In April last, while engaged in locating a military reservation near
Pembina, a corps of engineers discovered that the commonly received
boundary line between the United States and the British possessions
at that place is about 4,700 feet south of the true position of the
forty-ninth parallel, and that the line, when run on what is now
supposed to be the true position of that parallel, would leave the fort
of the Hudsons Bay Company at Pembina within the territory of the United
States. This information being communicated to the British Government,
I was requested to consent, and did consent, that the British occupation
of the fort of the Hudsons Bay Company should continue for the present.
I deem it important, however, that this part of the boundary line should
be definitely fixed by a joint commission of the two Governments, and
I submit herewith estimates of the expense of such a commission on the
part of the United States and recommend that an appropriation be made
for that purpose. The land boundary has already been fixed and marked
from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Georgian Bay. It should
now be in like manner marked from the Lake of the Woods to the summit
of the Rocky Mountains.
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