Samuel Freeman Miller

“ As to these lands, it is made 'the duty of the proper authorities of the State, where this is not already done, to notify the register of the United States land-office for the district in which the land is located of such selection, which notice shall be regarded as the date of the selection.' Now, suppose that prior to this notification the land had been claimed as part of a Mexican grant, but it had been finally determined that, though the grant itself was valid, it did not include the land selected, would not the selection be good? ”

“ Buick, supra, 209, that by the seventh section of the act of 1853 the right of sele ting indemnity lands for those on which actual settlements were made must be determined by the actual survey of the grant, and, of course, could not be exercised before that time, and that up to that time a valid settlement could be made which would deprive the State of the land, though made on what turned out to be a sixteenth or a thirty-sixth section. ”