Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ But it sufficiently appears that the appellee's family had held the place in Igorrot fashion, and to deny them possession in favor of Western intruders probably would be to say that the natives had no rights under the section that an American was bound to respect. Whatever vagueness there may have been in the boundaries, it is plain that the appellant attempted to locate a claim within them, and Fianza testified that the plan to which we have referred followed the boundaries that his father showed to him. ”

“ By § 16, their occupancy of public lands is respected and made to confer rights. In dealing with an Igorrot of the province of Benguet, it would be absurd to expect technical niceties, and the courts below were quite justified in their liberal mode of dealing with the evidence of possession and the possibly rather gradual settling of the precise boundaries of the appellees' claim. ”

“ A question to another of the plaintiffs, whether she saw any Igorrots working for Reavis, would have brought out nothing not admitted by the bill, that Reavis did, for a time, intrude upon the mines in suit. Upon the whole case we are of opinion that no sufficient ground is shown for reversing the decree, and it is affirmed. ”