LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C., October 16, 1884. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a sketch of the boundaries of the United States, the several States, and the Territories, as defined by treaty, charter, or statute. Besides giving the present status of these boundaries, I have endeavored to present an outline of the history of all important changes of territory, with the laws appertaining thereto. This matter was in great part prepared under the direction of the Superintendent of the Census, and it is herewith presented for publication with his full concurrence. I have been greatly assisted in this work by Mr. Franklin G. Butterfield, who was formerly connected with the Census Office, by whose labors most of the material relating to the boundaries of the States upon the Atlantic borders has been compiled. CONTENTS. Page. 7 CHAPTER I. BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES, AND ADDITIONS TO ITS TERRITORY. BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES. The limits of the United States were first definitely laid down in the provisional treaty made with Great Britain in 1782. The second article of that treaty defines the boundary between the United States on the one hand and the British Possessions on the other, as follows: From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz, that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix river to the highlands; along the Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River; thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence, by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy (St. Lawrence); thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake until it strikes the communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water communication into the Lake Huron; thence through the middle of said lake to the water communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior northward of the Isles Royal and Phelippeaux to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake,to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude. South by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the Equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouche; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River; thence strait to the head of St. Mary's River; and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean. East by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence; comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part and East Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean; excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia. 9 |