Stephen Johnson Field

“ The commissioner shall direct the United States surveyor general for the state of California to examine the segregation maps and surveys of the swamp and overflowed lands made by said state; and where he shall find them to conform to the system of surveys adopted by the United States, he shall construct and approve township plats accordingly, and forward to the general land-office for approval: provided, that in segregating large bodies of land, notoriously and obviously swamp and overflowed, it shall not be necessary to subdivide the same, but to run the exterior lines of such body of land. ”

“ After much consideration by the officers of the department of the government under whose supervision the act was to be carried out, and by the courts of the several states in which such lands existed, it was held that the words 'are hereby granted' in the act imported a present grant, and not a promise of one in the future; and that the title to the lands, therefore, passed to the state at once, their identification to be made by the action of the secretary of the interior, but, when identified the title to relate back to the date of the act. ”

“ Smith, 9 Wall. 95, tended in some degree to lessen the evil effects of the delay, in holding that when that officer had neglected or failed to make the identification it was competent for the grantees of the state, in order to prevent their rights from being defeated, to identify the lands in any other approopriate mode which would effect that object. ”