Opinion of the Court. he was pointing out the boundaries of the Basquez survey, but when he was at a distance from the place of beginning of that survey and from its upper line. That Moore had made the survey, or had ever been upon its upper line, or on the upper line of the reserve, was proved only by his assertion, which the court allowed to be given in evidence. There was no such proof aliunde. The case of Ellicott v. Pearl, supra, was brought to this court by a writ of error in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky. And, in the decision here, this court adhered to the English rule, and rejected the evidence of the declaration of a deceased surveyor, as to the boundary of a private estate. In so doing, this court was simply enforcing the rule as it existed in Kentucky at that time. In Cherry v. Boyd, Litt. Sel. Cases, 8, decided by the Supreme Court of that State in 1800, it was held that evidence of the parol declarations of a surveyor concerning the marks or lines of a private estate were inadmissible. This being the settled law of Kentucky, this court could not have decided otherwise than it did in Ellicott v. Pearl. But even in that case the court uses the following guarded language: "The doctrine in America, in respect to boundaries, has gone further, and has admitted of general reputation as to boundaries between contiguous private estates." The remaining assignments of error relate to the answers to the requests by the counsel of the respective parties for instructions to the jury, and to the general charge of the court below. They are so many in number that it would greatly protract this opinion to review them seriatim, and in the order of their presentation. At the request of the plaintiff, the court below said to the jury, “that in the absence of marks on the north made for the William Elliott in 1794, by the deputy surveyor, the William Elliott must go to its calls for adjoiners on the north; that as there is no evidence of any such original marks, the William Elliott must go to its northern calls for the Daniel Reese, Mary Myers, Charlotte Ruston, and John Reynolds, and, therefore, the William Elliott will embrace the land in dis Opinion of the Court. pute by locating the Mary Myers and Charlotte Ruston, according to the official courses and distances from their northern line, or from the Rockefeller maple corner." We think the learned judge in giving this charge fell into error. If it was not a positive and imperative direction to the jury to find for the plaintiff, it would be difficult to convince them that this was not the manifest intention of the court. In its logical effect it is a syllogism; the conclusion of which is, that the land in dispute is within the limits of the William Elliott, and belongs, therefore, to the plaintiff. Its terms are, first, that in the absence of any original marks on the north of the William Elliott, made by the surveyor, at the date of the survey, the William Elliott will go to its northern adjoining tracts, to wit, the Mary Myers and Charlotte Ruston; second, that there is no evidence of any such original marks on the north of the William Elliott; third, that, therefore, the William Elliott must go to its adjoining tracts on the north, (the Myers and Ruston,) and thus embrace the land in dispute. The direct tendency, if not the avowed purpose, of the statements contained in this charge, is to withdraw from the consideration of the jury a very considerable amount of pertinent and important testimony for the defence. It should be borne in mind that the William Elliott is not a single separate tract, but one of a block of several tracts, surveyed at the same time, by the same surveyor, under warrants of the same date, and for the same owner, and returned into the land office as one body. By the settled law of Pennsylvania, applicable to the location of surveys, original marks and living monuments on the ground constitute the survey, and they are the highest proof of its true location. The next most important evidence of location is the calls for adjoining surveys; and in the absence of both of them, and then only, the lines according to courses and distances, returned by the surveyor into the land office, determine the location. But it is equally well settled, by an unbroken current of decisions in that State, that the surveys constituting a block are not to be treated as separate and individual surveys; nor can each tract be located independently Opinion of the Court. of the rest, by its own individual lines or calls or courses and distances; but such surveys are to be located together as a block or one large tract. If lines and corners made for such a block of surveys can be found upon the ground, this fixes the location of the block, even to the disregard of the call for adjoiners. The lines and corners found upon any part of the block of surveys belong to each and every tract of the block, as much as they do to the particular tract which they adjoin. In Pruner v. Brisbin, 98 Penn. St. 202, the question came before the court below, and the principles just laid down were enunciated in that court, and upon a writ of error to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Mr. Justice Sterrett said: "The thirteen tracts having been surveyed in a block and so returned must be located upon the ground as a block; neither of them can be arbitrarily located in disregard of the lines and corners found upon other parts of the block. All the lines and corners marked upon the ground and returned must be considered in ascertaining the proper location of the block. Those