120 



of Newcomb, and that after carefully investigating said lot 35, they 

 find no part of it under cultivation, nor showing any appearance of 

 having been cultivated, nor did they find any house, Bhanty or barn 

 thereon, nor anything to show that such buildings might heretofore 

 have been on said lot; C. H. and George M. Bissell depose that they 

 are well acquainted with the location of the said lot. 



Direct evidence : 



October 19, 1887, Orson P. Morse deposes: " That he is a practical 

 surveyor, that he has followed the business over thirty years, and is 

 well acquainted with the surveys of township 27, and that on the 22d 

 and 23d days of September, 1887, he re-surveyed the line between 

 lots 34 and 35 in Eichard's Survey to 27, to C. P., and that after the 

 survey he saw two shanties on lot 35. The shanties appeared to have 

 been built fifteen years or more. 

 / Application granted June 26, 1888. 



Q. That you take from the Comptroller's office ? 



A. Yes; on making a survey in January, 1889, to investigate 

 the evidence on which the above cancellation was obtained; before 

 making this survey I went to the surveyor- general's office, the Sec- 

 retary of State's office, and copied the original maps and field notes of 

 this tract, and from that I made the survey so that I know it is correct; 

 then here is that resolution; I found that Mr. Morse's statement was 

 correct, and saw the two shanties. 

 ' Q. Statement as to the line? 



A. As to the two shanties that he saw as to which I believe he 

 refers, they were two old stables, one of which was large enough to 

 shelter one team and the other might shelter two, but the missing 

 link in the chain of testimony is, that there is nothing in it to connect 

 the shanties which Morse saw with the dwelling-house and barn which 

 the Houghtons swore they occupied and the fact, as T showed in my 

 report to the forest commission during the time covered by their testi- 

 mony, they occupied a shanty and barn on lot 34. 



Q. Tou surveyed this land ? 



A. Yes, sir. 



Q. Did you agree in your survey with the survey of this other man? 



A. I could not tell. 



Q. Your survey was based on what you found in the surveyor-gen- 

 , eral's office ? 



A. Yes; and as I went along I found the ancient land marks. 



Q. This house was not on the lot that was redeemed, but on the 

 adjoining lot ? 



