The commissioners were immediately confronted with the fact that they were expected to mark a boundary line which really did not exist and never had existed; but by a liberal interpretation of that part of the convention in which it was agreed that they were “to place buoys or fix such other boundary marks as they may determine to be necessary,” they found a basis on which to proceed to the consideration of the question. Evidently the just and fair principle according to which the boundary might be drawn, was that which, as far as was practicable, left equal water-areas on both sides. There was no other solution of the problem clearly indicated by the physics of the estuary or the topography of the shores. Furthermore, there is a precedent for adopting this principle, in the treaty of 1846, in which the extension of the boundary from the point of intersection of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude with the middle of the channel between Vancouver Island and the Continent, to the Pacific Ocean, is along the middle of the Strait of Fuca. This was agreed to by both sides; and also, that the boundary line should consist, in the main, of straight lines, because of the impossibility of marking a curved line on the water, or indicating it clearly by shore signals; that the number of these straight lines should be as small as possible, consistent with an approximately equal division of the water area. In view of the great desirability of fixing the line for the whole distance, from the mouth of the St. Croix River to West Quoddy Head, the commissioners tentatively agreed to so interpret the words “adjacent to Eastport,” as to include the entire twenty miles, thus hoping to definitely settle a controversy of a hundred years’ standing. Proceeding on these principles, the whole line was actually laid down on a large scale chart of the region at a meeting of the commission, in Washington, in March, 1893, with the exception of a distance of a little over half a mile, extending north from a point in the middle of Lubec Channel. The omission of this part in the Washington agreement was due to the existence of a small island about a quarter of a mile from the entrance to the channel, now known as “Pope’s Folly,” but early in the century known as “Green” Island and also as “Mark” Island. The sovereignty of this island has been almost from the beginning a matter of local dispute. It contains barely an acre of ground, and except for possible military uses, it has practically no value. Its location is such, however, as to form a stumbling block in the way of drawing a boundary line, which, if laid down with a reasonable regard to the principles enunciated above, would certainly throw it on the side of the United States, while a line so drawn as to include it in Canadian waters would be unscientific and unnatural. It was agreed to postpone further consideration of this question until the meeting of the commissioners