Sprague

This is an action of ejectment for a tract of land situated in Alameda County. It was tried in the Court below with a jury. The plaintiff claimed under a patent of the Mexican grant of the “ Rancho El Valle de San José,” and the defendant under a United States pre-emption patent. The question to be determined by the jury was whether or not the lands patented to defendant were,'in whole or in part, within the patent under’ which the plaintiff claimed, and that question turned upon the location of Station 25 of the Spanish grant patent. This patent contained the field-notes of the official survey, and also a plat of the survey. The field-notes, so far as they bear upon the present controversy, read as follows : “ Cor. No. 24 ; thence north 167.00, leave hills, enter small canon 173.50 to the edge of the Arroyo Valle; across the same, course west 175.00, enter hills 304.00 to a ravine 20 links wide; course 426.00, leave hills, enter valley 455.00 to the Arroyo Mocho 456.50; across same, course west 458.75, set a post in the ground at the intersection of the line of the preliminary survey of the Rancho de las Pocitas of Robert Livermore, a post marked V. S. J. No. 25, for cor. No. 25;…