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The length of time which has elapsed, and the loss of
records which would have explained many of the transac-
tions, render it difficult to speak with accuraoX as to ac-
tions and events so remote. Much has to be inferred from
the necessary or probable connection of isolated facts,
whilst the impossibility of obtaining evidence outside of
the documents laid before this commission by the dis-
tinguished counsel for the States to test the truth of the
deductions and conclusions arrived at makes an elaborate,
and it may be somewhat tedious, statement of the case
necessary to a proper understanding of it.
I shall not attempt to give my views a ,judicial appear-
ance, but rather set forth the reasons and arguments which
have impelled me to the conclusion I have reached.
By reference to the acts of the Legislatures of Maryland
and Virginia appointing this commission, it will be seen
that we are directed to determine the true line of boundary
between the States; and as the line across the eastern
shore from the Chesapeake to the ocean is the opening
line of Lord Baltimore's charter under which Maryland
claims, it mast first be settled, as the closing line from the
mouth of the Potomac to the initial point cannot be de-
termined until the beginning point is ascertained. That
done, the closing line being 11 the shortest line" from the
west side of the bay to the beginning, only requires the
drawinn of a straight line to the initial point to answer the
call of the charter, in which the first or controlling line is
thus described: "All that part of the peninsula or cher-
sonese lying in parts of America between the ocean on the
east and the bay of Chesapeake on the west, divided from
the residue thereof by a right line drawn from the promon-
tory or headland called Watkins Point, situate upon the
bay aforesaid, near the river Wighco on the west, unto
the main ocean on the east." The location on the right
line called for in the foregoing recital is the main point in
dispute, especially the mathematical point which shall be
determined to be the Watkins Point, from which the sur-
veyor should start the right line from the Chesapeake to
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