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The 1848 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War described a boundary between the two countries that was to be ascertained by a joint boundary commission effort. The section of the boundary along the Rio Grande from Presidio to the mouth of the Pecos River was arguably the most challenging, and it was surveyed by two American parties, one led by civilian surveyor M. T. W. Chandler in 1852, and the second led by Lieutenant Nathaniel Michler in 1853. Our understanding of these two surveys across the greater Big Bend has long been limited to the official reports and maps housed in the National Archives and never widely published. The discovery by Orville B. Shelburne of the journal kept by Dr. Charles C. Parry, surgeon-botanist-geologist for the 1852 party, has dramatically enriched the story by giving us a firsthand view of the Chandler boundary survey as it unfolded. Parry’s journal forms the basis of From Presidio to the Pecos River, which documents the day-to-day working of the survey teams. The story Shelburne tells is one of scientific exploration under duress—surveyors stranded in towering canyons overnight without food or shelter; piloting inflatable rubber boats down wild rivers; rising to the challenges of a profoundly remote area, including the possibility of Indian attack. Shelburne’s comparison of the original boundary maps with their modern counterparts reveals the limitations of terrain and equipment on the survey teams. Shelburne's book provides a window on the adventure, near disaster, and true accomplishment of the surveyors’ work in documenting the course of the Rio Grande across the Big Bend region.
A. W. KOCHLER The intimate intercourse between two or more 2. vegetation maps are scientific tools for ana fields of knowledge often bears interesting and lyzing the environment and the relation valuable fruit. Vegetation maps are such fruit, ships between vegetation and the site on resulting from the union of botany and geogra which it occurs. This helps to explain the phy. The work of botanists can be comprehen distribution of plant communities on the sive only if it includes a consideration of plants basis of the physical and chemical features in space, i. e. in different types of landscapes. At of the landscape. On the other hand, plant this point, the work of geographers becomes communities allow conclusions on the natu important through their development of maps re of the environment; as tools to determine and to analyze distribu 3. vegetation maps are valuable standards of tions in space. Our highly developed knowledge reference for observing and measuring of vegetation is matched by the refinement of changes in the vegetation, their direction cartographic techniques, and maps can now be and their speed, i. e. the rate of change. This is important because the character ofvegeta made that will show the extent and geographical distribution of vegetation anywhere on the sur tion is dynamic and is increasingly affected face of our planet with a remarkable degree of by man; accuracy. 4.