That which relates to a presumed agreement of Commissioners appointed under the treaty of Utrecht, by which the northern boundary of Canada was, from a certain point north of Lake Superior, declared to extend westwardly along the 49th parallel of latitude, does not appear to me definitively settled. As this had been assumed many years before, as a positive fact, and had never been contradicted, I also assumed it as such and did not thoroughly investigate the subject. Yet I had before me at least one map (name of publisher not recollected), of which I have a vivid recollection, on which the dividing lines were distinctly marked and expressly designated, as being in conformity with the agreement of the Commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht. The evidence against the fact, though in some respects strong, is purely negative. The line, according to the map, extended from a certain point near the source of the river Saguenay, in a westerly direction, to another designated point on another river emptying either into the St Lawrence or James's Bay; and there were, in that way, four or five lines following each other, all tending westwardly, but with different inclinations northwardly or southwardly, and all extending, from some apparently known point on a designated river, to another similar point on another river; the rivers themselves emptying themselves, some into the river St. Lawrence and others into James's Bay or Hudson's Bay, until, from a certain point lying north of Lake Superior, the line was declared to extend along the 49th degree of latitude, as above stated. It was with that map before me that the following paragraph was inserted in the American statement of December, 1826: "The limits between the possessions of Great Britain in North America, and those of France in the same quarter, namely, Canada and Louisiana, were determined by Commissioners appointed in pursuance of the treaty of Utrecht. From the coast of Labrador to a certain point North of Lake Superior, those limits were fixed according to certain metes and bounds; and from that point the line of demarcation was agreed to extend indefinitely due west, along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude. It was in conformity with that arrangement that the United States did claim that parallel as the northern boundary of Louisiana. It has been accordingly thus settled, as far as the Stony Mountains, by the convention of 1818 between the United States and Great Britain; and no adequate reason can be given why the same boundary should not be continued as far as the claims of the United States do extend, that is to say, as far as the Pacific ocean."