THE SAN JUAN BOUNDARY LINE.

SETTING aside the numerous articles and treatises professing to discuss this much-vexed question from various aspects, pacific and otherwise, the perusal of the ordinary official records which remain, augmented, as they are, by appendices, sketch-maps, and historical notes, would still constitute a considerable undertaking. We shall not, therefore, attempt any lengthy discussion of the points, material or immaterial, raised in the course of this protracted dispute. Nor shall we approach it in any spirit of criticism adverse to the award of the Emperor of Germany. To his decision we elected to refer the settlement of the question, and by that decision made absolutely final and conclusive, moreover, by the Treaty of Washington, we are contented to abide. We believe that he could not have decided in any way other than he has on the question as submitted to him. Nothing could be less consonant with the spirit and dignity of the English nation, than to cavil at a judgment given at our own invitation by an arbitrator in every way qualified, from his position as an exalted and unbiassed neutral, to arrive at a just and equitable conclusion. Our object, in the summary of the case which follows, is simply to preserve for reference by the readers of the Nautical Magazine some brief record of a matter which, whether it be regarded from a political or geographical point of view, could not well be wholly ignored in our pages.

We shall begin no further back than the Treaty of 1846. Under this, it will be remembered, the long dispute between this country and the United States was brought to an end by the definition of the so-called Oregon boundary between the respective possessions of either country to the west of the Rocky Mountains. Out of a clause in this treaty arose the San Juan Boundary question. This clause runs as follows:-" From the point of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between Great Britain and the United States terminates, the line of boundary between the territories of Her Britannic Majesty and those of the United States shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island and thence southerly, through the middle of the said channel, dc., of De Euca's Straits to the Pacific Ocean. Provided, however, that the navigation of the whole of the said channel and straits south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude remains free and open to both parties.".

These are the exact terms, and it will be observed that they define the boundary line as running through the middle of the channel which sepa rates the continent from Vancouver's island. The interpretation of these

I words was the point at issue. The channel then known-the only channel-was the Rosario Straits, which, as reference to our sketch map

will show, divide the archipelago of San Juan from the mainland. This being the case, there was no difficulty in determining "through the middle of which channel the boundary line should go, and the arrangement added the group of islands, of which San Juan is the chief, to the dominions of Britain. But a second, and more northerly channel, the canal of Haro, was subsequently discovered, and then arose the question-important enough to one or other of the parties to the Treaty of 1846, through which channel-i.e., that of Haro or Rosario-the boundary line should pass. If it passed to the north of the San Juan Archipelago, then the archipelago fell to the United States; if it passed to the southward, it remained part of the dominions of Great Britain. During

the war the island of San Juan was seized by the American forces, and the two countries have for some time held divided possession of it, the joint occupation being conducted in a most peaceable and harmonious

manner.

By the treaty of Washington, however, provision was made, in addition to the settlement of the Alabama claims and other matters, for the definition by arbitration of the San Juan boundary line. The matter was accordingly submitted to the arbitration of the Emperor of Germany, and the Emperor of Germany has decided that the line of boundary shall run through the canal of Haro. The English forces, a detachment of

marines, have accordingly been withdrawn from San Juan.

As premised, in our opening words, we abstain from criticism of the decision arrived at by His Imperial Majesty. The position of the archipelago to which San Juan belongs will be sufficiently explained by the accompanying sketch. The following description of the principal islands, &c., summarised from the "Vancouver Island Pilot," of Admiral Richards, may be of interest to our readers :

San Juan is an island of considerable size, being 13 miles in length and about 4 miles in breadth. The western shores are steep and rocky, Mount Dallas rising to a height of 1,086 feet; but the eastern side falls in a more gentle slope, and affords a considerable extent of good land available for agricultural and grazing purposes. Towards the southern end is the farming establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company. The south-eastern extremity terminates in a white clay cliff, over which rises Mount Finlayson to a height of 550 feet. This mountain is remarkable as being bare of trees on the south side and thickly wooded on the north. Off the north-west end of San Juan lies Henry Island, being separated from it by the narrow channel called Mosquito passage.

Lopez, the southernmost of the islands, lies on the eastern side of Middle channel, and is nine miles long N. and S., and three miles E. and W. It is thickly wooded, much lower than the other islands of the Archipelago, and its southern side is indented with bays and creeks which do not, however, form good anchorages. On its western side is a creek terminating in an extensive lagoon, the former offering great facilities for beaching and repairing ships. On the north is Shoal Bay, which affords good anchorage, and on the east is the Sound of Lopez, having an entrance from Middle channel, and three distinct passages from Rosario Straits.

