The Press., 1915-07-21
WANDERING ISLANDS.
rhoss of Che Rio Grande Made Trouble
 For Us With Mexico.

rhoss Of Che 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 of
 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 s spirit more evident than in the Rio Grande. Along its sinuous route below Rio Grande City it 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 tix- 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 that had not impressed themselves upon the framers of the convention as possible causes of friction between the people living along it's banks In ad- dition to It's eroding power, exercised through long months of low and mean water. 1t could during flood periods leap with torrential force across narrow neck of land at the base of one of it's long loops and cut for itself a new channel. Through such avulsive action of the river Texas soil would sometimes become Mexican, and on oc- easions a 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 adjustment of conflicting Interests. A certain Josiah Turner be- gan to farm the Galveston ranch. on the Texas bank. Eight years later be 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 of a piece of MT. Fur ner's land and took 1t to Mexico. Twen- ty-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 ''cutoffs" be forever eliminated from the bound ary line, all those occurring on the right of the river to pass to the Juris- fiction of Mexico. those on the left to hat of Texas. The inhabitants. if any. | should retain their citizenship in the | country from which they had been so and violently detached. or hey might acquire the nationality of | he country to which they were now | attached Any cutoff exceeding 650 | lcres in area and having a population | If over POO souls was not to be consid- | .red a banco. and the old bed of the | liver should remain the boundary. A | embodying his recommenda- ions was finally ratified by both coun- ries. Thus the great turbid. silt bear ng river is left to pursue its way un- but the terrors so long syn ,nymous with its name have through | he operation of this eQuable arrange nent become a part of the storied. TO- mantle past