In order to the more exact and successful performance of the duties
included under the first of the above heads, the boundary line was
divided by their instructions into three separate portions, one of
which was assigned to each of the commissioners; and while they were
instructed to assemble in a board for the purpose of comparing their
respective surveys, in view of the performance of the duties included
in the second of the above divisions their explorations have been
separately conducted. Each of the commissioners has employed the methods
and course of action most appropriate in his opinion to the successful
fulfillment of his appointed task, and the nature of the surveys
assigned to one of them has been of a character widely different from
those of his colleagues. The commissioners, therefore, while uniting in
a general report of the progress made up to this time in the duties of
their appointment, beg leave to submit, in the form of appendices, the
narrative of their several operations, with so much of the records
of their observations and calculations as they have severally judged
necessary to authenticate the conclusions at which they have arrived.
The progress which has been made in the labors of the commissioners
enables them at this time to lay before you--