“ A verdict and judgment were rendered for the defendants, and that judgment is now before this court on a writ of error.
'It is undoubtedly the practice of surveyors, and the practice was proved in this cause, to express in their plats and certificates of survey, the courses which are designated by the needle; and if nothing exists to control the call for course and distance, the land must be bounded by the courses and distances of the patent, according to the magnetic meridian. But it is a general principle, that the course and distance must yield to natural objects called for in the patent. ”

“ The lines in the certificate of survey do not expressly call for crossing the creek; but each certificate and grant calls generally for land lying on Crow creek. If the lines of the tracts herein before mentioned, No. 12 and 13, in the said chain of surveys, be run according to the course of the needle and the distances called for, they will not include Crow creek, or any part of it, and will not include the land in possession of the defendant. If they be run according to the true meridian, or so as to include Crow creek, they will include the lands in possession of the defendants. ”