William Johnson

“ Since, then, all the testimony goes to establish, that Licking, above the Upper Blue Lick, is not a navigable stream, at least not so as to be resorted to as a highway, especially for ascending navigation, it follows, that the inquiries of a subsequent locater, who wished to appropriate the residuum adjacent to this entry, or of the surveyor who had a warrant to survey it, would be for a creek entering into Licking on the north side, at a distance from the lick of about thirty-five miles, by some practicable route. ”

“ Wilson, (3 Bibb. Rep. 542.) a learned Judge is reported to have said, 'that there seems to be a diversity of opinion as to the most natural construction of a locative call in an entry where a given distance, up or down a watercourse, is specified,' we cannot but think, that the same rules which govern the cases on the subject of distances by land, have been distinctly and rationally applied to distances called for with reference to water courses.
Distances on the Ohio are invariably measured according to its meanders. ”

“ One general rule is never departed from, to wit, that when distance is indicated by a road, it shall be held to mean, by the meanders of a road. (Whitaker v. Hale, supra and passim.) So, also, where there is no road or trace, the most usual route, if there be proved such a route to exist, seems to be the rule. So it is laid down in Hite v. Graham et al. in which, also, the general rule as to the sense in which the language of entries is to be received, is explicitly declared to be 'according to the popular acceptation at the time when the entry was made.' And, although, in the case of White v. ”