Volume 1

THE LAKE OF THE WOODS. 25
which kept us in our quarters. I caught one of our men
steahng flour out of a bag, and another stealing sugar ; these
two rascals had formed a scheme to feast their women.
Aug: yth. Before daybreak the wind fell, when we embarked,
and finding the water high passed the little
Portage
12,2.214. feet. 6th. N, 7° W. 493 feet. The variation being 12° East. The
termination of this 6th or last course and distance being the above said most
Northwestern Point of the Lake of the Woods, as designated by the 7th Article
of the Treaty of Ghent, and being in Latitude Forty-nine degrees, twenty-three
minutes
and fifty-five seconds North of the Equator, and in Longitude Ninetyfive
degrees, fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds West from the Observatory
at Greenwich." From the point thus determined, marked, and established
the boundary of course dropped on the meridian indicated to the parallel of 49°
N. ; it was so agreed upon and defined in the treaty of Nov. loth, 1842 ; and such
remained the accepted line until it was resurveyed of late years, with the result
of some slight alteration of the determinations which had been made by I. L.
Tiarks and David Thompson, 1824-25. In April, 1870, it was found that the
line of the 49th parallel was not exactly where it had been supposed to be in
crossing the Red River of the North in the vicinity of
Pembina, where a military
post was to be established. The President called attention to this in his
message to Congress of Dec. 20th,
1870, and submitted that the whole boundary
line from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains should be surveyed
and marked.
This led to the Act of Congress of Mar. 19th, 1872, authorizing the
President, by and with the advice of the Senate, to co-operate with the
government
of
Great Britain in the appointment of a joint commission for the desired
purpose, and providing for such a commission on the part of the United States,
which was soon organized by the appointment of Archibald Campbell, Esq., as
commissioner, and the detail of the following engineer officers for the required
geodetic and topographical work: Capt. F. U. Farquhar (d. July 3d, 1883),
Capt. W. J.
Twining (d-. May 5th, 1882) ; Lieut. J. F. Gregory ; Lieut. F. V.
Greene ;
other officers being subsequently detailed in various capacities,
myself among the number. One of the first pieces of field work required was
the discovery and identification of the old monument at the Northwest Angle,
and the re-establishment of this point by new geodetic observations.
The party
reached the Angle Oct. 9th, 1872, and were there associated with Capt. S. Anderson,
R. E., Chief Astronomer of the British Commission with whom they were
to co-operate, and other English officers. The monument sought was a wooden
post in a crib-work of logs, erected in Oct., 1824 ; it was gone, but what was
supposed to be its exact site was recovered. The Northwest pt. was finally
determined to be at lat. 49'' 23' 50.28" N., long. 95" 08' 56.7" W. ; and the
position thus agreed on by Capt. Anderson and Maj. Farquhar was accepted by
the commissioners on the part of both governments, in Sept., 1874. The protocol
concerning the whole boundary, of course including the points here in
special mention, was signed in London, May 29th, 1876, thus concluding the