by John Marshall

“ It is not alleged that either of them possessed any notoriety which could conduct the person in search of them to any particular part of the creek. Can he be required to search from its mouth to its source? At which is he to commence? If at neither, but at the mesne point between them, is he to look up or down the creek? If he should accidentally strike the creek at the mouth of Little Slate, he finds a creek instead of a branch, and a path instead of a road. The place does not suit the description in the entry. Some of the witnesses say, that no other place suits it as well. ”

“ It is well settled in Kentucky, that if objects called for in an entry are distinguished by a known name, it is a serious defect to call for them by a name which they possess in common with other similar objects, instead of their appropriate name. ”

“ It is in these words: 'Beginning where a buffalo road crosseth said creek, at the mouth of a branch emptying into said creek on the northeast side, it being the place of beginning for Samuel Meredith's entry of 20,000 acres.'
It is the plain dictate of good sense, which is supported by the whole current of decisions in Kentucky, that an entry, to satisfy the law, must describe the place with sufficient accuracy to be found and known by others, and in terms which will not fit other places equally well with that intended to be appropriated. ”