Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/456

 e44 fedekaij bepobtbr. �the requirements of the act of congress with respect to the point oi mtorsection. �The line of 1864 was projected upon paper very soon after the passage of the act, by the sole authority of the McGregor Company, for the apparent purpose of causing the lands to be withdrawu from market. This line was not surveyed, staked out, and platted accord- ing to the requirements of the regulations. No monuments were placed to designate it upon the face of the earth. Some two years later the line of the Sioux City & St. Paul Company was located, and instead of its running through O'Brien county, as there waa reason to suppose it would, its projectors located it so as barely to touch that county very near its north-west corner, as seen on the map herewith filed. It then became necessary to change the line of 1864 so as to make the intersection. Suffice it to say that the change which was in fact made was with the assent of the land departmenfc at Wash- ington, and in order to comply with the requirements of the act of congress. Defendant's counsel contend that this change of line was not made by the order of the government at Washington. This is immaterial. It is a contention more about words than anything else. L is beyond question that the commissioner of the general land-ofEce assented to the change ; and, indeed, the infereuce seems irresistible that he required it to be made. It is not material that there was no formai order for the change. Thus, Mr. Wilson, the commissioner, in his letter to the governor of lowa, bearing date May 13, 1868, says that "in view of adjusting the grant respectively it is desirable to have the true point of intersection in O'Brien county in accordance with the statute ; " and he requests that at an early day a map prop- erly authenticated, showing the true location of the line through Clay and O'Brien counties to the point of intersection with the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad, be filed, etc. �This clearly shows — First, that the grant in Clay and O'Brien coun- t'es had not then been adjusted upon the old line of 1864. If the commissioner eonsidered the last-named line as defiuitely located, why could not the grant be adjusted in Clay county and in O'Brien to the old terminus without a map showing the "true "location of the line through Clay and O'Brien to the "point of intersection?" It is evident that in the view of the commissioner the old line through Clay and O'Brien was not the "true line," and that the true line could not be located without reference to the point of intersection. �Again, the commissioner, in a letter of Octoher, 1 868, to D. C. Shep- pard, civil engineer, having in charge the duty of relocatitig the line ��� �