a few self corrections & additions

in the caus or rather gbus treaties of 1782 & 1814
the terminology of choice is simply
the river
or
the middle of the river
or
the middle of the lake
wherever a boundary river or lake is mentioned
except
coincidentally
for the very area we are talking about

here the 1814 treaty says the boundary runs
thru the middle of lake saint clair
in a direction to enter that mouth or channel of the river saint clair
which is usually denominated the old ship channel
thence along the middle of said channel
between squirrel island on the southeast & hersons island on
the northwest
etc etc

this passage is interesting even if only tantalizing
both because it marks the earliest usage of the term
middle of the ship channel
in any caus text i can find
despite meaning not necessarily the same thing as thalweg
& also because it evidently predates the naming &or the actual
alluvial accretions of bassett & seaway islands
or maybe predates only the openings of bassett channel & the
saint clair cutoff within an originally much larger squirrel island
embracing all the above modern features
for the meaning of this also is unclear

but anyway it wasnt until the treaty of 1842
pursuant to the failed arbitration of the king of the netherlands in
1829 which had introduced the idea of thalweg for the first time
that the standard gbus or caus terminology was changed to
the middle of the main channel of the river
& now much more clearly tending to mean thalweg
even if still possibly somewhat ambiguous

however a specific & clear elaboration of the thalweg or the
middle of the shipping channel or something else was soon
sidestepped in most places by the adoption of a system of
defined courses & distances between angle points

the result is that the little dry stitch of caus on seaway island is
not unique because the boundary line at many of the narrows &
canoe portages in the boundary waters is defined by just such a
series of courses & distances & angle points
http://test.topozone.com/map.asp?z=15&n=5330194&e=686028
&s=24&layer=DRG25&size=m
wherein the zigzagging metes & bounds are probably eluded at
times by the narrow & also shifty streamlets that originally
defined the boundary in such places

but even without such unknowable minor lapses
& a swamp portage i cant evaluate
http://test.topozone.com/map.asp?z=15&n=5338958&e=644861
&s=24&layer=DRG25
& another possible delta avulsion formation i also cant be sure
about
http://test.topozone.com/map.asp?z=15&n=5374350&e=457541
&s=48&layer=DRG25
there is an undeniable height of land portage i did forget about
http://test.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=48.0974&lon=-90.5622&s
=24&layer=DRG25&size=l

so in a nutshell the corrections are
the dry stitch on seaway island is not unique after all but merely
quite rare on the waterway sectors of caus

& caus does not by & large follow thalwegs the way mxus & most
other river borders do

--- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "acroorca2002"
<orc@o...> wrote:

> --- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Tom Sanders
> <hilversum96@y...> wrote:
> > Now you've stirred my curiosity, :)
>
> great
> i love the stuff
> & you see how most prefer to fluff & duff
>
> more below
>
> > I based my low water theory on living on Lake Huron
> > and watching the high water levels fluctuate from year
> > to year. Dry winters usually mean siginificantly lower
> > water levels on all the Great Lakes during the next
> > summer. But the ups and downs always average out in
> > the short term.
> >
> > However, my neighbors tell me that our beach wasn't
> > here when they moved here in 1969. Their boathouse,
> > which is now separated by a hundred or so feet of
> > beach from the shoreline, was originally right on the
> > water. So the high water mark has retreated that far
> > over 34 years.
> >
> > Place that scenario in the St. Clair flats, I
> > reasoned, and it's possible that sandbars could become
> > permanently exposed, and islands could increase in
> > size over 30 or 40 years.
>
> wonderful
> i am with you loud & clear on all the above
>
> > I'm also guessing that the shipping channel is the
> > same one used before the Seaway by Great Lakes
> > freighters, and dredged to accomodate ocean-going
> > ships when the Seaway was built. Also that the border
> > always follows the main shipping channel.
>
> ok i would second guess on both of these guesses tho
> as i think you also do below
>
> i believe the border from lake of the woods to akwesasne did

all

> begin by following the main shipping channel or thalweg
> but clearly the dry boundary on seaway island is exceptional if
> not unique along this vast reach of caus in no longer following
> any channel
>
> & such a desertion of the border by the channel could only

have

> occurred suddenly & not gradually
> like say during a huge spring flood
> or if the main shipping channel was ever rerouted by design
>
> If the
> > current channel had been cut through Seaway Island in
> > 1958, and the border re-aligned to follow it, we'd
> > know about it, for lack of better words.
> >
> > It's possible that the Walpole Island seaway project
> > involved cutting a new water path through Bassett
> > Island (the "cutoff" on the topo map). That would have
> > created a new island, appropriately named "Seaway."
>
> yes this is exactly my guess
> perhaps circa 1959
> & it would explain when & why the border didnt come along for
> the ride to the new cutoff
> but not yet when or why seaway island grew into the usa
>
> my guess for that is partly the lowering water levels you

describe

> but especially the dredging of the saint clair flats canal
> date unknown but possibly circa 1959 too tho maybe much

later

> & which appears to have included a deliberate new riprap or
> embankment plus landfill additions to seaway island behind it
> including the complete backfilling of part of the original
> navigation channel along the caus line
>
> hence this so precious & probably unique little dry stitch along
> an otherwise completely wet seam
>
> > (Thanks for those Walpole Island links, BTW. That's
> > always been a favorite place of mine.)
> >
> > You'd really need to compare the current topo with a
> > pre-1958 large scale map of Lake St. Clair. None of my
> > old large-scale SE MI road maps cover Harsens Island
> > or the St. Clair flats. (The current AAA, American
> > Auto Club, SE MI map, 1 inch to 3.5 miles but not
> > exactly a definitive reference for shoreline
> > alignments, does, but doesn't show the sliver of
> > Seaway Island extending into the USA.)
> >
> > Or it might be the time for a one-day border
> > expedition to the far southern tip of Harsen's Island,
> > to see what can be seen.
> >
> > Either way, as with the knothole in the board fence
> > out by the nudist camp, I'll be looking into it, :)
>
> bravo
> & we will be with you looking over it