daily increased for the establishment of some recognized authority. At its first session, in 1854, the legislative assembly of Washington Territory assumed to incorporate San Juan Island in one of the counties of the Territory.' In a letter of July 4, 1855, Mr. Marcy, who had become Secretary of State, instructed Governor Stevens that the officers of the Territory should abstain from all acts on the disputed grounds which were calculated to provoke conflicts, so far as it could be done without implying the concession of an exclusive right in Great Britain, and on the 17th of July Mr. Marcy sent a copy of this letter to Mr. Crampton.

Commissioners

for

On the 11th of August 1856 the President Running the Line approved an act by which provision was made for the appointment of a commissioner and a chief astronomer and surveyor to cooperate with similar officers to be appointed by the British Government in running a line. Under this act Archibald Campbell was appointed commissioner and Lieut. John G. Parke chief astronomer and surveyor. On the part of Great Britain, Capt. James C. Prevost, R. N., was appointed commissioner and Capt. Henry Richards, R. N., second commissioner, whose duties, however, were those of chief astronomer and surveyor. Mr. Campbell and Lieutenant Parke were appointed to their respective positions on February 14, 1857. They left New York with their party on April 20, and, proceeding by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reached Victoria on the 22d of June. Captain Prevost had arrived at Esquimault on the 12th of the same month. Captain Richards did not arrive till the following autumn. The commissioners each had a secretary, who, on the part of the United States, was William J. Warren, and, on the part of Great Britain, William A. G. Young.

sioners.

The commissioners held their first meeting Meeting and Instruc- on the 27th of June 1857 and exhibited their tions of Commisinstructions and powers. Mr. Campbell's instructions empowered him to determine and mark the entire boundary line under the treaty of 1846. The British commissioner's instructions were limited to the determination of the water boundary. It subsequently transpired that the British commissioner had other instructions besides those which he exhibited to Mr. Campbell on the 27th of June, but he did not think that they enlarged his powers.

1S. Ex. Doc. 29, 40 Cong. 2 sess. 207.

211 Stats. at L. 42.

Disagreement as to
Water Boundary.

The commissioners held six formal meetings, the last of which was on December 3, 1857, when they finally disagreed. The British commissioner proposed to refer their differences to the two governments for adjustment. Mr. Campbell declined to join in such a reference, saying that each commissioner would of course make a report to his own government.

British Commissioner's Views.

While their conferences were in progress the commissioners discussed their differences in a formal correspondence, which disclosed the points at issue and the various arguments by which each side supported its claim-the United States to the Canal de Haro and Great Britain to Rosario Strait. The argument of the British commissioner was that there was but one navigable channel between the continent and Vancouver's Island at the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, namely, the Gulf of Georgia, and that in its waters would be found the initial point of boundary. Carrying this line to the south to about 48° 45', the waters were studded with islands, through which it was generally admitted that two navigable passages were to be found. One, designated the Rosario Strait, was situated near the continent. The other, called Canal de Arro, was found "nearer to Vancouver's Island." The wording of the treaty provided that the channel forming the boundary line should possess three characteristics: (1) It should separate the continent from Vancouver's Island; (2) it should admit of the boundary line being carried through it in a southerly direction; (3) it should be a navigable channel. The British commissioner admitted that the Canal de Haro answered to the third requirement, though, from the rapidity and variableness of its current and its lack of anchorages, it would, he maintained, generally be avoided by sailing vessels, which would prefer the Rosario Strait, which had, he said, been used by the vessels of the Hudson's Bay Company since 1825. But the Canal de Haro did not, he argued, meet the other two requirements of the treaty. It did not separate the continent from Vancouver's Island, the continent having already been separated from that island by another navigable channel, the Rosario Strait. Further, he argued, a line drawn through the Canal de Haro must proceed for some distance in a westerly direction, while the treaty required that the line should run in a southerly direction. He also maintained that, although there were islands east of the Rosario Strait, yet between them and the continent there was no navigable channel.

American Commissioner's Views.

The argument of the American commissioner was that, although there were several navigable channels connecting the Gulf of Georgia with the Straits of Fuca, the Canal de Haro was preeminent in width, depth, and volume of water, and was the one usually designated on the maps in use at the time the treaty was under consideration. Other navigable channels merely separated groups of islands from each other; the Canal de Haro, since it washed the shores of Vancouver's Island, was the only one that separated the continent from that island. The objec tion that the Canal de Haro would not at some places carry the boundary line southerly was declared to be groundless. It was maintained that the word "southerly" was not used in a strict nautical sense, but as opposed to northerly, and it was pointed out that the word "southerly" was applied in the treaty to the Straits of Fuca as well as to the unnamed channel.

Passing from the geographical question to the intention of the treaty, Mr. Campbell argued that it was conclusively shown by contemporary evidence that the Canal de Haro was the channel proposed by Great Britain and accepted by the United States; and in this relation he referred to the report of Mr. McLane to Mr. Buchanan, of May 18, 1846, to the submission of this report by President Polk with the treaty to the Senate, and to Mr. Benton's speech. The only claim, said Mr. Campbell, that he had been able to find on the part of the British Government that Rosario Strait was the channel was in the note of Mr. Crampton to Mr. Buchanan, of January 13, 1848, in which it was suggested that the channel intended by the treaty was the nameless channel marked on the chart of Vancouver. In making this suggestion, Mr. Crampton had observed that, as it was believed that this channel was the only one in that part of the gulf that had been surveyed and used, it "seemed natural to suppose" that the negotiators of the Oregon convention, in employing the word "channel," had that particular channel in view. Mr. Crampton did not attempt to assert that the Rosario Strait was the channel intended in the treaty, or that the "peculiar wording" of the treaty required, as the British commissioner had contended, the adoption of that channel. Moreover, the claim that it was the only channel that had been surveyed and used was obviously erroneous, since the Canal de Haro had been surveyed and used by the Spanish Government as well as by the Government of the United States.