Joseph P. Bradley

“ As rivers and streams are natural monuments, entitled to weight in any survey, it is manifest that these English field-notes of Johnson must have had an important bearing in the trial. The map or sketch, as before observed, contained an outline of the Moreno 11-league tract, and of the streams which traverse it, with notes in Spanish of the courses and distances of the different lines. ”

“ If an insurmountable difficulty is met with in running the lines in one direction, and is entirely obviated by running them in the reverse direction, and all the known calls of the survey are harmonized by the latter course, it is only a dictate of common sense to follow it. ”

“ This gave the defendant the benefit of all he could legitimately ask for in the instruction which he requested, and gave it in a form which better comported with the judge's view of the impression due to the evidence on the subject. A judge is not bound to adopt the categorical language which counsel choose to put into his mouth. ”

“ The plaintiff, Watson, claimed title to one-third of a league of land situated in Bell county, Tex., being a rectangular tract granted by patent to the state of Texas to the heirs of Walter W. Daws, September 16, 1850, the location and boundaries of which are not disputed; and, on the trial, it was agreed by the parties that the plaintiff was entitled to all the right, title, and interest granted by said patent. The defendant, Ayers, claimed title under a grant of the government of Coahuila and Texas to one Maximo Moreno, dated October 18, 1883, for a tract containing 11 leagues of land ”

“ In addition to the two hackberries, relied on by the plaintiff as fixing the position of the N. E. corner, and the northerly line of the Moreno survey, he contended that the respective distances of the creeks and watercourses, called for by the field-notes on said line, corresponded with the actual distances found on the line run from said hackberries, and did not correspond with the actual distances found on the line claimed by the defendant. ”

“ Believing that, the marked trees found further north in the same easterly line, and the marked trees found in the northerly line, must be considered as having been marked at a later period, as several witnesses who examined them testified. ”