The record-union., 1898-08-09
A Considerable Portion Never Ac-
curate|y Defined.
Has Been the Cause of Much Controversy
in the Past.
The Matter One of the Most I'M
portant Subjects to be Consider
ed by the Joint Commission Ap-
pointed by the United States
and Great Britain.

NEW YORK, Aug. S.-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 August Sd. says the
Washington correspondent of the 'Tri-
bune," are arrangements for the more
complete definition and marking of any
party of the boundary line between the
United States and Canada by land or
water, where the same is now so insuffi-
GENTLY marked as to be a subject of dis
pute.
considerable part of the boundary
from the eastern end of Lake Ontario
to the western end of Rainy Lake, on
the northern frontier of Minnesota, has
never been accurately defined or mark
ed, and frequent controversies have
been the result, and especially in recent
years, since the country adjacent to the
boundary has begun to be settled and
developed. For example, citizens of the
United States holding patents there
from for timber lands in Northern Min
nesota have been warned against and
prevented from cutting the timber by
Canadian authorities who contended
that said lands belonged to the Domin-
ion Government.
American miners and prospectors on
the shores and islands of the Rainy
Lake regions have had their operations
Interrupted and prevented on like
grounds and American fishermen in
Lake Erie have been arrested and their
vessels seized when. as they supposed
and contended, they We're in American
waters.
40
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives investigated
these matters and reported with a fa-
vorable recommendation a joint reso-
luton for the appointment of a COM
mission on the part of the United States
to act jointly with similar commit
tee on the part of Great Britain to de-
fine and mark the boundary as con-
ventiorally determined by the treaty
of Ghent and the bster-Ashburton
treaty of 1872 No action was had on
the joint resolution. Among the pa
pers submitted to the committee on that
occasion was an exceedingly interesting
report prepared by Assistant Secretary
Adee OF the State Department
In relation to that portion of the
boundary which crosses Lake Erie, Mr..
Lake Erie is extraordinarily imperfect
in contour and inaccurate in dimensions
as to all that part lying between the
entrance to the Niagara River and
Point Peele. 1t appears from a note
thereon that the part west of Point
Peele and Sandusky, including all the
islands. was reduced from the actual
survey made by order of the Commits
GfI To .1ay of no
lake, westward of Point Peele, showing
the triangulations, and duly signed is
embraced in the Client series The
same footnote further states that the
other parts of the lake except the en-
trance into Niagara River) are reduced
from such printed maps as We're sup
posed TO be the most accurate
That the Commissioners were misled
in their estimate of the accuracy of the
sources from which their maps were
compiled is evident by simple measure
ments. For example, in that part OPP
posite Long Point. referred to in the
committees letter of January 18th as
a probable field for dispute, the dis
tance from the northwesterly point of
Presque Isle, near Erie, Pa, to the
southern extremity Of Long Point, is
found by the scale drawn upon the map
itself to be about 3114 geographical
miles, while, upon the accurate mod
ern maps, reduced from surveys made
by the army corps of engineers and
published by the photographic office,
the same distance is in fact a trifie less
than twenty-three miles. This circum-
stance makes determination by
measurement from either shore to the
defined boundary of the Chent man
impossible for the distance so measured
would overlap some fourteen miles in
the middle of the lake. Neither is an
approximate reproduction of the Client
line upon modern map feasible. owing