CAB7-4 — Page 474

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Appendix No. 4.

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

Plate II,*

Plate XII.*

446

The line of demarcation, as shown by the charts, commences at the south point of Wales Island, at the entrance of Portland Inlet, thence passes to the bend of the Portland Channel, from whence it is taken at a distance of 10 marine leagues, not from the coast, but from the heads of all the little inlets that run into the coast.

This line seems most emphatically wrong, for the following reasons :——

1. The starting point is not the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, between the 131st and 133rd degrees of west longitude, but it is the southernmost point of Wales Island, in longitude about 130° 30′′.

2. The head of Portland Inlet does not ascend as high as latitude 56°, and, according to Vancouver, it ends in low marshy ground; also instead of being within 10, it is over 20 marine leagues of the

ocean.

3. There is no range of mountains that runs parallel to the coast from the head of Portland Inlet. The true line of demarcation which would accord with the terms of the Convention of 1825 should, it would appear, start from Cape Chacon, the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, then pass north up Clarence Strait and Prince Ernest Sound to the point where it strikes the 56th parallel of latitude, a little to the south of Cape Warde, where, so far as I can learn, and as appears by Vancouver's map, the parallel meets, close to the ocean, a mountain that forms the southern extremity of a chain of mountains that passes near the coast as far as latitude 59° north.

Wheaton defines the mountains mentioned in the Convention as the "mountains bordering on the

coast."

I am aware that in another version of the Convention of 1825 the words "called Portland Channel" are introduced as explanatory of the channel that was alluded to in the Convention, but I am informed that this interpolation was not in the original Convention; and I am induced to believe this, as in some old maps that I have seen the boundary is not shown as in any way connected with Portland Channel; and, moreover, if the boundary started from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island between longitude 130 and 133 degrees west, it could not go north up the Portland Channel, but must pass eastward for at least 1° 20”.

Wheaton, in his work on international law, so far acknowledged that the boundary should start from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, that he adds the word “ eastward," to enable the boundary to pass up the Portland Channel.

My reasons for alluding to this matter are, that with the boundary-line as at present, Port Simpson, in latitude 54° 34", is the nearest British port to the Stakine River in latitude 56° 45′′, the most direct channel of communication to the Cassiar mines (being 35 miles by river, and 88 miles by land); the only other routes are an Indian trail over 200 miles to the Nasse River, or via the Fraser River to New Westminster, a distance of over 600 miles; a second reason is, that the clearing away of any doubt as to the true position of the boundary would go far to remove the chance of difficulty between the two Powers similar to that which occurred in 1876-77, and therefore would also obviate the necessity for defensive works of a large scale in this locality.

Altering the boundary-line across the Stakine River from the position provisionally assigned to that which it should really occupy, according to what is believed to be the true position, would, it is said, greatly improve the commercial facilities of the route, which promise to be of great importance when the country to the north is opened up.

On the accompanying map* I have marked out approximately by a red line the position that it seems probable the boundary-line should take, and also the position of provisional boundary.

The accompanying photograph* of part of the map in Vancouver's travels shows the mountains, as they were supposed to exist in 1793-94. The Convention of 1825 seems to have been based on a previous agreement between Great Britain and Russia in 1797, and it is probable that the plan used to illustrate the earlier Treaty would have been taken from Vancouver's map, the best extant at the time.

On the photograph will be seen clearly the mountains bordering on the coast from Cape Warde, in latitude 56°, to the extent of coast shown on the photograph. It will also be seen that it was then known that there was no range of mountains that met the head of Portland Inlet.

Approximate estimates for construction of defences, mainly based on existing records of expen- diture incurred on construction of similar works at Halifax, Nova Scotia, are given below. An addition of 25 per cent. has been made to meet difference of cost of civil labour.

Sangster's Knoll

Rodd Hill Cape Saxe

Beacon Hill

Signal Hill

Total

I have, &c. (Signed)

The Inspector-General of Fortifications, &c.,

War Office.

• Not printed.

£

8,500

7,800

7,900

7,520

1,300

33,020

J. W. LOVELL, Colonel, C.R.E

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