with authority for the purpose, no delivery of the grant was necessary, and that none was possible, as the entry on the record book of the Alcalde was the original, it bearing his official signature and being a public record of his official act. This was a bold attack upon the rule which the courts had long established to the contrary. After a full argument of the question at the second trial, the court sustained the view of the law taken by Mr. Houghton and his associates, and, on appeal, the decision was sustained by the Supreme Court of the State, and subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, before which the question was carried by writ of error. Donner's attorneys adopted this course because, at the first trial, the squatters had produced the copy of the grant which had actually been issued and delivered. This they had obtained possession of and mutilated, and then had surreptitiously placed it in the office of the County Clerk of San Francisco, who was the custodian of the records of the office of the Alcaldes of San Francisco. Their purpose was to make it appear that it had never been signed or issued by the Alcalde, but had been transferred with the other papers and records of that office to the office of the County Clerk. This document was written on paper having the same watermarks as numerous other grants to other persons, admitted to be genuine, made about the same time as the grant to Donner. The body of this instrument was in the handwriting of the then clerk of the Alcalde, and the certificate that the Alcalde's fees had been paid bore the genuine signature of the clerk. There was, however, no signature or name where the signature of the Alcalde should have been; but there was, instead, a plain, palpable erasure, easily seen by holding the paper to the light. George Donner lived to see his property become very valuable, but the vexatious litigation above described was not terminated until after his death. Meantime, however, he sold his interest, receiving therefor a considerable sum of money.