John Archibald Campbell

“ The southern, western, and eastern boundaries of the land granted to Larios are well defined, and the objects exist by which those limits can be ascertained. There is no call in the grant for a northern boundary, nor is there any reference to the dise no for any natural object, or other descriptive call, to ascertain it. The grant itself furnishes no other criterion for determining that boundary than the limitation of the quantity, as is expressed in the third condition. ”

“ We reject the words 'a little more or less,' as having no meaning in a system of location and survey like that of the United States, and that the claim of the grantee is valid for the quantity clearly expressed. If the limitation of the quantity had not been so explicitly declared, it might have been proper to refer to the petition and the dise no, or to have inquired if the name Capitancillos had any significance as connected with the limits of the tract, in order to give effect to the grant. ”

“ The District Court confirmed the claim of the appellee to land limited by specific boundaries, and ascertained those boundaries, as they exist on the land, with precision. Under this decree, the grant to Larios includes seven thousand five hundred and eighty-eight and ninety hundredths acres.
It is the opinion of the court that the intervention of adversary claimants in the suit of a petitioner, under the act of 3d March, 1851, for the confirmation of his claim to land in California, is a practice not to be encouraged. ”

“ VI. It is true, as a general rule at common law, that in conveyances between individuals, monuments and definite boundaries are to control in preference to quantity, where the difference of quantity named in a deed does not greatly vary from the amount included within the boundaries, especially when the words 'more or less,' or 'be the same more or less,' are used ”

“ It is somewhat doubtful whether the board designed to impose a limitation to the claim for the quantity thus declared. From this decree the United States appealed to the District Court. In that court the appellee confessed that the decree of the commissioners was erroneous, because it did not describe in a manner sufficiently certain the boundaries of the tract of land intended to be confirmed to the claimant, and consented that the decision should be reversed, and such decree be entered in the District Court as might be lawful and proper upon the whole evidence. ”

“ The jurisdiction of the board of commissioners in the first instance, and the appellate jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, are limited to the making of decisions on the validity of the claim, preliminary to its location and survey by the surveyor general of California, acting under the laws of the United States. This officer is required to survey and to furnish plats of the claim that may be confirmed. ”

“ The surplus to be left to the nation is what remains after 'it,' viz: 'the land herein referred to' shall be measured. But the 'land referred to' is one league of the larger size, a little more or less, as is explained by the map accompanying the espediente. ”

“ The rancho of one is called for in the other's grant as its abuttal. The division line extending from the junction of the Alametos with the Arroyo Seco, until reaching the sierra, is in Berreyesa's grant declared to be the boundary of Larios's rancho, while in Larios's grant the same line is designated as the boundary of Berreyesa's rancho. ”

“ On the south by the main sierra, on a spur of which sierra is situated, as shown in evidence, a certain well-known and conspicuous live-oak tree, or enci no, and a portion of which sierra is separated, as shown in evidence, by the stream called the Arroyo de los Capitancillos, from the range of hills called Cuchilla de la Mina, or Cuchilla de la Mina de Luis Chabolla, in which are situated the quicksilver mines known as the Guadalupe, San Antonio, and New Almaden mines ”

“ He may enclose it without injury to the passes, roads, and servitudes; he may enjoy it freely and exclusively, using or cultivating it as may best suit him, and within one year he shall build a house, and it shall be inhabited. ”