upon the said international boundary line, to the easterly boundary of the Province of Manitoba; thence due north, along the said easterly boundary of Manitoba, to the north-east angle of the said Province; thence due west, on the north boundary of said Province, to the intersection by the said boundary of the westerly shore of Lake Manitoba; thence northerly, following the said westerly shore of the said lake, to the easterly terminus thereon of the Portage connecting the southerly end of Lake Winnepegosis with the said Lake Manitoba, known as "The Meadow Portage; " thence westerly, following upon the trail of the said Portage, to the westerly terminus of the same, being on the easterly shore of the said Lake Winnepegosis; thence northerly, following the line of the said easterly shore of the said lake to the southerly end of the portage leading from the head of the said lake into "Cedar Lake," known as the "Cedar "" or "Mossy Portage ;" thence northerly, following the trail of the said portage, to the north end of the same on the shore of Cedar Lake; thence due north, to the northerly limits of Canada; thence easterly following upon the said northerly limits of Canada, to the northerly extremity of Hudson's Bay; thence southerly, following upon the westerly shore of the said Hudson's Bay, to the point where it would be intersected by a line drawn due north from the place of beginning, and thence due south, on the said line last mentioned, to the said place of beginning; shall be, and is hereby set apart as a separate district of the said North-West Territories by the name of the District of Keewatin. LICENSES TO MINE, &c., ON PIGEON RIVER, WEST OF LAKE SUPERIOR, GRANTED BY THE PROVINCE OF CANADA. LICENSES GRANTED BY THE PROVINCE OF CANADA, PRIOR TO CONFEDERATION, TO EXPLORE AND TO MINE, OR QUARRY, FOR METALS, MINERALS, ETC., ON THE NORTHERLY SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR-THE WESTERN BOUNDARY OF THE TERRITORY COVERED BY THE LICENSES, RESPECTIVELY, BEING PIGEON RIVER. FORM OF LICENSE.* PROVINCE OF CANADA LICENCE TO EXPLORE FOR METALS, MINERALS, &C., ON THE NORTHERLY SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR. R. R. Nelson, of having paid into this Office the sum of twenty-five pounds, by the hands of Mr. W. H. Jones (being the authorized charge for this Licence), is hereby permitted to explore and examine, in accordance with the General Order in Council, dated 21st September, 1853, within the section of country situated between Sault Sainte Marie and Pigeon River, on the Shore of Lake Superior and extending Ten miles in a northerly direction, during a period of six months from the date hereof, and to mine or quarry for copper ore, lead, iron, tin, marble, gypsum, earths or minerals, upon any unlocated and unoccupied lands within that section of country, and not falling within any Indian or Public Reserve, and to select and take possession of a Tract not exceeding in extent Four Hundred Acres, and of the form of forty chains in front by one hundred chains in depth. And subject to the said R. R. Nelson reporting accurately his discovery, and the selection he has made, to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, within the said period of six months; and furnishing at the same time a Map and Report thereof, together with an affidavit by the Licence holder and some other credible person proving that no counter occupation or workings exist. This Licence to remain in force for the term of two years, and to entitle the party named therein to purchase the Tract he may select; paying the consideration money in one sum, at the rate of seven shillings and sixpence per acre, within that period. Or failing to do so, he shall be regarded as having abandoned such right to purchase. Until a purchase be completed, the Licence holder shall not convey from the Location. which he selects, any copper ore, lead, iron, tin, marble, gypsum, earths or minerals, excepting such specimens as may be necessary for testing the quality and value thereof; nor shall he, until a purchase be completed fell or remove any timber from the location. Upon a selection being made, the subjoined Certificate of Location will be filed up. JOSEPH CAUCHON, Com. Cr. Lands. I CERTIFY that R. R. Nelson mentioned in the preceding Licence, to explore for metals, minerals, &c., having declared his selection under its provisions, and filed the required affidavits, has been entered on the map of this office for a Mining Tract of 400 acres, situated at Thunder Bay, and on the north shore thereof, the outlines of which pending an actual survey are calculated by the Office Maps, as follows, that is to say: The southeast angle of the Tract being about seven miles north-easterly from the mouth of the Rivière au Courant in north latitude 48° 29′ 30′′ and west longitude 49° 16′ 40′′ on Bayfield's Chart of Lake Superior. The Tract being forty chains in perpendicular breadth by one hundred chains in mean depth. The lateral lines running due north and the rear lines at right angles thereto. JOSEPH CAUCHON, *Book "Mining Licenses," Crown Lands Department, Toronto, p. 9. The written part of the License is here given in italics: the rest composes the printed form of the Department. ORDER IN COUNCIL REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING LICENSE. In Council, September 21, 1853. On the communication from the Crown Land Department, dated 15th September, instant, representing that the existing system, relative to the allotment of mining tracts, not having realized the anticipations formed by the Government of the period of their promulgation, nor, on the other hand, enabled individuals desirous