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 Will Meet in Quebec
Aug. 23---some Gross In
accuracies
La 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 marking
any part of the boundary between tho
United States and Canada by land or
water where the same is now SO insult
ficiently marked as to be subject of
dispute
A considerable part of the boundary
from the eastean cad 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 tine result. especially in re.
cent years since the country adjacent
to the boundary has begun to be set
tied aud developed. For example, citi-
zens 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-
rupted and prevented on like grounds,
and American fishermen in Lake Erie
have been arrested and their vessels
Eeized when, as they supposed and con-
tended, they ware in American waters.
In the Fifty fourth congress, the com.
mittee on foreign affairs OF the house of
representatives investigated these matt
tiers and reported with a favorable
recommendation. joint resolution for
the appointment Of a commission on the
part of the United States to act jointly
with similar 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 Ashburton treaty of 1912. No
sSsion was had On the joint resolution.
Imposs be of Accurate survey.
1t is stated that the boundary de-
fined by the treaty OF Client is impos-
BiD+o Dt tSCSuIlUG SnIN6y OoCuuoO VI WIG
imperiection OF the maps upon which
the boundary line was based. For ex.
ample, in that part opposite Long
Point referred to in the commissions
letter OF Jan. II, as a probable field for
dispute. the distance from the north.
Westerly point OF Pressure Isle, near
Erie, Pa. to the southern extremity of
Long Point is found by the scale drawn
upon the map itself to be about 3714
geographical 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 office, the same distance is in
fact a trife less than % miles. This
circumstance makes determination by
measurement from either shore to the
defined boundary of the Client m ap
impossible for the distance SO measu red
you'd overlap some IA miles in the
middle Of the lake.
Tae commissioners Of the treaty Of
Ghent did not try to define a portion
of the boundary between st. Marys
river and Lake Of the Woods, and a
part of it was never charted at all. It
viii be part of the task of the present
commission to accurately define this
boundary.