The commission’s final report revealed that the terrestrial portion of the line, “although having a total length of about 700 miles, crosses but five permanent running streams between the Rio Grande and the Pacific.” The report took special care in describing the point where the boundary line gave itself over to the Rio Grande, “a variable stream with turbid waters.” The river carried “an immense amount of sediment,” it noted, “and as a consequence it is bordered by alluvial bottoms, through which by erosion, it is continually changing its bed.” It was as if the surveyors wished to acknowledge
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