Gordon

(after stating the facts as above). The errors assigned relate to the rulings of the court in the exclusion and admission of evidence and the action of the court instructing the jury to find a verdict for the defendant. In our view of the case it will be sufficient to determine the question whether upon the evidence the court was justified in instructing the jury to find a verdict for the defendant.

Section 2387 of the Revised Statutes ( 43 U.S.C.A. § 718 ), provides that: “Whenever any portion of the public lands have been or may be settled upon and occupied as a town-site,” it shall be lawful to enter “the land so settled and occupied in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests.”

The act entitled “An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes,” approved March 3, 1891 ( 26 Stat. *124 1095 , c. 561 [ 48 U.S.C.A. § 355 ]), provides, in section 11: “That until otherwise ordered by Congress, lands in Alaska may be entered for town-site purposes for the several use and benefit of the occupants of such town-sites, by such-trustee or trustees as may be named by the Secretary of the Interior for that…