Mastick

The laws of California authorized the location on unsurveyed lands (sec. 5, Act of 1861, p. 219); but the laws of the United States only authorized lieu lands to be taken from among the lands surveyed by the United States.

This defect is cured by the Act of Congress approved July 23d, 1866, entitled “An Act to quiet land titles in California.”'

The first section of that act provides: “That in all cases where the State of California has heretofore made selections of any portion of the public domain, in part satisfaction of any grant made to said State by any Act of Congress, and has disposed of the same to purchasers in good faith under her laws, the lands so selected shall be and hereby are confirmed to said State.”

This act operates to cure the defect that would otherwise have existed in the plaintiff’s title. But for this confirmation the location would have been void, because made of unsurveyed lands, and it was to cure just such defects that the Act of 1866 was passed.

The defendant’s settlement was not made until more than five months after the Act of 1866 was passed, and he therefore is not protected by its provisions, and the proviso, in terms, ap *70 plies only to…