§ 3. Signification of the expression, "Highlands which § 4. The term "Atlantic Ocean," how far contradistin- 1. Reduced from Map A, agreed to by both Powers, 1827. 2. Part of Mitchell's Map, 1775, which regulated the official 3. Reduced from the Map annexed to the Report of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, 1840. Sketch of the 'Highlands claimed by Great Britain by Messrs. Odell and Campbell, 1821.. 4. Part of Governor Pownall's Map, London, 1776. Map of Province of Quebec, London, 1776. Map of Northern British Colonies in America, from American Military Atlas, London, 1776. Merps are in the Map Room PREFACE. THE British Government appointed Commissioners, in the year 1839, for the purpose of surveying, 1st, the line heretofore considered, on the part of Great Britain, as the north eastern boundary of the United States, namely, that which extends from the source of the Chandiere to Mars Hill; 2dly, the line from the source of the Chandiere to the point at which a line drawn from that source to the western cxtremity of the Bay of Chaleurs, intercepts the due north line; 3dly, the line claimed by the Americans from the source of the Chandiere to the point at which they make the due north line end. The Commissioners have performed the duties imposed on them partially and as far as the short time employed in the exploration permitted. And the Government of the United States has lately appointed Commissioners for the same purpose, the result of whose proceedings can hardly be expected before the year 1841. It was principally, if not exclusively, the "nature and configuration of the territory in dispute," that the British Commissioners were directed to investigate. It is well known, that the United States contend that the term "highlands which divide rivers," used in the treaty, does not imply either a mountainous character or an absolute but only a relative elevation. But Great Britain has an undoubted right to ascertain all the facts concerning the topography of the country, the knowledge of which is, in her opinion, important, or may be of any use for a correct decision of the question. And had the Report of the British Commissioners been confined to that object, nothing more would at most have been necessary, on the part of the United States, than the exploration which the Government has lately ordered. But the Appendix and a few pages only of the Report of the Commissioners relate to that investigation. The bulk of the Report is devoted to a discussion apparently of the merits of the case; and its conclusions are of the most general nature; pronouncing in decisive terms, that the claims of Great Britain to the whole of the disputed territory are founded in justice, and are in plain accordance with the 2d Article of the Treaty of 1783, and with the phy. sical geography of the country; and that the line which is claimed on the |