Railroad Company v. Schurmeir

Mr. T. A. Hendricks, for the railroad company, plaintiff in error: The land system of the United States was designed to provide, in advance, with mathematical precision, the ascertainment of boundaries. The purchaser takes by metes and bounds. These rules are settled, and accordingly the township line at the north, the section line at the west, and the meander-line on the remaining side–a line beginning and ending at posts, and running by courses, described between them–must constitute the boundary here. In no other way can the rules be conformed to. By the pretensions of the opposite counsel, the purchaser would pay for a little more than nine acres, and get but little less than twelve. The lines marked on the ground must thus control.4