Fullinwider

The appellant brought a suit to compel the appellees to convey to him a certain half section of land situated within the limits of the congressional grant made to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California by the act of March 3, 1871 ( 16 Stat. 573 ). The complaint alleged that the appellant tendered the railroad company $2.50 an acre for the land and demanded a conveyance of the same, but the conveyance was refused. From the final decree of the court below, dismissing the bill for want of equity, the present appeal is taken.

The act of March 3, 1871, contained a grant of lands to two railroad companies: First, to the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, which was incorporated by the act; and, second, to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, a corporation which had received *718 a prior land grant in 1866. The main purpose of the act was to aid the Texas Pacific Company in the construction of a railroad from the eastern line of Texas, through El Paso and Yuma, to ship’s channel in the Bay of San Diego. At the end of the act, and in section 23 thereof, is found the grant to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, in words as follows:

The appellant…