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196 VERNE BLUE

the Oregon Historical Society's Quarterly, and should be in pamphlet form on the shelves of every Oregon library. 5 It is not difficult to follow the main lines of thought of the author, for almost the entire authorship is conceded to Floyd.

He begins with an exhaustive examination of the basis for territorial claims in general and of the Terri- tory in question in particular. 6 The most solid basis, the one finally determinative, is that of settlement in a river basin which has been taken in possession by its discoverer in the name of his government. The extent of soil watered by this principle belongs en bloc to this government. Such, the report claims, were the discov- eries which gave to France the country called Louisiana from the Rio Grande del Norte along the mountains of Mexico and California as the eastern boundary. "The grant by Louis XIV to Anthony Crozat . . . compre- hends all lands . . . between Carolina on east, and Old and New Mexico on west." 7 Various French and Spanish authorities Vergennes and Lopez, to name two are quoted to prove that Louisiana is bounded on the west by the Rio Grande. The entire paragraph following is devoted to proving this northern boundary of Mexico.

Floyd is frank to confess that it is indefinite just how high the United States claims extended. He gives a satisfactory description of the Astoria settlement and enterprise and discusses the fur trade at some length, including the endeavors and profits of the Northwest Company. But by no means the least interesting or sig- nificant part of the report is its geography.

The Columbia River, Floyd tells the Congress, offers an easy means of ingress to the country and means of communication to the Atlantic Seaboard. A portage of two hundred miles would connect the upper reaches of

5 Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII, pp. 51-75.

6 Resume of Floyd's Report, Annals of Congress, XXXVII, 946-947.

7 Ibid., p. 948.