Statement of the case.

broken, and irregular depression, gorge, or valley, rises a ridge, range, or Sierra, different, as it was generally regarded,

from the other, though by some persons regarded as the main part of the same range. This elevation we designate as the Azul Range, or Azul Ridge.*

*The portion between these two ranges, marked on the map "Ridge," must be distinguished both from the Azul and the Mining Ridge or Range. It, as stated directly, is a low, connecting ridge.

Statement of the case.

The northern limit of the valley we have said is the Pueblo Hills. The top of these is about 1000 feet above the level of San Francisco Bay, and 400 above the lowest part of the valley immediately south of them.

The Mining Ridge at its greatest elevation rises several hundred feet higher than the Pueblo Hills in front of it, across the valley. The Almaden Peak, one peak of this ridge, at its eastern extremity, is 1500 feet above this level; but the elevations of the ridge generally, as they extend towards the west, diminish in height, and are broken by various depressions, which permit easy access from the valley on the north to the foot of the depression or valley at the base of the Azul Range. The Azul Range, behind, rears its head suddenly up, far above the Mining Range before it, to the height of 4000 feet above the level of the

sea.

The Mining Range extends from east to west, and parallel with the Azul Range. It runs about five miles. On its slopes, as well on that towards the valley on the north, as on that which makes one side of the ravine upon the south, the best and most permanent grazing of the region is to be found. At its widest place it is more than a mile and a half from base to base, measuring directly through; and it slopes off gradually at both ends. It is connected with the Azul Range by a ridge four hundred feet lower than itself, and twenty-four hundred lower than the Azul Range. This is a water-shed, on one side of which are the sources of the Capitancillos and on the other those of the Alamitos. The one stream runs between the two ranges, and turns to the north at the western end of the Mining Range. The other flows eastward, and turning the eastern end of the range as the other had done the western, crosses the valley till its course is arrested by the Pueblo Hills. Here, turning its course to run along their base, it runs westward till it meets the other stream, and forming with it the Guadalupe River, the two discharge their waters through its channel into San Francisco Bay.

At the place where the Alamitos strikes the Pueblo Hills,

Statement of the case.

it is joined by a mountain stream called the Arroyo Seco,* a point which the reader must observe.

Nearly in the centre of this valley stands a little hill,— Loma, as it is called in Spanish,—its side or skirt sloping irregularly by a series of graceful undulations towards the plain; its descending curve thus forming that which it required no great imagination to call a "lap.”

Such is the valley, its boundaries and its features, as they strike the eye.

In the eastern part of it, an old Mexican, Sergeant Don José Reyes Berreyesa, fixed himself, about 1834, by leave of Governor Figueroa. Adjoining him on the west, and holding the western part, was another Mexican, Leandro Galindo. They both built their houses and made their chief improvements at the base of the Pueblo Hills; that is to say, opposite and away from the Mining and the Azul Ranges, their exposures to the south. Neither of them had any title but such provisional ones as were usual in California while it yet belonged to Mexico, in anticipation of a final grant. In time Galindo went away, and was succeeded by Justo Larios, who continued his improvements at the foot of the Pueblo Hills, and granted a small piece of land, at the western extremity of the hills and near the junction of the Capitancillos and Alamitos, far off from the southern ridges, to a certain Foster.† Larios and Berreyesa, however, got along less amicably than had done Galindo and his military neighbor. Berreyesa complained to the Governor that Larios claimed land that was his, and had actually removed his house and set it on the dividing line. Larios, he said, had "room to extend himself outside of the Cañada," while he, Berreyesa, "had absolutely nowhere to enlarge." Larios, about the same time presented his petition,

* The meaning is a dry creek; this sort of arroyo being common in a country of hills and plains; sometimes filled with water from the mountains, and sometimes a mere stony bed or "gulch." In this case we have two arroyo secos; one of them, however, always designated as the " arroyo seco on the side of Santa Clara."

Marked F. on the map at p. 651.

Statement of the case.-Diseño of Berreyesa.

complaining of Berreyesa as overbearing, and disposed to be rapacious. The matter disturbed the happy valley, and threatened to become a feud. Governor Alvarado referred

Statement of the case.

both petitions to the Prefect, the highest judicial officer in his department, and directed him to call the parties before him, to confront them with one another, hear their proofs, and to report the result of his investigation. The Prefect did this. The parties came before him, and he succeeded in conciliating them. Berreyesa produced a diseño, and with that before them they agreed upon a division-line as follows:

"A straight line (una recta, &c.), from the angle which the Alamitos forms with the Arroyo Seco, direction southward, passing by the eastern base or over the castern skirt, or lap (the meaning was not clear), of the loma* (rumbo al Sul LA FALDA de la loma), in the centre of the valley TO THE Sierra.'

Upon this diseño the Prefect traced a dotted line, which showed what had been agreed upon. He then reported the whole matter to the Governor; and the map, with the dotted line or "L-i-n-d-e-r-o" upon it, went to the archives. A copy is opposite.

The controversy being settled, Larios petitioned the Governor for a grant. Alvarado made it. Thus it ran:

"I declare Justo Larios owner of the tract called 'Los Capitancillos,' bounded by THE Sierra, by the Arroyo Seco on the side of Santa Clara, and by the tract of Berreyesa, which has for boundary a line running from the junction of the Arroyo Seco and the Alamitos, southward to THE Sierra, passing by the eastern base, OR over the eastern skirt or lap (rumbo al Sul LA FALDA) of the loma, in the centre of the valley."

The grant was subject to these ordinary conditions:

"2d. He shall solicit the proper judge to give him juridical possession in virtue of this decree, by whom the boundary shall be marked out, &c.

"3d. The land herein referred to is one league of the larger size, a little more or less. The judge who shall give the possession shall have it measured in conformity to law, leaving the

* Called indifferently "loma" and "lomita."