Orcas is the most extensive of the islands. It is mountainous, and, in most parts, thickly wooded, although in the valleys there is land partially clear of timber, and available for agricultural purposes. Its southern side is much indented by deep sounds, that known as East Sound almost dividing the island. On the eastern side of the Sound is

Mount Constitution, rising nearly 2,500 feet above the level of the sea. On the western is Turtleback, 1,600 feet high, and west of it again is a singular bare top cone, known as Orcas Nob. The ports are Deer Harbour, West and East Sounds, but on the western and northern sides there is no convenient anchorage. Laurence Point, the eastern extremity of Orcas Island, is steep on its northern side, and from it the coast turns abruptly southward, forming the western side of the Strait of Rosario.

The chief strait is Haro Strait, the westernmost of the three channels leading from the Strait of Fuca into the Strait of Georgia. It is for the most part a deep, navigable ship channel, but owing to reefs, scarcity of anchorages, and, above all, the strength and varying directions of the tides, requires careful navigation, and is far more adapted to steamers than to sailing ships. There are several smaller channels and passages branching from this strait.

Rosario is the most eastern, and one of the principal channels leading from the Strait of Fuca into that of Georgia. Like Haro Strait it has several smaller channels, which branch off to the eastward, the principal of which are Guemes, Bellingham, and Lummi. The greatest breadth of the strait is five miles; the narrowest, rather less than one and a-half miles. The tides are strong, and the principal dangers are the Bird and Belle Rocks, which lie almost in the centre of the strait. There are several anchorages, Davies Bay, on the eastern side of Lopez Island; Burrows Bay, on the west side of Fidalgo Island; Ships Bay, in Guemes Channel, and Strawberry Bay, in Cypress Island, are the chief.

Douglas Channel, leading into Haro Strait, between Orcas and Waldron Islands, is one and three-quarter miles in breadth, and both sides are free from danger.

DIPLOMATIC APPOINTMENTS.-The Gazette has the following: - Le Marchant Hadsley Gosselin, William Henry Doveton Haggard, Sir George Francis Bonham, Bart., Eugene James Lee-Hamilton, the Hon. William John George Napier, William Edward Goschen, and William Charles Philip Otho Aldenburg Bentinck, now attachés, to be Third Secretaries in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service; Henry Howard, now a Third Secretary, to be a Second Secretary in the Diplomatic Service; Alexander William Moir, to be President of the Island of Saint Christopher; Alexander Augustus Melfort Campbell, to be President of the Island of Nevis; and Neale Porter, to be President of the Island of Montserrat.

SHORT YARNS FOR SAILORS.-No. 2.

DISCIPLINE and duty are hard words, because they frequently mean hard things, yet a man is not worth anything until he has been subjected to the one and has met the requirements of the other. The hardness of the processes must be regulated by the temperament of the patient; but this generation is not likely to err on the side of asceticism and severity; it inclines rather to the opposite extreme. For the generality of men a mattress is better than a feather bed to lie upon, and if they be thoroughly healthy and in good condition, and not too old, a deal board will do as well as either. In most of the organizations of society rule and discipline are necessary, but on board ship they are absolutely indispensable; without them all would go to ruin in no time. The reason why discipline is often so painful is, that those who are the human agents in administering it are sometimes extremely disagreeable, harsh, unsympathizing and proud. There are men (and women too) who, having been accustomed almost from their youth upwards to say to one come, and he cometh, and to another go, and he goeth, have become spoiled by the service and deference of others, have lost all natural modesty and humility, and have forgot the relative and reciprocal character of all service and duty. Some of us who have smarted from subordination to arrogant and assuming men have now and then broken out into impatience and anger; and among the working-classes especially there has risen of late a feeling of envy, jealousy, suspicion, and dislike towards those who employ them, and who, by virtue of their position, are apt to assume some superiority. Hence, too, a rather widespread desire amongst men to get out of the level which they for the time being occupy, to improve, not themselves, but their position, to climb up as it were to the "quarter-deck" of the world. A little reflection, however, ought to calm down this irritability and impatience the charms of wealth and station are evanescent and fleeting; the visions of grandeur are dissolving views. A wise man will come to consider all stations as intrinsically pretty much alike whatever the fashionable distinctions between them, and will strive to make the one which he for the time occupies, whether conventionally high or low, a means of expressing the best of his character. The position of a common sailor before the mast is not commonly thought, in the estimate of Pride, to be a place of much honour and dignity, and yet when we consider the kind of service which he renders, the grandeur of the scenes through which he moves, the boundless heavens and mighty waters above and around him, the wondrous phenomena he has to watch, and the beautiful laws he has to obey, there is a positive sublimity in his position, and a sailor should mount the rigging of his ship with a feeling of