Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/377

 870 FEDERAL REFOBTEB. �Now, as to the amount involved, it is true ît is considered by the parties as considerable, but in law we should decide it the same as though it were of the most trifling charaoter. The rule is that the same principle must be applied in ail cases to the rich and poor alike, and it is your duty and mine to discard ail reference in regard to the amount and to the parties, treating them as we used to in sohool the algebraio quantities, the representatives of value which were arrayed against eaoh other, and which we used in working out the problems there submitted to us. It matters net whether a man on one side of this controversy is rich and the other poor; it is not a matter which should affect our judgment in one way or another. �As to the matters which are particularly for your consid- eration, you have observed, in ail that has been said by the witnesses and the counsel, that it is a controversy relating to the Iode and the vein at a point somewhat distant from the location; that is to say, aceording to the custom of miners, the plaintiffs, or their grantors, secured a location 300 feet in width and 1,500 feet in length at a certain point. In that ground, originating there by its top and apex, they say they have the top and apex of the Iode, and having given proof, which I think is uncontradicted, to the effect that there is a Iode there, in pursuit of that Iode beyond the Unes of their location, and at a distance of 400 or 500 feet east of their loca- tion, they have reached a point where they have come in con- flict with the defendants. This location was made upon the surface or the declining surface of the hill. I do not know that any of the witnesses bave stated to you the exact con- tour of that hill — how much it declines ; but it is shown that it is a hill declining to the westward — that is, coming down from the east and declining to the westward — and they made their location on the side of that hill. The defendants went to the east of that location some 400 or 600 feet. 1 do not know that we are told the exact distance, nor is it important ; but they went upon the surface of the hill above the plaintiffs' ground at a considerable distance, and there sunk down a ����