Collection search - Plan shewing that section of the country lying between the old seig settle on the river St. Lawrence and southern boundary of the province of Mars-Hill highlands [cartographic material] Joseph Bouchette, Serveyor General, Quebec April 1827

This map by Joseph Bouchette was made while he was the special surveyor to the king responsible for article 5 of the Treaty of Ghent (December 24, 1814). Even if it had been delimited in the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the boundary between Canada (Lower Canada), New Brunswick and the United States (Maine) was still not clear.

This region had never been explored and there were no accurate map of it. The surveying of the region began in 1817 until 1820. A number of surveyors were involved from both sides, British and Americans. Bouchette reached the source of the St. Croix River.
Great Britain and the United States did not agree on the boundary line. It is finally on August 9, 1842, with the signature of the Ashburton-Webster Treaty (or the Treaty of Washington), that the boundary dispute will be resolved.

Claude Boudreau et Pierre Lépine, "Bouchette, Joseph", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.

Francis M. Carroll, A Good and Wise Measure. The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2001, 47-69.

This map is an earlier version of NMC 6831 and NMC 6830 (a 1908 reproduction by J.H. Brigly).