Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/577

 lIARSHAIJi V. BIGIiEB. 563 �the time of its shipment at Newburgh. He was examined in court in October, 1880, and was aided in giving his testimony by the book in which he entered the measurement of the lumber. His testimony is to the effect that he measured each stick of timber and ascertained its actual cubic contents ; tbat his measurement was taken from the extreme end of each stick to the other extreme end; that the timber was square-hewn timber; that there were no spurs on the timber or other defects making it neeessary to reject any part of its length in the return of the government measurement; that the logs afterwards sawn into plank were first measured in the stick; that afterwards the planks were separately meas- ured; that the total measurement of the logs, including those sawn into planks, was 60,695 11-12 cubic feet; that those sawn into planks measured 15,618 8-12 cubic feet; that these made, in planks, 12,028 8-12 cubic feet; thatwhat went into the vessel was the unsawn timber, 45,137 3-12 cubic feet, and plank 12,028 8-12, making a total of 57,165 11-12 that went into the vessel; that he gave Bigler & Co., the defend- ants, a certificate for the 60,695 11-12, on which they were to get their pay from the government. �There is testimony on the part of the libellants tending strongly to show that this witness did not measure the logs from one end to the other, but that he rejected in his meas- urement defective parts at both ends; that there were spurs on the large ends of the sticks and other defects, and that in measuring the logs he only measured the square, sound por- tions. There is evidence on the other hand corroborative of his statement that his measurement was of the actual and entire cubic contents of the logs. The book produced by the witness contains a tabulated statement of the logs by number from 1 to 1,010, giving the length in feet, the breadth and depth in inches, and the contents of each in cubic feet. Of the 1,010 logs in number so entered in the book 15 are not now filled out, the figures indicating the dimensions and con- tents bave been erased, and nothing is carried into the foot- ings of the columns for their contents. It is the testimony of the inspecter that the logs sawn into plank are in this ����