It was now ascertained that the provisions remaining were not sufficient to subsist all of the company until the Kennebec road could be reached by following the height of land.  It was thought advisable again to separate into two detachments—­one to follow the ridge, supplied with provisions for twenty days, and the other to strike for the nearest settlement, which it was supposed could be reached in four or five days.  This movement commenced on the 10th October, and the detachment, following the high land, reached the Kennebec road on the 23d, and on the following day provisions for the party for fifteen days were placed there and a like quantity at the mouth of the Metjarmette.  It was intended that the two detachments should move simultaneously from these two points on the 26th to explore the boundary line as far as Lake Etchemin.  A deep snow, which commenced falling on the night of the 25th, compelled the commissioner to abandon further explorations at that time; and there was not the slightest probability that they could be resumed before another year.

The result of these explorations may be stated as follows: 

About 160 miles of country along or near the “height of land” have been traversed, the traveled distances carefully estimated, and the courses measured with a compass.  Barometrical observations were made as often as necessary for giving a profile of the route from the head of Halls Stream to Arnold or the Chaudiere River, and thence to Lake Magaumac via the corner of the State of New Hampshire.  Some further barometrical observations were made between the lake and the Kennebec road, but for a portion of that distance the barometer was unserviceable in consequence of air having entered the tube.  Astronomical observations were made as often as there was an opportunity, but, owing to the prevalence of clouds, not as often as was desirable.  They will serve for correcting the courses and estimated distances traveled.  Barometrical observations for comparison were made at the intersection of the Kennebec road and height of land hourly from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. while the parties were on the dividing ridge.

The only discovery of interest made by this party is that the Magalloway River does not head any of the branches of the Connecticut, as it was generally believed it did, and consequently our claim to Halls Stream is deprived of the support it would have had from the fact that all the other branches were headed by an Atlantic river, and consequently could not be reached by the line along the height of land from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia.

The other commissioner (Major Graham) did not receive his appointment until 16th August to fill the place left vacant by the nonacceptance of Professor Cleaveland, and to him was assigned the survey and examination of the due north line, commencing at the source of the river St. Croix and extending to the highlands which divide the waters that flow into the river St. Lawrence from those which flow into the Atlantic Ocean.