Robert Cooper Grier

“ But one thing is certain, that if the United States have taken a league on the western side of the Novato, and given it to the Nicasio rancho, it is with an ill grace that they who use their name now seek to take another league on the east. ”

“ As the owners of the Novato tract now in question did not appeal from that survey, and are content to take this survey of two leagues, we are not bound now to decide whether, according to the decree, they were not entitled to have all the land included within the boundaries mentioned in the decree, and whether the words 'containing two leagues, a little more or less,' should be construed merely as a conjectural estimate of the quantity contained within the boundaries described. ”

“ The Punto del Potrero, a peninsula almost entirely surrounded by a salt marsh, is as clearly within the decree as language can make it. The decree being itself clear and precise, does not refer to the rough daubs called dise nos, or to the record of juridical possession for the purpose of rendering uncertain that which the decree made certain. The formula of this delivery of possession, or livery of seizin, did not require a survey of the estate. Perhaps the province of California at that time could not furnish a man capable of making an accurate survey. ”