Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/324

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��Boundary Line.

��formable to His Majestys determination in Council, as was in his power to draw, but finding it impracticable to stick to the letter of said determination, has in some places taken from one Province, and made ample allowance for the same in the next reach of the River. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 8th, 1741.

George Mitchell,

Sworn ( Jothani Odiorne ~) Jus. J S of the

Before \ H. Sherburne ) Peace

Thus it will be seen that Mitchell was no tool or emissary of Belcher's, but he drew the boundary line accord- ing to his interpretation of the King's Decree, as it appears from examina- tion of the map that he surveyed the river, made his plan, and then pro- ceeded to lay off a strip of land three miles wide on the north side thereof. This he did by first drawing straight lines along the north shore of the river, passing so as to take one half of the river into his estimate, project- ing these lines from the ocean to Pawtncket falls, and then draws the boundary line at three miles distance from these straight lines. Conse- quently no part of his line appears on the south side of the river. Mitchell does not seem to have understood the gymnastics of modern surveying.

This map shows no small degree of artistic ability in the surveyor who projected it, so much so that Mr. Spofford already has applications for copies from parties interested in works of this description.

But this map not only indicates a superior draughtsman, but a remark- ably skilful and accurate surveyor.

His plan of the river, reduced by pantograph to the scale of the map accompanying the recent report of

��the New Hampshire Commissioners to the legislature of that state, shows the survey to have been made and platted with a wonderful degree of accuracy.

This latest survey and plan were executed with the very best of modern appliances, by a skilful and expe- rienced surveyor but recently from the United .States Government survey of the Mississippi river, and neither time nor expense was spared to make it as accurate as could be platted on a scale of 2,500 feet to one inch ; still, on comparing this latest product of modern skill, it is little more than a fac simile of Mitchell's work done with the rude instruments of a century and a half ago.

MAP NO. 3.

This map is on a sheet about 24x36 inches, and is the work of the same surveyor, and executed in the same o;eneral style as No. 2. The title reads as follows :

A Plan of the Rivers and Boundary Lines referred to in the Proceedings and Judcrment to which this is annexed.

Geo. Mitchell Surveyor

Note

Reed Dec 20 1737 with Letter from ye Commissioners for settling the Boundary Lines between ye provinces of Massachu- setts Bay & New Hampshire

Cenr 79

The commission of 1737, it will be remembered by persons familiar with this question, reported in substance as follows :

That if the second charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay cov- ered all the territory that the first charter covered, then the line should commence at the Atlantic ocean,

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