of the joint report of the commissioners under the treaty of Washington, of August 9, 1842, together with a copy of the report of the American commissioner, transmitting the same to the State Department."

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, August 3, 1848.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

Mr. Smith to Mr. Buchanan.

WASHINGTON, April 20, 1848.

SIR In presenting to you the joint report of the commissioners, appointed under the treaty of Washington, of August 9, 1842, to survey and mark the line of boundary between the United States and the British provinces, which I have the honor herewith, most respectfully, to submit, I have to perform the painful duty of informing you that the maps of that line, and of the adjacent country, which had been elaborately constructed by the scientific corps on the part of the United States, and contained upon one hundred sheets of drawing paper, of the largest size, together with the tables of the survey, have been destroyed by the conflagration of the building in which they were contained. This house had been occupied by Major James D. Graham, the head of the scientific corps, and principal astronomer of the American commission, as his office, until his departure for Mexico. All the maps, drawings, and tables had been completed and duly authenticated by the joint commissioners, and were ready to be deposited with their joint report under their hands and seals, in the archives of this government. Of this, I had the honor to inform you in my letter of the 24th ultimo. I can hardly express the pain which this unfortunate event has occasioned me. But I cannot perceive that any imputation of blame can properly be attached to any officer of the commission. The care and custody of all the work of the United States scientific corps were properly placed in charge of Major Graham, as the head of that corps, who had had the immediate direction and superintendence of it from the first organization of the commission. He required the maps and tables at his office, for reference and revision in the progress of the astronomical work. Upon his departure for Mexico, he placed Lieutenant A. W. Whipple in his rooms, with an injunction to guard, with the utmost care, the valuable property of the commission. On the day after he left the city, and when, for the first time, informed of the fact, I called upon Lieutenant Whipple, and requested him to have all the maps, drawings, and tables ready to be turned over to the State Depart

ment on the following day. On the 24th ultimo, I acquainted you with that fact.

No censure can possibly be attributed to Lieutenant Whipple, whose great care and attention to all his duties, have been, on all occasions, highly distinguished. He escaped from the fire with scarcely an article of his dress, and his loss in money and clothing is at least one thousand dollars. Major Graham has lost his valuable library, together with personal effects to a large amount. The fire was communicated from the basement of the house, and by no effort could any thing be saved. There are tracings of the maps upon "tissue paper," without the topography, in the State of Maine, but they are not signed by the commissioners.

The field books of the engineers were, fortunately, not in Major Graham's office, and are preserved.

Duplicates of the maps, duly authenticated, have been placed in the British archives at London, which, although they have not the topography of the country so fully laid down upon them as it was upon our own, represent with equal exactness the survey of the boundary itself. Should it be deemed expedient by this government to procure copies of them, access to those archives for that purpose would, undoubtedly, be permitted, and the object accomplished at small expense; and when completed, these copies could be authenticated by the joint commissioners, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient and humble servant,

-U. S. Senate Docs., 1848, v. 8, No. 71.

ALBERT SMITH.

Report of the joint commission of boundary, appointed under the treaty of Washington, of August 9, 1842.

The undersigned, commissioners appointed under the treaty of Washington, to trace and mark the boundary, as directed by that treaty, between the British possessions in North America and the United States; that is to say, James Bucknall Bucknall Estcourt, lieutenant colonel in the British army, appointed commissioner by her Britannic Majesty, and Albert Smith, appointed commissioner by the President of the United States, having accomplished the duty assigned to them, do now, in accordance with the directions of the said treaty, submit the following report and the accompanying maps, jointly signed, to their respective governments.

In obedience to the terms of the treaty, they met at Bangor in the State of Maine, on the 1st day of May, 1843, where they produced and verified the authority under which they each were respectively to act.

They then adjourned, because the weather was not sufficiently open to take the field, to the first of the following month, June, and agreed to meet again at that time at Houlton.

Accordingly, they did meet at that place and began their operations. It may be desirable to state, at the outset, that, for the sake of convenience, the whole line of boundary marked by the undersigned has been divided, in the mention made of the different portions, into the following grand divisions, viz :

North line, from the source of the St. Croix to the intersection of the St. John.

River St. John, from the intersection of the north line to the mouth of the St. Francis.

