Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-08

! and twelve feet high, incosing centre post,
which rose few feet higher. -
| Its latitude is 40 degrees % minutes O6
seconds NJ; its longitude 80 degrees IA MIN
utes 80 seconds w. from Greenwich. The
latitude was fixed with sextant and the
| longitude by a chronometer. ,,.
| The northwest angle was settled thus: Ii
line were drawn IN the plane OF a great
circle making an angle of forty-fve, degrees
with the meridian, such line would cut no
other water of the lake"
| Nothing further was done towards locating
the boundary west of the Lake OF the WOODS
for forty-hve years, and in that time monu,
ment of such perishable wood as poplar stood
a good chance of decaying. The OpDway
squaws made kindling wood of 1T.
In 1869 party Of United States engineers
was sent to locate military reservation near
Pembina, on the Red River of the North, IN
the northeast corner of Dakota, and found
that the commonly recognized boundary be-
tween the United States and the British pos
sessions at that point was about sixteen yaros
south Of the true position of parallel forty
nine, and that the Hudson Bay Company
fort at Pembina was really ON our territory.
The British Government was notified OF
this, and the President of the United States.
was requested to permit the company TO
remain there for certain length of time, or
until it could remove to another location
farther to the north.
The request was granted, and the President
sent message to Congress on the NTH day
of December, 1870, requesting that body to
authorize the creation of commission to nix
the true boundary between the two coun-
tries, and make an appropriation to meet its
expenses
After the usual delay which accompanies
legislation, an appropriation of nifty thousand
dollars was made March 10, 1872, and the
corps of engineers of the. army, empowered
the Lake of the Woods to the summit OF
the Rocky Mountains. The boundary from
the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Georgia
had been already established
The officers to whom the work was assign
ed were Captain f. U. Farquhar, Captain w:
j. Twining, Lieutenant L. V. Greene and
Lieutenant ]. +. Gregory.
These gentlemen went to St. Paul in July,
1872, where arrangements were made for
assembling train of supplies, camp equipage,
material and instruments, with assistants,
laborers, military escort ETC., at Fort Aber-
crombie, two hundred miles south of the
boundary.
The commission left Abercrombie on the
Doth of August, and reached Fort Pembina
on the 9Th OF September, where it established
a camp at point where Colonel s. ii. Long,
of the corps of engineers, had erected post
in 1923 by order of the government to mark
point on the boundary line.
Here, on the 18th of September the Ameri-
cans were joined by the British commission,
consisting Of Captain ID: R. Cameron, of the
Royal Artillery, and Captain S. Anderson,
of the Royal Engineers. These were also
accompanied by train and military es-
cort.
A consultation was held by the joint COM
mission, and it was determined, as the season
had advanced so far and was so short in this
high latitude, to conine the work to the
vicinity of the Lake OF the Woods until the
following year.
They fixed a point and erected an iron
monument on the forty-ninth parallel of
latitude. close to the west bank of the Red
River, and Immediately left for the lake for
the purpose of finding the northwest corner
of that body of water-the initial point of
the boundary line.
Search for the Tiarks and Thompson monu-
ment of 1924 was made and kept up for a
considerable time without success.
The Ojibway tribe of Indians was encamp-
ed in the vicinity, and the chiefs professed to
know the location of the monument and made
offers to guide the commissioners to it,
But they demanded such extravagant com
pensation for their services that their aid
was rejected, and the tiresome search went
on One chief, in order to prove that he
knew where the monument was, brought in
charred oak log, which he said he had taken
from its foundation.
The English and American officers at last
gave up the hunt as fruitless, and were con-