Supreme court of the United States. No. 135. The United States, appellants, vs. John A. Sutter. Appeal from the District court U.S. for the Northern district of California.

Tiie United States vs. Sutter. 529
32nd. What is the effect of those overflows upon cropping, on the
banks of those rivers, including the present site of Sacramento
city?
377 Ans. It improves the quality of the soil, increases the product of cereal grains, and renders more valuable the lands
which otherwise would in a few years become useless.
33rd. Are any lands in the vicinity of those rivers regularly overflowed, each year, except the tule lands?
Ans. They are not.
Questions by Elihu Johnson.
34th. In reply to question 31 you say that you have never seen
the immediate banks or margins overflowed but once, which was in
January, 1850; to what rivers do you refer?
Ans. I refer to the American river, below the sheep pen, and to
the Sacramento river and Feather river.
35th. Where is the sheep pen to which you refer?
Ans. It is from I to 2 miles northeast of Sutter's Fort, and northwest of Norristown.
[The attorney for the U. S. objects to the foregoing testimony so
far as it goes to prove the location or propriety of location
378 east of Feather river and south of the junction of the Feather
and Sacramento rivers.]
GILBERT A. GRANT.
Sworn to and subscribed Dec. 14, 1860, before me.
W. H. CHEVERS, U.. Corn.
Endorsed: Filed Dec. 14, 1860.
W. I. CHEVERS, Clerk.
{ertified copy of petition, amended petition, and decree, in case No. 416.
To the honorable board of commissioners created by act of Congress of the United States approved March 3rd, A.D. 1851, to ascertain and settle private land claims in the State of California:
Roland Gelston, a citizen of Monmouth county, in the State of New
Jersey, humbly petitioning, shows unto your honorable body that
some time previous to the 18th day of June, of A. D. 1841, one
Augustus Sutter, a native of the republic of Switzerland, and
379 naturalized in the Mexican nation, and in conformity with the
law of said republic enacted on the 18th day of August, A. D.
1824, and regulations of the 25th of November, A. D. 1828, asked, as
will more appear by reference to paper hereunto annexed, and marked
Exhibit (A,) for his personal benefit and that of 12 families, eleven
leagues of land on the margin of the river Sacramento, in the vacant
lands of the frontiers of the north, to colonize and improve them in the
terms mentioned in said laws, to which end he has sufficiently accredited
his laboriousness, good conduct, and other qualifications required in
[REC. ccLvII, D. T. 1862.] —34