River St. Francis, from its mouth to the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook. Southwest line, from the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook to the northwest branch of the St. John.

South line, from the northwest branch to the parallel of latitude 46° 25' on the southwest branch.

Southwest branch, from the parallel 46° 25′ to its source.

Highlands, from the source of the southwest branch of the St. John to the source of Hall' stream.

Hall's stream, from its source to the intersection of the line of Valen tine and Collins.

West line, from Hall's stream to the St. Lawrence, near St. Regis, along the line of Valentine and Collins.

To return to the narrative of operations:

The exploring line of Colonel Bouchette and Mr. Johnson, as directed by the treaty, was traced from the monument at the source of the St. Croix to the intersection of the St. John.

The monument found at the source of the St. Croix, as described in the report of Colonel Bouchette and Mr. Johnson, and the course of their exploring line, was traced by blazes or marks upon the trees.

An old line, cut out by the assistant surveyors of Colonel Bouchette and Mr. Johnson, was also found, which terminated about half a mile north. of the south branch of the Meduxnekeag, where, by records to which the undersigned referred, they ascertained that it had been abandoned, because of its deviation from the exploring line of Colonel Bouchette and Mr. Johnson.

After the exploration and re-marking of the north line, it was cut out thirty feet wide. The same was afterwards done in all parts where the boundary passed through woodland. After thus opening the north line, it was surveyed; and iron posts were erected at intervals to mark it.

The general bearing of the line was rather to the west of the meridian of the monument at the source of the St. Croix. The precise line

laid down by the undersigned was determined by successive courses, of which each was made to be as long as was convenient, provided it did not pass out of the opening of thirty feet.

At each angle of deflection an iron monument was erected, and placed anglewise with the line. Other monuments were erected at the crossing of roads, rivers, and at every mile, commencing from the source of the St. Croix. Those which were not intended to mark angles of deflection were placed square with the line.

At the intersection of the St. John by the north line, the river is deep and broad. The boundary runs up the middle channel of the river, as indicated by the maps, dividing the islands as follows:

The islands were distributed to Great Britain or to the United States, as they were found to be on the right or left of the deep channel. There was but one doubtful case, La Septieme isle, and that was apportioned to the United States, because the majority of the owners were ascertained to reside on the United States side of the river.

Monuments were erected upon the islands, marking them for Great Britain or the United States, as the case may have been.

After leaving the St. John, the boundary enters the St. Francis, dividing the islands at the mouth of that river in the manner shown in the maps. It then runs up the St. Francis, through the middle of the lakes upon it, to the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook, the third large lake from the mouth of the river. At the outlet, a large monument has been erected.

In order to determine the point on the northwest branch to which the treaty directed that a straight line should be run from the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook, a survey of that stream was made, and also of the main St. John, in the neighborhood of the mouth of the northwest branch; and a line was cut between the St. John and the point on the northwest branch, ascertained by the survey to be ten miles in the nearest direction from it, and the distance was afterwards verified by chaining.

It was ascertained, also, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty, by a triangulation of the country towards the Highlands dividing the waters of the St. Lawrence and of the St. John, that more than seven miles intervened between the point selected on the northwest branch and the crest of the dividing ridge. A large iron monument was afterwards erected on the point thus selected, and the space around was cleared and sown with grass-seed. It is a short distance below the outlet of Lake Ishaganalshegeck.

The outlet of Lake Pohenagamook and the point on the northwest branch, designated by the treaty, having been thus ascertained and marked, in the spring of 1844, a straight line was run between them. Along that line, which passes entirely through forest, monuments were erected at every mile, at the crossings of the principal streams and rivers, and at the tops of those hills where a transit instrument had been set up to test the straightness of the line.

As soon as the parallel of latitude 46° 25' had been determined on the southwest branch, in the early part of the summer of 1844, a straight line was drawn from the boundary point on the northwest branch to a large monument erected on the left bank of the southwest branch, where it is intersected by the parallel of latitude 46° 25'. The line so drawn crosses the southwest branch once before it reaches the parallel of latitude 46° 25', and at about half a mile distance from that parallel. There, also, a large monument had been set up on the left bank.

From the intersection of the parallel 46° 25', the boundary ascends the southwest branch, passes through a lake near its head, and so up a small stream which falls into the lake from the west, to the source of