Opinion of the Court.

"The land of which confirmation is hereby made is of the extent of eleven square leagues, and no more, and is known by the name of 'Moquelamos,' and is situate on the river Moquelamos, bordering upon the north upon the southern shore of said river; on the east on the adjacent ridge of said mountains; on the south on the land of Mr. Gulnak, and upon the west upon the estuaries of the shore, as described in the original decree and grant of the same by the governor of California on the 6th day of June, 1846, a copy of which is on file in the transcript in this case."

"11. That thereafter the United States appealed from said decree of confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States, and at the December term, 1859, of said court the aforesaid decree of confirmation of said District Court was, by the Supreme Court of the United States, reversed, and the case remanded, with directions to have further evidence taken in the cause and claim of said Andres Pico, for said Mexican grant Moquelamos. That thereafter the said District Court proceeded to take further evidence in said case, and after such further evidence was taken, the case was again brought before said District Court for hearing, and by that court a decree was entered on the 4th day of June, 1862, adjudging the claim of the petitioner to be invalid, and rejecting the same.

"12. That thereafter, on, to wit, the 15th day of October, 1862, the petitioner, Andres Pico, appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States from said decree of said District Court rejecting his claim as invalid. That a final hearing of said cause was had before said Supreme Court, and on the 13th day of February, A.D. 1865, a judgment was made and entered by said United States Supreme Court affirming said decree of the United States District Court, rejecting the claim of said Pico, and adjudging the same to be invalid.

"13. That all of the lands included within the boundaries of said alleged Moquelamos grant above described lie in said State and lie on each side of the road of said The Western Pacific Railroad Company, and opposite thereto in its course from said city of Sacramento to said city of San José.

"14. That under and by virtue of the act of Congress,

Opinion of the Court.

approved July 1, 1862, entitled, An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,' and the act amendatory thereof, approved July 2d, 1864, commonly known as the Pacific Railroad acts, The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California was authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific Coast, at or near San Francisco, to the eastern boundary of said State of California, and under and by virtue of said acts of Congress there were granted for the purpose of aiding in the construction of the road and telegraph line of said The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California ten alternate sections of the public lands of the United States, on each side and within twenty miles of the road of said company, designated by odd numbers, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a homestead or preëmption claim might not have attached at the time the line of the road of said company should be definitely fixed.

"15. That the said railroad company filed its assent to said Central Pacific Railroad acts at the time and in the manner in said acts provided.

"16. That on, to wit, the 23d day of December, 1864, the Secretary of the Interior of the United States ordered all of the public lands not then sold, reserved or otherwise disposed of, within the limits of twenty-five miles on each side of the route or line of the road of said railroad company, to be withdrawn from preëmption, private entry, and sale in accordance with the provisions of said acts of Congress, for said railroad company; and said order was thereupon transmitted to the register and receiver of the United States land offices at Stockton, San Francisco, and Sacramento, State of California, and received by them on the 31st day of January, 1865.

"17. On the 29th day of September, 1866, the president of the Western Pacific Railroad Company made and filed with the United States Surveyor General of the State of California the varied statement provided for by § 4 of said act of July 1, 1862, and § 6 of said act of July 2, 1864, showing the con

Opinion of the Court.

struction, completion, and equipment by said Western Pacific Railroad Company of the most westerly twenty miles, viz., the twenty miles next northeasterly from the city of San José, of the railroad and telegraph line of said Western Pacific Railroad Company, in compliance with and conformity to the requirements and provisions of said sections of said acts of Congress; and said Surveyor General thereupon, at the request of said railroad company, notified the commissioners designated and provided for by said acts to examine said twenty miles of said road and telegraph line and report thereon, in accordance with the provisions of said acts of Congress; and on the 5th day of October, 1866, said commissioners made their report and certificate to the effect that said twenty miles of road and telegraph line mentioned in said verified statement had been constructed, completed, and equipped by said railroad company, as provided and prescribed in and by said acts of Congress.

