310 CUNNINGHAM v. BROWNING.—1 BLAND.

down, that if a * special warrant, "accurately describes

331 the vacancy, it effectually binds it against all subsequent
warrants or locations," and further, that "whatever may be done
by a common warrant, may be affected by a special warrant of
vacant cultivation. It makes no difference whether or not the
survey under a special warrant includes part of the land desig-
nated by the special warrant. In fact, the important difference
between the two warrants, is, that the special warrant, before
survey, affects the land accurately described in it. The common
warrant affects no land until it is surveyed, or located with the
surveyor." Hopper v. Coleston, ante, 322.

In short, the designation of the land given in the special warrant,
or the eutry upon the surveyor's book, must be such a description
of a space, an area, or a tract, as may be understood and ascer-
tained by proof of the existence of the localities referred to; it
must be such an one as will suit no other land, and be sufficient in
itself without having any substantial matter supplied by parol
proof. Beatty v. Orendorf, Land Ho. Ass. 402. This may seem to
be requiring too great a degree of stiictness; but it has long been
the established law, and is not more rigid than a due regard to the
public good requires. Certainty is the mother of quiet; and in
nothing more so than in the titles to lands. The vacancy aimed
at by a special warrant, is often embraced by two or more other
tracts. A reported example of which may be found expressed thus:
"about one hundred acres vacant lying in A. A. County, and
adjoining or between a tract of land in possession of J. Brown, a
tract of land belonging to J. Hall, and a tract of land in the posses-
sion of J. McDonald." Garretsonjs Lessee v. Cole, 2 H. & McH. 459.
So in another instance where a particular neck of land was de-
scribed. Land Ho. Ass. 87. Other examples may be imagined.
Suppose the tract of land called Bellevoir to lay along, and parallel
for some distance, within half a mile of the River Severn, and the
special warrant, were expressed in these words: "about two thou-
sand acres vacant, lying in A. A. County, between the tract called
Bellevoir and the River Severn. Or, suppose Browning's Spring
to be situated a short distance west from the mouth of the stream
called the Little Crossings, the general course of which was north
and south, and the Panther Pen was a short distance west of the
same stream higher up; and the description in the special warrant
was thus: " about 200 acres vacant lying in Allegany County, west
of and bounding on the Little Crossings, and between Browning's
* Spring and the Panther Pen." In no one of these deserip-

332 tions is any course, distance, or line distinctly named; yet
it is perfectly manifest, that each one specifies a space, or area of
land, so very accurately, that it cannot be mistaken, and in a
manner that cannot be made to suit any other land.