APPENDIX. OBSERVATIONS ON, AND OBJECTIONS TO, THE TOPOGRAPHICAL EVIDENCE. Maps, Surveys, and Topographical Delineations, filed with the Commissioners under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent. Observations on, the Topographical IT had been intended on the part of the United States, to annex to their first state- Appendix. ment only those of the said Maps, Surveys, &c. which they thought unobjectionable. All of them, having been collated by mutual agreement between the two parties, are accordingly communicated, as they appear in the copy of the American Atlas. The few variations between that and the British Atlas, none of which are deemed material, having been noted in the joint certificate annexed to each of the Atlasses, need not be repeated here. It has been agreed by the 4th Article of the Convention of 1827, that the Map A. should be considered, by the Contracting Parties, as a delineation of the watercourses, and of the boundary lines in reference to the said watercourses, as contended for by each party respectively, and as evidence mutually acknowledged, of the topography of the country. It is, therefore, unnecessary to make any observations in relation to the watercourses as laid down on the maps, surveys, &c. which were filed with the Commissioners. The observations and objections will apply almost exclusively to the delineations of highlands, ridges and mountains. Even with respect to these, it appears unnecessary to note the errors, in relation either to course or distance, of the dividing ridges; the position and length of these being determined by the sources of the watercourses, as laid down in Map A. Those surveys, as well as the engraved maps now adduced in evidence, being, according to the Convention, annexed only for the purposes of general illustration, it has not been deemed essential to examine them critically in all their details: and such general observations only will be submitted, as appear obviously necessary for the purpose of repelling inferences which cannot be admitted. 1. No. 7. [G. in the British Atlas.] Mr. Odell's Survey of the Restook, with a Sketch of the Country as viewed from Mars Hill and the vicinity of Houlton Plantation. No objection is made to the plan of the river Restook so far as it was explored.— But no portion whatever of the country, of which Mr. Odell has pretended to give a sketch, has been surveyed, or even explored, either by him or any of the other surveyors under the commission, with the exception of the rivers St. John and Restook, the line drawn due north from the source of the river St. Croix, and Mars Hill. Not a single survey, (Mars Hill excepted,) was made west of the said north line, and south of the river Restook, so far as the plan extends. (a) Not a foot of the ground west (a) Mount Katahdin was explored by a party coming from the Scoodiac lakes, by the way of rivers Passadumkeig and Penobscot: but no part of the country between that mountain and the north line, has been surveyed or visited under the commission. and Objections to, Evidence. Appendix. and south-west of Mars Hill, has ever been explored or travelled over by any of the surveyors or of their party. Observations cn, the Topographical Evidence. and Objections to, The sketch is said to have been taken from two places nearly thirty miles apart, without the assistance of instruments or any observation. Not the slightest reliance can be placed on a view, taken in that manner, of a country the whole of which is a dense forest. It was impossible for any one to ascertain whether a ridge, or a peak, which he might have seen from Mars Hill, was the same he saw from Houlton Plantation. Supposing that Mr. Odell could, merely by a glance of the eye, have taken a profile of the country between Mars Hill and Katahdin Mountain, as seen from the vicinity of Houlton, it was impossible for him to know the distance, from the point where he was placed, of the several hills, &c. of which he has given a profile, as if it was an actual section of the country. Some of the hills embraced within his plan, are sixty miles from Houlton: and the whole is so obviously a fanciful representation, that it would deserve no notice, was it not for the very erroneous impression which it is calculated at first sight to produce. The country not having been surveyed or explored, the situation of the watercourses remains unknown; and as they could not be seen in a hilly country covered with woods, Mr. Odell has entirely omitted them. There is not a trace, on the plan, of the upper branches of the Restook, or of the various tributary streams of the Penobscot, by which the country is intersected in every direction. Thus the appearance is given of a huge, wide and unbroken mountain, with some prominent peaks, extending fifty or sixty miles, in the direction in which it was necessary to create a chain of highlands, in order to give some color to the British pretension. With no better evidence of that fictitious chain, the United States have a right to deny that it does exist. 2. No. 18. [F.in British Atlas.] Mr. Campbell's Sketch of the Height of Land. Mr. Campbell, in October, 1819, ascended the Penobscot river to Mount Katahdin, and returned down the same river. The ensuing spring he proceeded through the Kennebec country, and along the usual road thence to Quebec, to the height of land (b) which divides the south-west branch of the Penobscot from the sources of a tributary stream of the river Chaudière. He then proceeded about forty miles, partly along the highlands described by the treaty, partly along an easterly ridge intersected by some of the north-west upper branches of the Penobscot. Directing then his course northwardly, he reached, at some miles distance, one of the southerly sources of the Saint John, not far from the place where the conflicting lines meet. His sketch of the country he thus explored, though not correct either as to course or distance, is not liable to any very material objection. But he has also added a view of the country, north-east and south-east from his last station towards Mars Hill (c) and Katahdin Mountain, which, judging by the length on his sketch of the ridge he explored, is wholly erroneous as to distance. He has there, like Mr. Odell, laid down chains of mountains suited to the British pretension, without any evidence of their existence. The United States object to the whole of that part of his sketch. 3. Nos. 13, 14, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, (9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 21 in British Atlas.) Messrs. Burnham's, Tiarks' and Carlisle's Surveys of certain Portages, between the respective sources of some of the tributary streams of the river St. John and of the river St. Lawrence. The usual mode of communication through the uninhabited parts of the whole of this region has hitherto been by water. Canoes, made of the bark of the birch tree, (b) At the place called Image on Map A. (c) According to Map A, Mars Hill is about 115 miles from the place where the conflicting lines. meet. |