"Similar verified statements were made by the president of said Western Pacific Railroad Company as follows: On April 28, 1869, for a section of the road beginning at the junction thereof with the road of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, at the American River Bridge near Sacramento City, and extending thence southwesterly twenty (20) miles; also, on October 12, 1869, for a section of said road beginning at the westerly end of the last mentioned section, and extending thence southwesterly sixty-three (63) miles; also, on December 29, 1869, for a section of said road beginning at the westerly end of the last mentioned section, and extending thence twenty and two-tenths (202) miles to the easterly end of the first mentioned section, of twenty miles, beginning at San José.

"That all those statements were, upon their being made, filed with said Surveyor General, and he did forthwith, upon the filing of each statement respectively, and at the request of said company, notify said commissioners. That said commissioners did thereupon examine said sections of said road, and made their respective reports thereon, to the same effect as upon the first section of said road, as aforesaid, said reports

Opinion of the Court.

being made, respectively, on the 29th day of April, 1869, and the 13th of October, 1869, and the 6th day of January, 1870. "That each of the four reports of said commissioners was thereupon filed with the Secretary of the Interior, and he thereupon recommended the acceptance of the same, and the issue of the bonds and patents for lands due on account of said sections of road, agreeably to the provisions of said Pacific Railroad acts; and thereupon the President of the United States approved the same, and ordered the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Treasury to carry the said recommendation into effect, the first of which approvals by the President of the United States was made on the 4th day of December, 1866, and the last on the 21st day of January, 1870. That the four sections above mentioned comprise the whole of said road, from the city of San José to the city of Sacramento. That said road has been in full operation and has been operated for the transportation of passengers and freight since the 9th day of June, A.D. 1869.

"18. That thereafter there was issued, on the 23d day of November, 1875, to said Central Pacific Railroad Company (?), under the signature of the President of the United States, attested by the recorder of the General Land Office, and under the seal of the General Land Office, what purported to be, and in form was, a patent.

"That the patent was in the usual form of the patents issued by the United States to the several railroad companies, under and in pursuance of said Pacific Railroad acts of Congress.

"19. That said patent described and purported to convey to said railroad company the several tracts of land mentioned and described in said bill of complaint.

"20. That all of said lands described in the bill of complaint herein are opposite to, and within the 25-mile limits on each side of, the route or line of said railroad company's road, as laid down on the map filed by said Central Pacific Railroad Company of California in the Department of the Interior on the 8th day of December, 1864."

Besides these admissions a large amount of evidence was

Opinion of the Court.

taken in the case, and a final hearing was had before the court below in November term, 1886, and a decree was made dismissing the bill of complaint.

The court, in its opinion, held, amongst other things:

1. That the map of the route of the Western Division of the Central Pacific Railroad of California, filed with the Secretary of the Interior December 8, 1864, is the map of the general route, and not of the line as "definitely fixed," within the meaning of the land-grant act of 1862.

2. That the map of the route of said road as finally located and constructed, filed with the Secretary of the Interior February 1, 1870, and accepted as such by that officer, is the map of definite location.

3. That the Moquelamos grant was finally rejected February 13, 1865, after which the lands within the exterior boundaries of the grant ceased to be sub judice and became public lands, to the odd sections of which, within twenty miles of the line of the road, the right of the railroad company attached, and became indefeasible, immediately upon the filing of the map of definite location of the road, and the acceptance thereof as such by the Secretary of the Interior.

4. That as, from the year 1855, the land between the Moquelamos and Calaveras rivers, east of the range (or meridian) line between ranges 7 and 8, was treated by the government as lying outside of the Moquelamos grant claim, and as being public land, by running the section lines and filing plats of survey, and selling some of the lands, and opening the others to private entry, etc., the government should be held in a court of equity to be estopped as against the grantees of the patentee from now alleging that those lands are within the boundaries of the claim.

5. That the withdrawal of the lands upon filing the map of the general route of the road, for twenty-five miles on each side of the line indicated, protected the lands against the attaching of any other right as against the railroad company until the filing of the map of definite location.

Without expressing, at present, any opinion on the conclusions thus reached by the Circuit Court, we will proceed to