The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-08-11
NORTH LINE
It Will Be One of the Important
Matters for the Joint
Commission
Which VIII Meet in Quebec
Aug. 23---Some Gross In
accuracies
liza the Boundary as Defined
by the Treaty Of
... Client.
A Portion Impossible of Correct
Survey, Owing to Imperfect
ton Of Maps.

NEW YORK, Aug. 9.-Among the
matters to be considered by the joint
commission appointed by the United
States and Great Britain, which is to
meet in Quebec on Aug. %, says the
Washington correspondent of The
Tribune, are arrangements for the
more complete definition and markiD e
any part OF the boundary between the
United States and Canada by land or
water where the same is now so insult.
fciently marked as to be subject Of
dispute.
A considerable part of the boundary
from the easresn end Of Lake Ontario
TO the western end of Rainy lake on
the northern frontier of Minnesota has
never been accurately defined or
marked, and frequent controversies
have been the result, especially in re-
cent years since the country adjacent
to the boundary has begun to be set
tied and developed For example, citi-
Gems of the United States holding pat.
ents therefrom for timber lands in
Northern Minnesota have been warned
against and prevented from cutting
the timber by Canadian authorities,
who contended that said lands be-
longed to the dominion government.
american Miners and prospectors on
shores and islands of the Rainy lake
region have had their operations inter-
ruDtei and prevented on like grounds,
and American fishermen in Lake Erie
have been arrested and their vessels
Sc; zed when, as they supposed and con-
tended, they were in American waters.
In the tiity-fourth congress, the com.
mittee on foreign affairs Of the house of
represer tatiyes investigated these matt
ters and reported with a favorable
recommendation, a joint resolution for
the appointment of a commission on the
part Of the United States to act jointly
with a simlltr commission On the part
of Great Britain, to define and mark
the boundary as conventionally deter
mined by the treaty of Client and the
Webster Ash burton treaty Of 1912. No
SxSiol was had On the joint resolution.
Inposs ID e uf Accurate Survey.
1t is stated that the boundary de-
fined by tins treaty OF Client is impos-
Gjb.e o. accurate survey because OF the
imper!ec tion Of the maps upon which
the boundary line was based. For ex.
ample, in that part opposite Long
Point referred to in the commission s
letter. OF Jan. II, as probable field for
dispute. tha distance from the north.
westerly point OF Pressure Isle, near
Ere, Ia, to the southern extremity of
long Point is found by the scale drawn
upon the map itself to be about 3714
geograp hical miles. while upon the ac-
curate modern maps, reduced from sur.
veys made by the army corps of en-.
gineors ana published by the hydro
graphic cffice, the same distance is in
fact trife less than % miles. This
circumstance makes determination by
measurement from either shore to the
defined boundary of the Client m ap
impDssi Die for the distance so measu red
could overlap some IA miles in the
middle Of the lake.
Tae commissioners of the treaty of
Ghent did not try to define portion
Of the boundary between St. Marys
r yer and Lake Of the Woods, and a
part of it was never charted at all. It
Will be part of the task of the present
com mission to accurately define this
boundary.