| OPINION OF JAMES B. BECK, OF KENTUCKY.
I agree with my colleagues in the conclusion they have
reached as to the rights of Maryland on the Potomac
river. But I regret to be compelled to differ with them
as to the location of the 11 Watkins Point" of Lord Bal-
timore's charter, and consequently as to the true line of
division between the States on the eastern shore of the
Chesapeake bay. I am satisfied, from all the facts and
circumstances before us, that the promontory at the ex-
treme western angle of the body of land called by Calvert
and Scarborough Watkins Point, in 1668, from which or
`1 agreeable" to which they ran their divisional line east
straight to. the ocean, is the true Watkins Point of the
charter, and consequently the line of Calvert and Scarbor-
ough is the true line from the bay to the sea.
My colleagues have decided that the true 11 Watkins
Point" is at Cedar straits, which is a low, marshy cape or
angle of the Chesapeake, on the northwestern side of Poco-
moke bay, from which the charter line of Lord Baltimore
ran east to the ocean, but that, owing to the action of the
commissioners in 1668, the present true line now runs
thence east to the middle of Pocomoke bay; thence fol-
lowing the middle of the bay to the mouth of Pocomoke
river; theuce up the middle of the river till it reaches the
line of Calvert and Scarborough, four or five miles north
of their Watkins Point; thence with that line east to the
ocean. Being unable to see how this crooked line can be
reconciled or made to agree either with Lord Baltimore's
charter or Calvert and Scarborough's settlement of the
boundary in 1668, I am compelled to disagree with them,
and propose to give my reasons for declining to sign the
award.
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