of engaging in mining pursuits to effect their objects without compelling them to purchase locations of so extensive an area as to occasion a needlessly large expenditure of capital on acquiring a right to explore and mine where the indications were favourable, it is respectfully submitted by the Department whether it may not be desirable, in substitution of the system laid down in the Orders in Council of 18th April, 1846, 9th May, 1846, and 7th October, 1846, to devise regulations, combining with a right to explore, during a limited period, on favourable terms, the privilege of purchasing tracts of very moderate extent, provided the exploration proves satisfactory: The Committee recommend that on payment into the hands of the Commissioner of Crown Lands of the sum of twenty-five pounds, that officer be permitted to issue a license to any individual authorizing him to explore upon any unconceded lands within the limits of any such country, or section of country, as he may desire to be inserted, situate within the boundaries of Upper Canada, for copper, lead, iron, tin, marble, gypsum, earth or minerals. Such license to remain in force for a period of two years, and to authorize the individual in whose favour it issued to take possession of a tract not exceeding four hundred acres, and not already occupied by any other person-such tract to be in the proportion of forty chains front by one hundred chains in depth. The license holder to report his discovery and selection accurately by letter and map within six months from the issue of his license, accompanied by an affidavit made by himself and some other credible person, proving that no counter occupation or workings exist. And at the expiration of the said term of two years, during which the license shall have force, he shall complete a purchase, paying the consideration money in one sum, at the rate of seven shillings and six pence per acre, or failing to do so he shall be regarded as having abandoned such right to purchase. Certified WM. H. LEE. DESCRIPTION OF THE LINE OF DIVISION BETWEEN THE PROVINCES OF UPPER AND LOWER CANADA, REFERRED TO IN THE ORDER IN COUNCIL OF 24TH AUGUST, 1791.* To commence at a stone boundary on the north bank of the Lake St. Francis, at the Cove, west of Pointe au Bodet, in the limit between the Township of Lancaster and the Seigneurie of New Longueuil, running along the said limit in the direction of north thirty-four degrees west to the westernmost angle of the said Seigneurie of New Longueuil, thence along the north-western boundary of the Seigneurie of Vandreuil running north twenty-five degrees east, until it strikes the Ottawas River, to ascend the said River into the Lake Tomiscanning, and from the head of the said Lake by a line drawn due north until it strikes the boundary line of Hudson's Bay, including all the territory to the westward and southward of the said line to the utmost extent of the country commonly called or known by the name of Canada. This paper was procured by the Government of Ontario from the Public Records Office, London. The Order in which it is referred to, and which, for our purpose, is incomplete without it, is to be found at p. 388 ante. STATEMENTS OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, AND OF THE AGENTS OF THE DOMINION AND ONTARIO GOVERNMENTS, RESPECTIVELY, AS TO THE RESULT OF RESEARCHES MADE IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE, WITH THE VIEW OF PROCURING EVIDENCE FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE PRESENT ENQUIRY. FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE G. GOSCHEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. Sir, HUDSONS' BAY HOUSE, LONDON, 12TH December, 1876. I have the honour to acknowledge your letters requesting information relating to the boundary between the Province of Upper Canada and the Territory held by the Hudson's Bay Company. I enclose a map No. 1, showing the Territories claimed by the Company in virtue of the Charter granted to them by King Charles the Second. The map in question was prepared by Mr. John Arrowsmith, and was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 31st July, and 11th August, 1857.* I also enclose a statement No. 2, prepared for the Company in 1857, with reference to the Parliamentary enquiry which took place in that year. The boundaries were then asserted to be, on the side of the United States, by the 49th parallel of Latitude; on the side of Canada, by the height of land whose waters flow into Hudson's Bay; and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. ‡ At the time of the passing of the Quebec Act, 1774, the Company had not extended their posts and operations far from the shores of Hudson's Bay.§ Journals of the following trading stations have been preserved bearing that date, namely: Albany, Henley, Moose, Eastmain, York, Severn and Churchill.|| These Journals give no information upon the subject of the boundaries between Canada and the Territory of the Company, nor was the question raised in 1748, when the House of Lords held an enquiry with reference to the Company's affairs as at that time conducted. A map No. 3, no doubt prepared for that occasion, and sent herewith, shows the extent of country to which these operations were then confined.** At a subsequent period, namely in 1777, a map was published in London by John Andrews, giving the height of land, near Lake Abitibi and other quarters, and showing certain boundaries for the Province of Upper Canada.