“ Oklahoma and the United States contend that the bank and boundary are at the foot of a range of hills or bluffs which fringes the south side of the valley through which the river runs, while Texas insists that they are 'at low-water mark' on that side of the river-meaning as is said in the brief 'the edge of the water at that usual and ordinary stage in which it is found during most of the year.' This is now the principal issue and to it the evidence and arguments are largely directed. ”

“ The convenience of the population must have been in contemplation. Nor do I find adequate reason for thinking that the United States desired this strip of barren land-then without value to their citizens-with the consequent obligations and serious difficulties. In 1819 troublesome problems incident to marking the boundary between this country and Canada were pending. Considering them, it is easy to understand why the United States desired to fix the boundary at the low-water mark of Red river, reserving the islands to themselves. ”

“ Whenever it impinges with direct attack upon the bank at a bend of the stream, and that bank is of the loose sand obtaining in the valley of the Missouri, it is not strange that the abrasion and washing away is rapid and great. Frequently, where above the loose substratum of sand there is a deposit of comparatively solid soil, the washing out of the underlying sand causes an instantaneous fall of quite a length and breadth of the superstratum of soil into the river ”

“ The falling bank has passed into the floating mass of earth and water, and the particles of earth may rest one or 50 miles below, and upon either shore. There is, no matter how rapid the process of subtraction or addition, no detachment of earth from the one side and deposit of the same upon the other. The only thing which distinguishes this river from other streams, in the matter of accretion, is in the rapidity of the change caused by the velocity of the current ”

“ When we speak of the bed we include all of the area which is kept practically bare of vegetation by the wash of the waters of the river from year to year in their onward course, although parts of it are left dry for months at a time; and we exclude the lateral valleys, which have the characteristics of relatively fast land and usually are covered by upland grasses and vegetation, although temporarily overflowed in exceptional instances when the river is at flood. ”

“ The habit of the river is to erode the outer bank of a bend and to accrete to the opposite bank. Three surveys executed by Texas in 1856, and covering less than the whole area, disclose the presence at that time of over 1,700 acres. On the outer part are physical evidences of the formation being comparatively recent. On the inner part are like evidences of the formation being old, among them being the presence of living trees more than a century old. ”

“ The treaty provision names three rivers-the Sabine, the Red, and the Arkansas. It expressly locates the boundary along the 'western bank' of the Sabine and the 'southern bank' of the Arkansas, and describes the intermediate section as leaving the Sabine at a designated point and running due north until it 'strikes' the Red, then 'following the course' of the Red westward to the 100th meridian, then 'crossing' the Red and running due north to the Arkansas. ”

“ This land is fairly covered with grasses and other upland growth, and often is studded with trees. Many of the trees are old, and among them are elm, pecan, and other kinds of hard wood. A slight depression or a succession of depressions usually lies along the foot of the bluffs. The river or a channel may have been there in years that are gone, but, if so, no one k ows when. Almost uniformly the valley land is separated from the sand bed of the river by a clearly defined waterworn bank, designated by witnesses and counsel as a cut bank. ”

“ As they are contracts between independent nations, in their construction words are to be taken in their ordinary meaning, as understood in the public law of nations, and not in any artificial or special sense impressed upon them by local law, unless such restricted sense is clearly intended. And it has been held by this court that where a treaty admits of two constructions, one restrictive of rights that may be claimed under it and the other favorable to them, the latter is to be preferred.' Geofroy v. ”

“ Wherever it may be found, it is a part of the state of Georgia, and not a part of Alabama. Both bank and bed are to be ascertained by inspection, and the line is where the action of the water has permanently marked itself upon the soil.'
13 How. 418, 14 L. Ed. 189: 'Our interpretation * * * is that the western line of Georgia * * * is a line to run up the river on and along its western bank, and that the jurisdiction of Georgia in the soil extends over to the line which is washed by the water, wherever it covers the bed of the river within its banks. ”

“ Witnesses accustomed to crossing there speak of finding the flowing channel near one side of the bed in the morning and in the middle or near the other side in the evening. Only in pronounced bends are the channels relatively stable. Along the eastern part of the boundary the volume of water always is substantial, but there again it is inclined to divide into separate channels and to cross and recross the bed frequently. ”

“ Although much relied on, that case does not decide the point here presented-it arose out of wholly different circumstances and the opinion rests upon a rule of interpretation declared to be generally inapplicable to compacts of settlement between independent nations. ”

“ A bank is the rising ground, or area, bordering a stream. To describe a boundary merely as following the course of the river bank gives it no definite location. Something more must be known before it can be laid down on the ground, e. ”