Spring

Courses and distances yield to natural monuments. In Sandifer v. Foster, 1 Hay w. (N. C.) 237, “ Gee’s patent began at the mouth of dividing, run thence north, thence east, thence south to a white oak; thence along the river to the beginning. This white oak stood half a mile from the river, and if the line be run in a direct course from thence to the beginning, a large part of the land described in the plaintiff’s grant will be left out of Gee’s patent; but if the river is deemed to be the boundary, the land described in defendant’s grant will then be included in Gee’s patent.” The river was held to be the boundary.

In Cherry v. Slade’s Admin. 3 Murph. 84 , the description was: “ Beginning at Whitehurst’s corner at the letter A; thence east along Ward’s line eighty poles; thence south on his line 320 poles to the back swamp.” The first distance was more than doubled, and both courses were changed thirty degrees, in order to conform to Ward’s line. The case is an instructive one.

See, also, Harramond v. MeQlaughon, Taylor’s (N. C.) B. 84; Fix v. Johnson, 5 N. H. 524; Bruce v. Taylor, 2 J. J. Marsh. 162; and Brown v. Hager, 21 How. 318 .)

Tested by the intrinsic aids to the…