“ The Commissioner of the General Land Office had reported that the company already had received indemnity lands largely in excess of the losses for which it was entitled to indemnity, and the company was disputing that report. Until that controversy was determined it could not be known whether the company was entitled to an approval of the selection. In that situation the United States had such an interest in the land as made it nontaxable. Whether the selection was valid or otherwise was primarily a question for the Secretary of the Interior to determine. ”

“ The lands must be vacant. Nor were they at liberty to select lands which were then known to contain mineral. Congress did not intend to grant any mines or mineral lands, but with these exceptions their right of selection was coextensive with the limits of New Mexico. We say 'lands then known to contain mineral,' for it cannot be that Congress intended that the grant should be rendered nugatory by any future discoveries of mineral. ”

“ The state appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, and, on October 25, 1916, he affirmed the Commissioner's action.
In the meantime, on May 24, 1916, the state had given to the defendant Ridgely a lease permitting him to drill the selected land for oil, and the lease had been assigned to the defendant oil company. There was no oil discovery, nor any drilling, on the selected land up to the time the lease was given; but thereafter the oil company began drilling and at large cost carried the same to discovery and successful production. This was four years after the selection. ”

“ As the opinion in that case shows, the court recognized that the mineral land exception in other land laws simply operates to exclude from sale, etc., 'land known at the time to be mineral,' and was careful to explain that its decision related to 'grants in aid of railroads' and to 'no other grants.' The grounds on which the decision was put were: (a) That the railroad land grants, besides being confined in the granting clause to lands 'not mineral,' contain provisos declaring in words or effect 'that all mineral lands be, and the same hereby are, excluded from the operation of this' grant ”

“ One of the defendants, the state of Wyoming, [1] claims under a lieu selection, made in 1912, and the other defendants under a lease from the state, made in 1916. It is against the selection and the lease that the United States seeks to establish title. ”

“ And again (145 U.S. 432, 12 Sup. Ct. 879. 36 L. Ed. 762) :
'It is a general rule, in respect to the sales of real state, that when a purchaser has paid the full purchase price his equitable rights are complete, and there is nothing left in the vendor but the naked legal title, which he holds in trust for the purchaser. ”