From the head of the Ouelle to the Temiscouata portage-- Feet
The maximum height is 2,231
The minimum height is 853
From the point where the line first crosses the Temiscouata
portage to Mount Paradis--
The maximum height is 1,983
The minimum height is 906
From the Temiscouata portage to the head of the Abagusquash--
The maximum height is 1,510
The minimum height is 676
From Abagusquash to the Rimouski Lake--
The maximum height is 1,824
The minimum height is 651
From the Rimouski Lake to the northwest angle--
The maximum height is 1,841
The minimum height is 1,014
The greatest elevation of the whole of the third part of the
American line, therefore, is 2,231
The minimum is 651
The termination of the exploring meridian line falls into this part
of the American line. Its height of 1,519 feet was determined by two
separate observations, compared with others taken on Lake Johnson.
The height of the latter was calculated at 1,007 feet from a series
of observations continued for seventeen days, and is believed to be
as accurate as the method of the barometer is susceptible of.
This height of the termination of that line is estimated by Messrs.
Featherstonhaugh and Mudge at no more than 388 feet, and that of the
lake at no more than 363. In this estimate they reject the indications
of their own barometers, because the results of them would have
contradicted the previous impressions which seem to have governed all
their operations, viz, that the point claimed by the United States as
the northwest angle of Nova Scotia is not in an elevated region of
country.[34]
[Footnote 34: A continuous line of leveling was carried by one of the
parties of Major Graham's division, by means of two spirit levels
checking one another, from tide water at Calais, in Maine, to the
monument at the source of the St. Croix, and thence along the true
meridian line to its intersection with the river St. John. The surface
of the St. John at this point of intersection was thus found to be
419-1/2 feet above the level of mean tide at Calais. The basin of the
river immediately above the Grand Falls may be stated as of the same
elevation in round numbers, as there is very little current in the river
between those two points.]
On the third part of the British line from the sources of the Aroostook
to the Grand Falls of the St. John no height is reported as measured by
the British commissioners which exceeds 1,050 feet, while the greatest
height on their profile is 1,150 feet. The minimum height on their
profile, excluding the Aroostook at its mouth and its intersection with
the meridian line, is 243 feet, and the mean of the numbers entered by
them both on their map and profile is 665 feet.
It will therefore appear that if the profile of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh
and Mudge be correct the lowest gap on the third part of the American
line is about as high as the mean elevation of the part of the British
line with which it is compared.
The line claimed by the United States therefore possesses throughout in
a pre-eminent degree the highland character according to the sense at
one time contended for in the argument of Great Britain, and is, to use
the term of the British commissioners, "the axis of maximum elevation,"
the mean of all the heights measured upon it being 1,459 feet, while
that of those measured on the line of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge
is no more than 1,085 feet.
It is regretted that the computations of the barometric and other
observations for the determination of the heights of that portion of
the country between the valley of the St. John and the sources of the
Aroostook, explored by the division of Major Graham, could not be
completed in time to be made use of for this report in the description
of that portion of the line claimed for Great Britain by Messrs.
Featherstonhaugh and Mudge. This delay has been solely caused by
a want of reasonable time to complete this portion of the work, the
commissioner having direction of the division charged with it having
only returned from the field in the month of January.
Sufficient information is known, however, to have been derived from
those surveys to justify the assertion that, instead of the strongly
marked range of highlands represented by the British commissioners as
constituting a part of their "axis of maximum elevation," the country in
the vicinity of the Aroostook lying between its sources and the valley
of the St. John is devoid of the character they have attributed to it.
When properly represented upon a map it will appear as an extended
undulating surface of moderate elevation above the level of the
Aroostook River, sparsely interspersed with occasional detached
elevations rising to heights of 600 to 900 and 1,400 feet above the
level of the sea, but forming no continuous or connected chain whatever
in the direction represented by the British commissioners, or that could
be construed into the character of highlands such as are described in
the treaty of 1783.[35]
[Footnote 35: Since the above was written Major Graham's map and the
computations of the barometric heights above alluded to have been
completed.
This map exhibits in their proper positions the numerous altitudes which
were determined throughout the country watered by the Aroostook and its
principal tributaries, extending laterally to the heights which bound
the basin of that river on either side; along the due west line traced
in the year 1835 by Captain Yule, of the royal engineers, between Mars
Hill and a point near the forks of the Great Machias River; along and in
the vicinity of the road recently opened by the State of Maine from
Lewis's (a point in latitude 46° 12' 20", between the head branches of
the Meduxnikeag and the Masardis or St. Croix of the Aroostook) to the
mouth of Fish River, in latitude 47° 15' 13", being a distance, actually
measured, of 79 miles; and along the new military road, embracing 40-1/2
miles of the distance from Fort Fairfield to Houlton and including the
adjacent heights on either side.
The number of elevations within the territory watered by the Aroostook
and claimed by Great Britain that have thus been carefully measured
amounts to upward of 200.
This survey shows that although the prominent eminences which occur
along that portion of the "axis of maximum elevation" of Messrs. Mudge
and Featherstonhaugh which lies between the mouth and the source of
the Aroostook correspond very nearly in height and position by our
measurements with those reported by themselves, yet these eminences are
separated one from another by spaces of comparatively low and very often
swampy country, so extended as to preclude the idea of a continuous
range of highlands in the direction represented upon the map of those
commissioners.
If a range or chain of highlands is to be made to appear by drawing
a strongly marked line over widely extended valleys or districts of
comparatively low country so as to reach and connect the most prominent
eminences which may fall within the assumed direction, then such a range
or chain of highlands may here be made as plausibly in any other
direction as in that chosen by Messrs. Mudge and Featherstonhaugh, for
the detached elevated peaks are so distributed as under such a principle
to favor any one direction as much as another, and might thus be made to
subserve in an equal degree whatever conflicting theories the object in
view might cause to be originated.
We may also refer, in further illustration of the character of the
country through which a portion of this pretended "axis of maximum
elevation" is made to pass, to a panorama view taken in October, 1841,
by one of Major Graham's assistants from the summit of Blue Hill, where
crossed by the true meridian of the monument, at the source of the St.
Croix. This position is 1,100 feet above the level of the sea and 47-1/2
miles north of the monument. It commands a most satisfactory view of the
whole country embraced within a radius of 40 to 60 miles, including, as
the landscape shows, Parks Hill to the south; Katahdin, the Traveller,
and Mars Hill to the southwest; Quaquajo, the Horseback, the Haystack,
and one or two peaks beyond the Aroostook to the west; the heights upon
the Fish River and the southern margin of the Eagle Lakes to the
northwest, and those south of the St. John (except a small angle
obstructed by the Aroostook Hill) to the north.
The character of the great basin of the Aroostook, dotted with the
detached peaks which rise abruptly from it at intervals of many miles
apart, is here exhibited through at least two-thirds of its extent in so
satisfactory a manner as in itself to preclude the idea of an "axis of
maximum elevation" composed of anything like a connected or continuous
chain in this region of country.