The line between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and to the most North-Western point of the Lake of the Woods.
The Treaty of 1783 laid down that the line was to be drawn, as already stated, through the middle of Lake Huron
‘to the water-communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior, Northward of the Isles Royal and Phelipeaux 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 North-Western point thereof’.
Under the Sixth Article of the Treaty of Ghent the Commissioners defined the frontier line well into the strait between Lakes Huron and Superior, but stopped short of the Sault St. Marie, at a point above St. Joseph’s Island and below St. George’s or Sugar Island. Here they considered that their labours under the Sixth Article terminated. But the next Article of the Treaty of Ghent provided that the same two Commissioners should go on to determine
‘that part of the boundary between the dominions of the two powers, which extends from the water communication between Lake Huron and Lake Superior to the most North-Western point of the Lake of the Woods’.
Comparing these words with the terms of the 1783 Treaty, it will be noticed that mention of the Long Lake is eliminated, Nonexistence of the ‘Long Lake’. as it had been discovered in the meantime that the Long Lake could not be identified. On this section of the boundary the Commissioners were not at one. Accordingly on the 23rd of October, 1826,[238] they presented an elaborate joint report showing the points on which they had come to an agreement, and those on which they were at variance, with their respective recommendations. As to a great part of the line they were in accord, and especially they defined by latitude and longitude the most North-Western point of the The ‘most North-Western point of the Lake of the Woods’ determined. Lake of the Woods, but they wholly disagreed as to the ownership of St. George’s or Sugar Island in the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and also as to the line to be taken from a point towards the Western end of Lake Superior[239] to the Lac de Pluie or Rainy Lake. They made, however, on either side suggestions for compromise. The matter was set at rest by the Second Article of Lord Ashburton’s Treaty, St. George’s Island being assigned to the United States, and a compromise line being drawn from Lake Superior to Rainy Lake. The channels along the whole boundary line from the The Ashburton Treaty and the Treaty of 1871. point where it strikes the St. Lawrence are open to both nations; and by the Twenty-sixth Article of the Treaty of Washington, dated the 8th of May, 1871, the navigation of the St. Lawrence, from the point where it is intersected Navigation of the St. Lawrence. by the International Boundary down to the sea is declared to be free and open for the purposes of Commerce to the citizens of the United States, subject to any laws and regulations of Great Britain and Canada not inconsistent with the privilege of free navigation.
The line from the most North-Western point of the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi.
According to the 1783 Treaty the boundary line from the most North-Western point of the Lake of the Woods was to be drawn
‘on a due West course to the river Mississippi’,
and was then to follow that river Southwards. Here geographical knowledge was again wanting. The framers of the treaty were under the impression that the source of the Mississippi was further North than is actually the case, and Mistake as to the source of the Mississippi in the Treaty of 1783. they prescribed a geographical impossibility. It was not long before the mistake was found out, for the Fourth Article of Corrected by Jay’s Treaty of 1794. Jay’s Treaty of 1794[240] began with the words