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.

768 The United States vs. Sutter.
It will be observed that the decree of the board, and of this court,
which was thus in part reversed and in part affirmed, did not attempt to
make any discrimination between the right to eleven leagues acquired
under the Alvarado grant and that to 22 leagues supposed to have
been acquired under the Micheltorena or sobrante grant. It confirmed to the claimant all the land "within his rancho as laid down
on the map which accompanied the grant for eleven leagues. But
the claim under the sobrante grant having been rejected by the
Supreme Court, and the cause remitted that thej eleven-league grant
might be located within the limits set forth in the grant and accompanying diseno, it is evident that the smaller quantity must now be
located within the limits decided by the board and this court to be
the boundaries of the original map; the only effect of the partial
reversal of the decree by the Supreme Court being to reserve
1052 to the nation (i. e., to the U. S.) the excess beyond the eleven
leagues, instead of considering it as conveyed to the claimant
under the sobrante grant. If the limits of the tract out of which
the eleven leagues are to be taken had not been so explicitly determined by the decree of the board, and adopted by the Supreme
court, there might be much room to doubt whether the southern
boundary line marked "lindero latitud norte 380 49' 32" on the map
B. P. L. was in fact intended by the governor to be the southern
limit of the tract out of which the eleven leagues first granted were
to be taken. It has unfortunately happened that neither the original
grant nor the map which accompanied the petition are before us.
The grant has been burnt and the map lost. The contents of the
former we learn from the borrador or draft in the archives and from
a copy of the original of record in the county clerk's office; but the
precise indications of the map according to which the gov1053 ernor granted, cannot now be ascertained with any certainty.
The grant describes the northern boundary as Los Tres Picos, and the parallel of latitude 390 41' 45"; and the southern boundary as the parallel 38~ 49' 32".
In fixing these boundaries it might reasonably be inferred that the
governor adopted some lines drawn on the map before him, and supposed to be and marked as the parallels of latitude mentioned in
the grant; but on none of the maps presented as copies of the one
which accompanied the petition, and the two lines found marked as
mentioned in the grant.
The map "B. P. L." first appears as an exhibit to the deposition
of Gov. Alvarado. He states that it seems an exact copy of the diseno, except that on the Feather river were marked localities which
Sutter thought would be suitable for the settlement of families under
him.
"I named the degrees of latitude as Sutter had them marked on
his disefio. I told him I did not know the latitude, but as he
1054 insisted on having them so, I described them accordingly."
The evidence is silent as to the origin of the map B. P. L.