty of Washington is in agreement with the physical features." (Statement of July 27, 1896. See Minnesota's Northern Boundary, by Alexander N. Winchell, Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Vol. VIII. part 2, p. 212.)

CHAPTER VIII.

CLAIMS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY AND PUGET'S SOUND AGRICULTURAL COMPANIES: COMMISSION UNDER THE TREATY OF JULY 1, 1863.

Claimants.

In the treaty of June 15, 1846, the history Legal Status of the of which has just been narrated, certain stipulations were inserted for the protection of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, two British organizations, whose interests the division of the Oregon territory between two independent powers necessarily affected. The Hudson's Bay Company had large possessions in the territory, and exercised important powers of government. It possessed, under its charter, the power to make ordinances for the government of the persons employed by it, and also power to exercise jurisdiction in all matters, civil and criminal. It obtained a grant in 1838, for a period of twenty-one years, of an exclusive license to trade with the Indians in all such parts of North America north and west of the territories of the United States as should not belong to the British provinces in North America or to a foreign power, subject to the proviso that nothing in the grant should be construed to authorize the company "to claim or exercise any trade with the Indians on the northwest coast of America to the westward of the Stony Mountains, to the prejudice or exclusion of any of the subjects of any foreign States who, under or by force of any convention for the time being between us and such foreign States respectively, may be entitled to and shall be engaged in the said trade." The Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, which was an accessory organization formed for the purpose of conducting agricultural operations, was organized in December 1840 under the protection and auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The Companies'
Possessions.

Within that part of the Oregon territory which fell to the United States by the treaty of 1846, the Hudson's Bay Company then had thirteen establishments, the chief of which was Fort

Vancouver, a fortified settlement, with the governor's house and various other buildings. Besides this there were, in what became the Territory of Washington, establishments at Cape Disappointment, Chinook Point, Caweeman, Fort Colville, Flat Heads, Kootenais, and Okanagan; and, in what became the Territory of Oregon, at Fort Umpqua, Champooeg, Walla Walla, Fort Hall, and Fort Boisée. The Puget's Sound Agricultural Company had two establishments in Washington Territory, Nisqually and the Cowlitz farms.

For the protection of the interests of these Treaty of 1846. companies three articles-those numbered II., III., and IV.—were inserted in the treaty of 1846. By Article II. it was provided that the navigation of the great northern branch of the Columbia River, where it lies within the United States, down to its entrance into the main stream of the Columbia, and of the latter to the ocean, should be free and open to the Hudson's Bay Company and to all British subjects trading with it, and that such subjects should, with their goods and produce, be treated on the same footing as citizens of the United States.

By Article III. it was provided that "in the future appropriation of the territory south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, as provided in the first article of this treaty, the pos sessory rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of all British subjects who may be already in the occupation of land or other property lawfully acquired within the said territory, shall be respected." With respect to the words "future appropriation of the territory, *** as provided in the first article of the treaty," it should be observed that the first article merely provided for the drawing of the boundary line along the fortyninth parallel to the sea.

By Article IV. it was provided that the "farms, lands, and other property of every description belonging to the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, on the north side of the Columbia River, shall be confirmed to the said company," but that in case "the situation of those farms and lands should be considered by the United States to be of public and political importance, and the United States Government should signify a desire to obtain possession of the whole, or of any part thereof, the property so required shall be transferred to the said Government at a proper valuation, to be agreed upon between the parties,"