The survey party collected animal specimens to study the locations and relationships of various species. The published report noted that the Texas coyote rarely appeared during the day, but at night "there are no bounds to its impudence, not only coming into camp, but stealing your provisions literally from under your nose."
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History
Canis latrans texensis, coyote skull specimen, Texas, Frontera, from the Mexican Boundary Survey
Surveying the Mexican Border
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, approved for ratification by the U.S. Senate in 1848, set the terms for ending the Mexican War. Mexico agreed to cede more than half its territory to the United States for $15 million. A new, 2,000-mile border between the two countries was to run along the Rio Grande and Rio Gila to the Pacific Ocean with a boundary commission from each country surveying and marking its location. Congress authorized the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers to conduct the survey for the United States.
The survey party collected animal specimens to study the locations and relationships of various species. The published report noted that the Texas coyote rarely appeared during the day, but at night "there are no bounds to its impudence, not only coming into camp, but stealing your provisions literally from under your nose."
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History
