WANDERING ISLANDS OF THE RIO GRANDE 



383 



tion was negotiated, providing that no 

 such avulsive action of the river should 

 be permitted to change the boundary line 

 as determined by the original survey, but 

 that the line should "continue to follow 

 the middle of the original channel bed, 

 even though this should become wholly 

 dry or be obstructed by deposits." Each 

 banco, or cut-off, therefore, though un- 

 moored from its mother country, was to 

 be regarded as a part of it, with no 

 change of allegiance or jurisdiction. 



But the river still held revelations for 

 the treaty-makers, and the carefully 

 framed articles, which had considered 

 natural changes in the boundary line due 

 to "slow and gradual erosion and deposit 

 of alluvium," and also to avulsion, '*by 

 the abandonment of an existing river bed 

 and the opening of a new one," had not 

 reckoned with the result of a combina- 

 tion of such changes. 



\\'hen, after forming a banco, or cut- 

 oft', the river, by wearing into the oppo- 

 site bank, would enlarge the banco by 

 accretion, the ownership of the new land 

 would immediately become the subject of 

 dispute. 



To whom should it belong? To the 

 owner of the banco, or to the man whose 

 land formerly faced the river and was 

 now separated from it by an intruder 

 from the other side, but whose country 

 claimed jurisdiction to the middle of the 

 river's channel? 



HOW A RIVER WORRIED STATESMEN 



An example will serve to show both 

 the extraordinary actions of the river and 

 the difficulties in the way of any satis- 

 factory adjustment of conflicting inter- 

 ests. 



In the year 1851 a certain Josiah 

 Turner began to farm the Galveston 

 Ranch, on the Texan bank of the Rio 

 Grande. In 1859 '"^^ ^^'^^ greatly sur- 

 prised when 221 acres of Mexi:an land 

 suddenly 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, which is now 

 known as the Soliseno Banco. The river 

 was tranquil until 1865. when it cut off 

 a piece of ]VIr. Turner's land and took 

 it to Mexico, and there jiart of it re- 

 mains tn this dav. The other part was 



gradually washed away; but in 1886 the 

 river made up its mind to repay the 

 farmer for what it had taken from him 

 21 years before, and so carried back into 

 Texas a piece of land far larger than the 

 tract originally lost. But. unfortunately 

 for the good intentions of the river, the 

 land it restored belonged to owners on 

 the Mexican side, and although it had 

 attached itself to Mr. Turner's land and 

 had apparently become an inseparable 

 part of it, the Mexican owners claimed 

 possession. 



So great was the confusion of boun- 

 dary lines, the disturbance of private and 

 public titles to lands, and so many were 

 the conflicts of jurisdiction between the 

 two governments following upon such 

 freakish actions of the river, that a new 

 convention, dealing with the questions 

 under dispute, became necessary. To 

 hasten action upon these and other mat- 

 ters related to the boundary line and 

 threatening the amicable relations of the 

 two countries, it was found advisable to 

 create a boundary commission clothed 

 with authority to investigate and de- 

 termine the merits of each contest. 



Composed of two members, one aj)- 

 pointed by each country, the only limit 

 placed upon its discretionary power was 

 the privilege, reserved by each govern- 

 ment, to object within 30 days to its find- 

 ings. Any question upon which the com- 

 missioners failed to agree was to be re- 

 ferred to the state departments of their 

 respective governments, to await final 

 disposition through the slow process of 

 diplomatic correspondence. 



In view of the extended authority re- 

 posed in this international court and the 

 importance and delicacy of the questions 

 brought before it, many of them com- 

 plicated by ill-feeling upon the part of 

 the complainants, it is fortunate for this 

 country that President Cleveland's choice 

 of the United States Commissioner should 

 have fallen upon Brigadier General .\n- 

 son Mills, U. S. Army — a man eminently 

 fitted to perform the duties of the posi- 

 tion. To his fine discrimination, patience, 

 and tact we owe the final .solution of the 

 banco problem. It seems simple, now that 

 we have it, but when General Mills took 

 up its consideration he found it a maze 

 in which the diplomats of both countries 



