Joseph P. Bradley

“ In the first and third kinds, the claim of the grantee extends to the full limits of the boundaries designated in the grant, or defined by occupation; but in the second kind,-a grant of quantity only, within a larger tract,-the grant is really a float, to be located by the consent of the government before it can attach to any specific land, like the land-warrants of the United States. A float may be entitled to location either on any public lands in the United States, or only in a particular state or territory, or within a more circumscribed region or district. ”

“ The Pacific Railroad acts of 1862 and 1864 only granted, in aid of the railroads to be constructed under them, 'every alternate section of public land * * * not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed.' The lands comprised in a Mexican grant, it was held, must be regarded, not as 'public lands,' but as 'reserved' lands, because, by the treaty with Mexico, all private property was to be respected. ”

“ If the government has the right to say where it shall be located, it certainly has the right to say where it shall not be located; and if it sells land to a third person at a place within the general territory of the original grant, it is equivalent to saying that the quantity due to the original grantee is not to be located there. In other words, if the territory comprehended in the outside limits and bounds of a Mexican grant contains 80 leagues, and the quantity granted is only 10 leagues, the government may dispose of 70 leagues, without doing any wrong to the original grantee. ”

“ I do not claim that they are mountains. I claim that they are well-defined hills, and that they are regular from there east. They run right into the mountains, and there is no way of drawing a line from them mountains east without going over hills; that is, a north and south line.' The witness further testified on cross-examination, as follows: 'Question 1. Did you hear, or come to know from anybody, that the rolling lands in range 9 east, any part of it, was ever designated as any part of the Sierra Nevada mountains? ”

“ According to this rule of law, though the Moquelamos grant had been unquestionably genuine and valid, the government would have had a right to dispose of the whole territory east of range 6, without infringing in the slightest degree the rights of Pico, who would still have had his 11 leagues at the western extremity of the territory. Any construction of the laws which would tend to trammel and obstruct this right of the government and render its acts in making alienations void, should be made with great caution, and a careful consideration of the necessary import of the terms of such laws. ”

“ It is up and down, and generally rising; that is to say, the further east a person goes the higher the hills become, and the more irregular they are, until the county line is reached. There are a number of places where there are quite high hills, and some deep elevations, and other places where perhaps a whole section would be what we call rolling land. There are no very steep hills or very high hills in a particular section, but it is what I would call, generally speaking, hilly land, the whole of it, and a rising tendency going towards the east. ”

“ The defendants contend that such an extension of the outside boundaries of the grant (supposing it to have been a real grant) cannot be presumed to have been in the minds of the parties; and they produce evidence to show that, starting from the marshes on the west, and proceeding eastwardly between the Gulnak tract and the Moquelumne river, the land is level valley land as far as the 'Jack Tone Road,' (which runs north and south on the range line between ranges 7 and 8 E.,-about seven miles east of the railroad;) ”

“ It is constantly ascending; that is, the hills, as you go east, are higher than-they keep getting higher as you go east. * * * Q. 54. In your opinion as a surveyor and civil engineer, where, with reference to the tract of country between the Calaveras and Moquelumne rivers, does the Sierra Nevada range of mountains begin as a range or system? A. opinion a range of mountains begins-what you might properly call the base of the mountains-on the plains where the land commences to go up regularly, and the hills are well defined,-what are generally called foot-hills of the mountains ”

“ The bill then alleges that on the 5th day of October, 1864, the line of said road from the city of Sacramento to its western terminus at the city of San Francisco, including that portion opposite to the Moquelamos grant, was definitely fixed, and a map of said definite location of said road was filed by the said Central Pacific Railroad Company of California with the secretary of the interior on the 8th of December, 1864 ”

“ The bill also states that the lands included within the boundaries of said claim were held and reserved during said proceedings, to await final adjudication, until said last-mentioned date; that said lands lie in the counties of San Joaquin and Calaveras, on each side of the road of the said railroad company, between the cities of Sacramento and San Jose. ”

“ If this were not so, the right of way granted for the railroads by congress would be subject to question and litigation. There cannot be any doubt, however, of the validity of these grants. The cases which show the law on this subject are numerous; it is only necessary to refer to a few of them. ”

“ Once sitios de ganado mayor en el rio de Moquelumnes que linda al norte con la orilla sure de dicho rio; al oriente con la sierra immediata al sur con el terreno del Senor Gulnak; y al poniente con los esteros de la plaza; and the translation thereof presented to said board with said petition is as follows, to-wit: 'Eleven square leagues on the river Moquelamos, bordering on the north upon the southern shore of said river; on the east upon the adjacent ridge of mountains ”

“ Gulnak; and on the west upon the estuaries of the shore.' That said petition was in the usual form of petitions to the board of land commissioners, for the confirmation of claims to land in California, founded upon grants made by the Mexican government. (9) That said board of land commissioners proceeded to consider and determine the said petition and claim of the said Andres Pico, and on the 3d day of October, 1854, rendered a decree denying the application of said petitioner for a confirmation of his said grant of land, and rejecting his claim therefor. ”