LIST OF NAMES. A list of the names of the individuals employed to assist in running, measuring, or marking the lines and corners described in the foregoing field notes of Township No. 25 North of the base line of Range No. 2 West of the Willamette meridian, showing the respective capacities in which they acted: PETER LONG, Chainman. HENRY FLAGG, Compassman. We hereby certify that we assisted Robert Acres, deputy surveyor, in surveying the exterior boundaries and subdividing Township number twenty-five North of the base line of Range number two west of the Willamette meridian, and that said Township has been in all respects, to the best of our knowledge and belief, well and faithfully surveyed, and the boundary monuments planted according to the instructions furnished by the Surveyor-General. PETER LONG, Chainman. Subscribed and sworn to by the above-named persons, before me, a Justice of the Peace for the county of tory] of day of in the State [or Terri of 186 HENRY DOOLITTLE, Justice of the Peace. surveyor of the public lands of I, Robert Acres, deputy surveyor, do solemnly swear that, in pursuance of a contract with the Unitted States in the State [or Territory] of bearing date the 186, and in strict conformity to the laws of the United States and the instructions furnished by the said SurveyorGeneral, I have faithfully surveyed the exterior boundaries [or subdivision and meanders, as the case may be] of Township number twenty-five North of the base line of Range number two West of the Willamette meridian, in the aforesaid, and do further solemnly swear that the foregoing are the true and original field notes of such survey. ROBERT ACRES, Deputy Surveyor. Subscribed by said Robert Acres, deputy surveyor, and sworn to be fore me, a Justice of the Peace for county, in the State [or 186. HENRY DOOLITTLE, Justice of the Peace. To each of the original field books, the Surveyor-General will append his official approval, according to the following form, or so varied as to suit the facts in the case: SURVEYOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE AT 186. day of The foregoing field notes of the survey of [here describe the survey], executed by Robert Acres, under his contract of the *186, in the month of 186, having been critically examined, the necessary corrections and explanations made, the said field notes, and the surveys they describe, are hereby approved. A. B. Surveyor-General. To the copies of the field notes transmitted to the seat of government, the Surveyor-General will append to each township the following certificate: I certify that the foregoing transcript of the field notes of the survey of the [here describe the character of the surveys, whether meridian, base line, standard parallel, exterior township lines, or subdivision lines, and meanders of a particular township] in the State [or Territory] of has been correctly copied from the original notes on file in this office. A. B. Surveyor-General. THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PUBLIC SURVEYS NOT TO BE CHANGED. Congress, as early as the year 1805, laid down certain general principles in regard to the unchangeableness of the lines and corners established by government surveyors, which have continued operative down to the present time, and are still in full force. These principles are contained in the second section of an act entitled "An act concerning the mode of Surveying the Public Lands of the United States," approved February 11th, 1805, and are as follows, to wit: 1st. "All the cORNERS marked in the surveys returned by the Surveyor-General, shall be established as the proper corners of sections or subdivisions of sections which they were intended to designate; and the corners of half and quarter sections, not marked on said surveys, shall be placed as nearly as possible equidistant from those two corners which stand on the same line.' 2d. "The BOUNDARY LINES actually run and marked in the surveys returned by the Surveyor-General, shall be established as the proper boundary lines of the sections or subdivisions for which they were intended; and the length of such lines as returned by the Surveyor-General aforesaid, shall be held and considered as the true length thereof." Experience has demonstrated the wisdom of this enactment; no law ever passed by Congress has contributed so much to prevent disputes in regard to boundaries of the public lands. Considering the extent of territory over which the public surveys have been extended, embracing whole states now thickly settled with people, and affecting interests involving many thousands of dollars, cases of litigation growing out of disputed boundaries are surprisingly rare. The law referred to enunciates the unvarying rule, that all corners of the public surveys marked in the field and duly returned by the Surveyor-General, shall stand as the true corners which they were intended to designate. It will be understood that only such boundaries as are established by the Surveyor-General or the deputy surveyor, in the line of their official duties, and in pursuance of law, come under this rule. If, for instance, the Surveyor-General were to return a section divided into irregular tracts not recognized by the laws governing the survey of the public lands, such boundaries would not stand. A case of this description in the State of Alabama was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1845. (3d Howard, pp. 650-73.) In this case the Surveyor-General returned the plat of a fractional section divided into two lots of unusual form and unrecognized areas, instead of returning one full quarter section and remaining fractions, as required by the law of 1820. The decision of the court was as follows: "There is nothing in any of the acts of Congress to authorize the division made by the Surveyor-General, and it being a violation of the laws and contrary to the duties of his office, it must be regarded as void." But where the corners are established by the proper officer in pursuance of the system of subdivision authorized by law, they must be regarded as the true corners which they represent. Even if it is subsequently found that the post is out of line, or that the intervals are unequal or incorrect; no party has a right to correct such errors except the general government, and it possesses the power only while the title to the lands affected by the change is yet in the United States. After the lands have passed into the hands of private parties, the government lines and corners, as marked in the field, must govern in determining the boundaries of all legal subdivisions, when they can be found and identified; when they are missing, |