The daily Alaskan., 1914-09-03
WANDERING ISLANDS.
Those of the Rio Grande Made Trouble
 For Us With Mexico.

Those of the Rio Grande Made Trouble
 For Us With Mexico.
 The wandering islands of the Rio Grande in their migratiOns from side to side of the water course have caused years of diplomatic correspondence and discussion between the United States and Mexico. The refusal of certain small bodies of land to remain perma- nently attached to one or the other or the rivers banks deprived them of a fixed legal status as either Mexican or American territory and brought about their participation in many illegal ad- ventures. which in turn led to misun- derstandings between the two coun- tries.
 In no river is spirit more evident than in the Rio Grande. Along it's sinuous route below Rio Grande City 1t pushes Its way through miles Of level sand in its final reach for the gulf. twisting and doubling upon itself like a sea serpent. In 1S4S it was fix ed upon as the boundary line between the United States and Mexico. The boundary was to be the middle of the river. following the deepest channel" But the river possessed characteristics 1 that had not impressed themselves upon the framerS of the convention as possible causes Of friction between the people living along its banks. In ad- didon to it's croding power, exercised through long months of low and mean water 1t could during flood periods | lean with terrential force across narrow neck of land at the base of cue of its long loops and cut for itself a | new channel Through such avulstve action of the river Texas soil would l sometimes become Mexican, and on oc- casions plantation occupied by jacals and Mexican citizens would overnight find itself a part of Texas.
 An example will serve to show both the extraordinary actions of the river and the difficulties in the way of any satisfactory adjustment of conflicting interests. A certain Josiah Turner be- gan to farm the Galveston ranch, on the Texas bank. Eight years later be was surprised when 221 acres of MeXi- can land came across the river and at- tached itself to his ranch. An arrange ment was effected by which he became the owner of this land. Six years later the river cut off a piece of Mir. Tur- ner's land and took it to Mexico. TWen- tv-one years later the river made up its mind to repay the farmer for what It had taken from him and so carried back into Texas a piece of land far larger than the tract originally lost. The Mexican owners claimed posses sion. and a new convention dealing with the questions under dispute be- came necessary.
 Brigadier General AnsOn Mills, u. ! S. A., appointed to represent the United States, recommended that the "cutotfs' be forever eliminated from the bound ary line, all those occurring on the right of the river to pass to the juris- diction of Mexico, those on the left to that of Texas. The inhabitants, if any, | should reLaln Iuc4L SiIL"|-iS''P "
 country from which they had been so suddenly and violently detached, or
 they might acquire the nationality of the country to which they were now
 attached. Any cutoff exceeding $50 acres in area and having q population of over 200 souls was not to be consid-
 cred a banco, and the old he'd of the river should remain the boundary. A
 convention embodying his recommends ; tions was finally ratified by both coun- tries. Thus the great turbid, silt bear ing river is left to pursue its way un- } trammeled, but the terrors so long syn onvmous with its name have through
 the operation of this equabIe arrange ment become a part of the storied, TO- mantle past ----