Tutuila Island, the largest of the Samoan group belonging to the United States, has a length of 20 miles and a breadth of about 6 miles. Its extreme height is 2,141 feet, and its area (scaled from hydrographic chart 2924) is 52 square miles.

Anuu Island, about a mile from the east end of Tutuila, has a length of 1 mile, a height of 275 feet, and an area of half a square mile.

About 60 miles to the east are the three Manua Islands, the largest of which is Tau, 61/2 miles in length, 3,056 feet in extreme height, and 17 square miles in area. Olosega Island is 211⁄2 miles in length and 2,095 feet in height and covers an area of 2 square miles. Ofu Island is about 3 miles long; its highest point is 1,587 feet, and its area is 3 square miles.

Rose Island is the name given an atoll about 3 miles in diameter, partly under water at high tide, 80 miles southeast of any of the other islands of the Samoan group. Sand Islet, the smaller of the two islets of the atoll, is about an acre in extent and its highest part is 5 feet above high tide. Rose Islet has an area of about 8 acres, and its highest part is 11 feet above high water. It is covered in part with a dense grove of Pisonia trees but is without fresh water and is uninhabited. This islet has the distinction of being the southernmost land under the control of the United States. (See fig. 8.) Its geographic position is in lat 14°32′ S., long 168°11′ W.

American Samoa lies between lat 14° and 15° S. and long 168° and 171° W. The estimated area is 76 square miles.

The joint resolution of March 4, 1925, placed Swains Island (p. 63) under the administrative control of American Samoa.

WAKE, MIDWAY, AND JOHNSTON ISLANDS

Wake Island is an atoll about 2,000 miles west of Honolulu. Its position is lat 19°17' N., long 166°35′ E. Although it is usually referred to as a single island, there are three islands, separated by narrow and shallow channels. The largest is Wake Island, whose area is about 2 square miles; its highest point is 21 feet above sea level. The smaller islands are Wilkes and Peale. Formal possession was taken on behalf of the United States by the Commander of the U.S.S. Bennington on January 17, 1899. (Moore, 1906, p. 555.) It was captured by the Japanese in the early part of World War II. U.S. personnel at the time consisted of a detachment of Marines and a construction crew.

Wake Island has no indigenous population. It is administered by the Federal Aviation Agency.

The Midway Islands, two small coral islands in lat 28°13' N., long 177°22′ W., about 1,200 miles a little north of west from Honolulu,

FIGURE 8.-Northernmost and southernmost points in U.S. territory. A, Point

Barrow, the extreme northern point of Alaska, lat 71°23' N.; B, Rose Island, Samoa, Pacific Ocean, lat 14°32' S.

were discovered by Captain Brooks, an American shipmaster on an Hawaiian vessel, in 1859. Possession was taken on behalf of the United States on September 30, 1867, by Capt. William Reynolds of the U.S.S. Lackawanna, who stated that the larger island was "the first island ever added to the domain of the United States beyond our own [American] shores." 51 The larger island is 134 miles long and rises 43 feet above sea level. This island has an airfield, a cable station, and a lighthouse. The total area of the two islands is about 2 square miles. The Midway Islands have been considered part of the Hawaiian Islands, but they are not included in the State of Hawaii. The Midway Islands are chiefly identified with the Battle of Midway, one of the decisive naval engagements of World War II.

Johnston Island, lat 16°45′ N., long 169°30′ W., is a grass-covered lagoon island half a mile in length; its area is 185 acres. Nearby Sand Island, 134 acres, is uninhabited.

Midway and Johnston Islands are under the administration of the Navy Department, as is Kingman Reef, near Palmyra Island.

CANAL ZONE

In order to insure the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the Republic of Panama granted rights to the United States "in perpetuity" for its use, occupation, and control, a strip of land 10 miles in width. This conveyance was made by a convention concluded November 18, 1903 (Malloy, 1910, v. 2, p. 1349). The area (see fig. 9) is described in Article II as

a zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of said canal of the width of ten miles extending to the distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of the canal to be constructed; the said zone beginning in the Caribbean Sea three marine miles from mean low water mark and extending to and across the Isthmus of Panama into the Pacific Ocean to a distance of three marine miles from mean low water mark with the proviso that the cities of Panama and Colon and the harbors adjacent to said cities, which are included within the boundaries of the zone above described, shall not be included within this grant. The Republic of Panama further grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of any other lands and waters outside of the zone above described which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of the said canal or of any auxiliary canals or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of the said enterprise.

The Republic of Panama further grants in like manner to the United States in perpetuity all islands within the limits of the zone above described and

51 U.S. 40th Cong., 1869, 3d sess., S. Rept. 194, p. 12. This report contains an extended description of the islands.

in addition thereto the group of small islands in the Bay of Panama, named Perico, Naos, Culebra, and Flamenco.

Article III of the convention provides: "The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights, power, and authority within the zone *** which the United States would possess and exercise if it were soverign of the Territory within which said lands and waters are located to the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, powers, or authority." The United States recognizes that titular sovereignty over the Canal Zone remains in the Government of Panama.

By Article XIV of the convention the United States agreed to pay to the Republic of Panama $10 million and to make annual payments of $250,000 beginning 9 years after the convention was ratified. By the treaty of 1955, annual payments were increased to 1,930,000 Balboas. The Balboa is at par with the dollar.

Possession was taken of this tract on June 15, 1904; the boundaries of the 10-mile strip have been surveyed and have been marked at average intervals of half a mile by iron posts bearing brass caps.

Under the clause in Article II that permitted the United States to take control of "other lands and waters outside of the zone" the United States from time to time has taken possession of areas outside of the 10-mile belt, which are officially designated "auxiliary areas." The largest of these is a part of Gatun Lake, with its islands and its shores, up to an altitude of 100 feet above mean sea level.

A second convention was concluded September 2, 1914, which recognized the transfer of the Gatun Lake area to the United States and by Article III receded to the Republic of Panama an area of about 61⁄2 square miles adjoining the city of Panama on the northeast. (U.S. Cong., 1923, v. 3, p. 2771-2773.)

This convention also defined the Canal Zone boundary around the city of Colon and the harbors of Colon and of Panama. The treaty of 1955 further changed the boundaries around the city of Colon by returning certain small areas to Panama and provided for the return of Paitilla Point, near the city of Panama, to Panamanian sovereignty.

By Executive order of June 5, 1924, the United States took possession of an area known as the Alhajuela Basin, which comprises 22 square miles of the upper Chagres River basin.

The area of the Canal Zone, including Gatun Lake to the 100-foot contour outside the original 10-mile zone, is 553 square miles-191 square miles of water and 362 square miles of land.

In order "to remove all misunderstandings" regarding the acquisition of the Canal Zone by the United States from the Republic of Panama, which had until November 3, 1903, been under the jurisdiction of

the Republic of Colombia, the United States by treaty signed April 6, 1914, ratified in 1921, and proclaimed March 30, 1922, agreed to pay Colombia $25 million (42 Stat. L. 2123).

By a convention concluded August 4, 1916 (39 Stat. L. 1706), Denmark ceded to the United States

all territory, dominion, and sovereignty possessed, asserted, or claimed by Denmark in the West Indies, including the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix, together with the adjacent islands and rocks.

The purchase price was $25 million, or nearly $300 an acre (U.S. Cong., 1917). By act of Congress, approved March 3, 1917, this