Whenever it shall appear from the reports of the county commissioners on boundary line monuments, that any of said monuments have been mutilated, destroyed or displaced or carried away from their proper location, or whenever it shall appear on satisfactory proof that the location of any of the boundary lines cannot be ascertained by reason of the destruction or misplacement of the monuments which mark the same, it shall be the duty of the secretary of internal affairs to correspond with the proper authorities of other states interested, and he is hereby authorized to act with such parties and represent this commonwealth in the re-establishment, by survey or otherwise, of said boundary lines, the erection of new monuments, the repairing, resetting or renewing of old ones when found necessary.