found upon any part of the block belong to each and every tract of which it is composed, and if sufficient lines and corners can be found they determine the location of the entire block, without regard to its calls for adjoiners or for waters, if such calls conflict with the lines actually run upon the ground and returned." He added: "It requires neither argument nor citation of authority to show that the learned judge was clearly right in thus instructing the jury." p. 210. In Fritz v. Brandon, 78 Penn. St. 342, 351, Chief Justice Agnew says: "When one person is owner of all the warrants, they may be surveyed together in a single block by exterior lines, leaving the interior lines to be settled by the owner himself. Mock v. Astley, 13 S. & R. 382; Stevens v. Hughes, 3 W. & S. 465; Collins v. Barclay, 7 Barr [7 Penn. St.] 73; Hagerty v. Mathers, 7 Casey [31 Penn. St.] 348. The legal effect is, that the entire block is viewed as one tract. Hence, Chief Justice Lewis said, in Hole v. Rittenhouse, 1 Casey [25 Penn. St.] 491, 'Under these circumstances it is evident that the whole fifteen surveys adjoining each other in a single block, without interior lines, all made at one time and owned Opinion of the Court. by the same party, were essentially but one tract.' This principle was in the mind of Chief Justice Woodward when he said, in Malone v. Sallada, 12 Wright [48 Penn. St.] 425: And when we are dealing with blocks of surveys we must remember that the marks on any part of the block belong to each tract in the block.' So Judge Strong said, in Darrah v. Bryant, 6 P. F. Smith [56 Penn. St.] 75: And if they were surveyed as a block, they must be located as a block.'" In Malone v. Sallada, 48 Penn. St. 419, Chief Justice Woodward says: "Located by these adjoiners, Isaac Miller would take the land in dispute, but several of its courses and distances and the configuration of the survey as returned into the land office would essentially be changed. Notwithstanding these consequences, however, the defendants insisted upon its location by its calls. . . The plaintiffs, on the other hand, contended that the whole block of twenty-five surveys should be located by the marks on the ground, with no other reference to calls for adjoiners than such as would be consistent with the marks on the ground; and that it is immaterial that no marks are found on the Miller survey, since authentic marks are found on other tracts of the block sufficient to locate the whole block, and that these marks apply with decisive effect to Isaac Miller. They deny also that Merrick Starr was called for on the west of Isaac Miller; but if it was, they say it was a mistake, and must be rejected in favor of the courses and distances as returned. In a word, the plaintiffs would locate the Isaac Miller by the marks on the ground of other tracts, in connection with which it was surveyed and returned. And when we are dealing with blocks of surveys we must remember that the marks on any part of the block belong to each tract of the block. Interior lines were never run and marks are not to be looked for on them; but if marks are found upon the ground to establish an exterior line of a particular tract of the block, and we find other tracts returned with that same line, we are to presume it was adopted as the boundary of these tracts, no less than of the tracts which bear the marks. When the surveyor, for instance, ran from the Opinion of the Court. pine corner of Gilbert and Brooks to the stone corner of Lomison and Paul, his course for more than three hundred perches was S. 10° E. and his only other course for eighty-nine perches was S. 4° E. and these two courses carried him the whole width of the Gilbert and Miller tracts, and formed the western boundary of these respective tracts. No marks are found on these lines, but the pine and stones are sufficient to locate them." p. 425. In Northumberland Coal Co. v. Clement, 95 Penn. St. 126, it was held: "When original surveys have been made and returned as a block into the land office, the location of each tract therein may be proved by proving the location of the block. In ascertaining the location of a tract the inquiry is not where it should or might have been located, but where it actually was located. Every mark on the ground tending to show the location of any tract in the block is some evidence of the location of the whole block, and therefore of each tract therein." p. 137. We think these authorities are conclusive upon this point. The principle itself was invoked by the defendant in error and by the judge below, when, at the request of the former, the judge charged the jury that if the actual position upon the ground of one single maple corner could be established, this would fix the southern line of the whole block of eleven surveys and of every member of the block. If, therefore, any original marks could be found called for and established on the northern line of any tract of the Le Fevre block, that would fix the northern line of the whole block of six surveys. It was conceded by the plaintiff and defendant below, and stated by the learned judge in his charge to the jury, that the William Elliott was a member of the Le Fevre block, of which the Ebenezer Branham was the leading warrant and controlling survey. A. B. Cochran, a surveyor produced by the plaintiff below as a witness in his own behalf, testified that the "post by a pine," called for by the Ebenezer Branham as a monument on its northern line, was a well recognized mark on that line; and that he found three other trees on that line west of the "post |