But the report of the commission of 1798 fell far short of terminating the boundary-line controversy. The identity of the St. Croix River was fixed and its mouth and source determined, but from the beginning of the line in the middle of the river there were still twenty miles before the open ocean was reached. Along this stretch of almost land-locked water were numerous islands, several of them large and valuable, and on some of them important settlements had already been made. The Commissioners of 1794 were urged to continue the line to the sea, thus settling the sovereignty of these islands and ending the dispute. They declined to do so, however, on account of a lack of jurisdiction, as they believed, and it was not then thought that these subordinate problems would be difficult of solution. As a matter of fact, Great Britain claimed dominion over all of these islands and exercised authority over most of them, except Moose Island, upon which was the vigorous American town of Eastport. A treaty was actually arranged in 1803 between Lord Hawkesbury and Rufus King in which the question of the extension of the boundary line to the open sea was agreed upon and in a most curious way. It was declared that the boundary line should proceed from the mouth of the St. Croix and through the middle of the channel between Deer Island and Moose Island (which was thus held by the United States) and Campobello Island on the west and south round the eastern part of Campobello to the Bay of Fundy. This would apparently give the island of Campobello to the United States; but it was especially declared that all islands to the north and east of said boundary, _together with the island of Campobello_, should be a part of the Province of New Brunswick. The curious feature of this treaty, providing that an island actually included on the American side of the boundary line should remain in the possession of Great Britain, resulted from a provision of the treaty of 1783, which declared that all islands heretofore under the jurisdiction of Nova Scotia should remain the property of Great Britain. It is also an admission of the fact that the _natural_ extension of the boundary line is around the eastern end of Campobello, as described above; and while this treaty was never ratified, it is of great significance as proving the admission on the part of the English, that the natural boundary would include the island of Campobello in American territory.