TO THE COPPER MINES. 
211 
Dona Ana is a small town of five or six hundred 
inhabitants, and stands upon a spur of the plateau, 
fifty or sixty feet above the bottom lands, thereby 
commanding a wide prospect of the adjacent country. 
important work upon whicli they are engaged may be completed with- 
out unnecessary interruption. 
In reference to the appointment of Lieutenant Whipple as Surveyor 
ad interim on the part of the United States, to which M. de la Vega 
refers, I will remark, that this appointment was necessary on account 
of the protracted and dangerous illness of Mr. A. B. Gray, the Surveyor. 
Lieutenant Whipple was recognized by this government as Surveyor ad 
interim^ and his official acts in that capacity were, by directions from 
this Department to Mr. Gray, to be considered as binding on the latter 
officer, who was instructed to perfect, by his signature, any documents 
prepared requiring it. 
The Department relieved Lieutenant Colonel Graham from duty as 
Chief Astronomer of the Commission, and Lieutenant Colonel William 
H. Emory was appointed to succeed him ; and as the interests of this 
government seemed to require a diminution in the number of officers 
on the part of the United States, to prevent, as far as practicable, unne- 
cessary interruption in the progress of the Survey, ahd to place the 
organization of the American Commission on a permanent footing, the 
President also appointed Lieutenant Colonel Emory the Surveyor on 
the part of the United States, under the 5th article of the Treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, in the place of A. B. Gray, Esq., with instructions 
to proceed at once to the scene of operations, and report to the Joint 
Commission. 
It is hoped that the Joint Commission will now proceed without 
interruption to the close of their operations on the Survey, and that 
nothing will transpire on either side to cause any delay in the early 
settlement of the boundaries between the two Republics. 
I am, Sir, &c., 
ALEX. H. H. STUART, 
Secretary, 
Hon. Daniel Webster, 
Secretary of State. 
[Senate Ex. Document 119. 32d Congress, 1st Session, p. 124.] 