†† I am to request that the maps and documents accompanying this letter may be returned to the Company when the enquiry to which you refer has been completed. This is map No. 186, p. 139 ante. + See extract from this Statement, p. 402 ante. See map No. 186, p. 139 ante. § This admission of the Chairman of the Company agrees with the Company's Statement of 1857 hereinbefore referred to, and with what the French and their Canadian successors always claimed, the territory they occupied being coextensive with their claims. Thus it is admitted that the Company, up to 1774, had not proceeded far from the shores of the Bay, whilst on the other hand, it is clear that the French, up to 1763, had maintained themselves in, and carried off the trade of the interior almost up to these very shores, of portions of which they were in actual possession. It follows therefore that the southern boundary of the territory" granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, and contemplated in the Quebec Act, ould not have been far from the shores of the Bay. Not yet come to the hands of the Government of Ontario. This Report of the Lords, dated 1749, is largely quoted from, pp. 395-400, ante. ** This is map No. 80, p. 136 o, ante. ++ This is map No. 155, p. 166 ff, ante. The Province of Upper Canada had not then been created The boundary line given is an imaginary one, without any authority. I shall be glad if you find them useful for the purpose of defining the boundary line between the Dominion and Ontario. The Honourable R. W. Scott, Sectetary of State for Canada, I have, &c., GEORGE G. GOSCHEN. Ottawa. FROM MESSRS. BISCHOFF, BOMPAS AND BISCHOFF, AGENTS OF THE DOMINION. 4 GREAT WINCHESTER STREET, LONDON, E. C., 22nd March, 1877. SIR, We beg to report that we have been engaged almost continuously since the date of your last letter in searching the records of the Hudson's Bay Company, and regret that our efforts have not been crowned with more satisfactory results. The only important documents which we have found are two maps, which we did not get in time to despatch by this mail, but which shall be forwarded to you by the next. The first and smaller of these maps defines the boundary of the Province of Quebec as settled after the Treaty of Utrecht,-a red line being drawn, and the words "The French and English respectively not to pass this line" being written thereon.* The second is a large map of North America, published in 1755,† by one Mitchell pursuant to Act of Parliament and under authority of the Board of Trade. This map draws the boundary line between the Hudson's Bay Territory and New France as extending along "the height of land" as far as the "Lake of the Woods," and there stops, owing as we imagine to there not being at that period any accurate knowledge of the country lying westward of that point. You will observe that at the point where the boundary line stops, it is running in a south-westerly direction, and here consequently, if continued, would completely cut off from New France the whole of the Red River Territory.§ Both these maps are important, as shewing that after the Treaty of Utrecht a boundary was fixed between the English and French Territories, as far as knowledge of the country would enable it to be done, and that the claims of the French westward so *This is map No. 36, p. 136 g, ante. It was really made in 1709. The map here referred to is the second edition of Mitchell's Map, as to which see full notes to map No. 86, pp. 136 t, u. Many subsequent maps which extend further west, show the same line as this one, stopping at the like The boundary line, it will be noticed, is, in some places north of the height of land. terminal point, the western boundary running thence due north, or northerly along the eastern shores of Lake Winnipeg. As to the country westward of the point mentioned, it is matter of history that the Verendryes traversed and traded through the whole Winnipeg basin before 1750; that they built forts on Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods in 1731-2, and very shortly afterwards on the Winnipeg, Red and Assiniboine Rivers, taking possession also of the Upper Missouri and its tributaries to their source. They subsequently extended their forts on the lakes and rivers northwards to the Saskatchewan, on which they and their successors had, up to 1755, built no less than five forts-one at the base of the Rocky Mountains. They thus commanded the whole trade of that vast region, which they called the Post of the Western Sea. (See the articles ante, Les Varennes de la Verendrye, and Bougainville on the French Posts.) There is ground for believing that they even penetrated before 1763 to the Athabaska country, and made it and the upper reaches of the Churchill, tributary to their forts on the Saskatchewan. Up to this period, their trade had never been disturbed, nor had any others claimed a right to it; and for 11 years more, no servant of the Hudson's Bay Company had set his foot there. The cession of Canada caused some of the old French commandants to retire from those western posts; but a good many remained, retaining the old forts and the trade, and the old royageurs. These, soon after the cession, received, from Canada, reinforcements in men (both French and English) and merchandise for barter; and they and their successors quickly spread themselves over the whole western territories-to the Pacific and to Alaska, and even to the Frozen Ocean. The earliest post of the Hudson's Bay Company, in these inland parts, was Cumberland House, on Sturgeon Lake, built by Hearne in 1774; and their next post was built in 1790, when their first establishment on the Red River, or rather Ked Lake, was founded. (See the present Letter, p. 415, as to their posts.) The French knew it well-see preceding note. § See note t, above. Company, |