Evening star., 1896-01-11
THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY.
Work of the International Commits
sion Nearly Finished.

sion Nearly Finished.
Los Angeles Corr. New York Times
Since July, 1852, the International bound
ary commission has been engaged in re-
surveying the boundary line between the
United States and Mexico. The commits
sioners fer the United States are army
officers connected with the geodetic survey.
Senior Blanco and Dolores Sanchez are
commissioners for Mexico. The commits
sion began work at Ell Paso, Tex, and
worked slowly westward across the noun
tains, canons, deserts and through the Co.
copah and Ser Indian countries to San
Diego. The party consisted of eighty en-
gineers. soldiers and laborers. They finish
ed the practical work of surveying and es-
tablishirg monuments along the boundary
line weeks ago, and nave gone on to Ell
Paso to resurvey and establish the bound
ary line between the Union and Mexico
along the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mex
leo. Meanwhile a corps of draughtSmen
has been busy in Los Angeles in completing
maps profiles and details of the labors of
the boundary survey from Ell Paso to the
Pacific ocean.
A survey of the boundary was made by
a commission, headed by Col E. T. Emery
QS49-53), after the Mexican war. Fifty
two stone monuments were then establish
ed. Many OF them were poorly built and
have since fallen down, and examinations
others were not accurately placed. Seven
years ago an agreement for new survey
was entered into between the two re-
publics 1t was stipulated that no correc-
tions of the boundary should affect the title
to property adjacent to it. Several errors
have been found. One gives an area of
forty square miles to Uncle Sam in New
Mexico. Another error at the lower part
of the Colorado desert gives President
Diaz's government about sixty square miles
of sand, cacti and rattlesnakes.
The boundary commission has rebuilt the
81 early boundary monuments and set up
296 more, at an expense of about $S0,0O0.
The new monuments consist of an iron
shaft, bearing the letters ~. S." on the
north side and the word 'Mexicana" on the
south side. The shaft is set in a heavy
a foundation of cement and concrete.
Several interesting facts concerning the
evaporation of water from the human body
were ascertained. The extraordinary dry
ness of the air of the Colorado and Arizona
deserts causes very rapid evaporation from
the body. Observation proved that nine
quarts of water daily was needed for each
man to prevent the blood from thickening
ed twenty gallons daily. One surveyor was
without water for several hours. He be-
came feverish and light-headed. Lack of
water for few hours longer would have
killed him. This was in a shade tempera-
ture of 12O degrees, where the air was alb
solutely dry-so dry that fresh meat, in
stead of putrefying, simply dried up. At
one place the surveyors found the bodies of
three prospectors within 100 feet of nat
ural water tank formed in the rocks. To
get to this water the poor fellows had to
climb upward twenty feet or so. Their
strength was exhausted, and, with water
just a few feet beyond them, they died
Thirst in the desert is horrible. The victim
first feels pain between the shoulders. The
tongue thickens and feels as if filled with
needle points. The eyes are painful, and
finally any movement of the body causes
eXcruciating pain. AS the blood thickens
the victim becomes delirious.
A principal cause of death in the deserts
of southern Arizona is the terrific sand
storms, similar TO those of the Sahara. The
surveyors in the International commission
were once nearly killed by suffocation dur
ing such a storm. For half an hour they
watched a black cloud approach. The camp
was made ready. The oncoming wave of
wind and dust broke over it with violence.
The air was filed with fine dust The men
began to suffocate. An officer ordered them
to breathe through their handkerchiefs. In
this way they were able to get barely
enough air to sustain life. Without the
handkerchiefs the nose and mouth Of the
men became caked with dust, and they
gasped for breath. The fury of the storm
passed in fifteen minutes, but at 3 pm. the
camp was enveloped in the pitchy dark
ness of midnight. Even veteran officers
thought that the whole party was doomed.
They marvel now that they escaped alive.