Jordan

Action in ejectment. Judgment for plaintiffs; motion for new trial denied, and defendants appeal from both the judgment and order.

Plaintiffs deraign title under a certificate of purchase of tide-lands from the state, issued November 9,1871, to L. B. Mizner, followed by patent issued June 14, 1877. Defendants deraign title under a United States patent for the rancho Canada del Hambre de Bolsas, and a *25 deed conveying the land in Little Bull Valley down to the shore of the straits of Carquinez, in Contra Costa County.

There is no question but that the patents are coterminous, the lands described in the one being bounded by the lands described in the other, at and along the point under investigation in this case; but the point is, Where is that coterminous line? Both patents give as a general description “the shore of the straits of Carquinez,” and in both patents this general description is followed by a specific one of courses and distances, and each corresponding to the other in such courses and distances. As matter of law, — and that seems to be conceded as law in this case,—if there is a conflict between the natural boundary, or shore line, and the line as given by courses…