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PATTERSON v. M'CAUSLAND. 69
Whereupon it is Ordered, that the said defendants, The Proprie-
tors of the Susquehanna Canal, and their agents, the said John W.
Thomas and James Galloway, be, and they are hereby discharged
from the said attachments with their costs to be taxed by the
register.
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PATTERSON v. M'CAUSLAND.
The law respects the regular course of nature as well in regard to the revolutions
of the seasons, as in relation to animals and vegetables. A man may have an
estate of inheritance in land so long as such a tree shall grow. The oak is said
to live more than a thousand years; but the average term of the life of most
forest trees seems to be indefinite; although it is evident, that all of them are sub-
ject to the law of mortality. The difference between exogenous and endogenous
plants. The concentric layers of wood in the trunk of an exogenous tree, being,
as it has been said, an annual production, shews its age, and the progress of its
growth. Assuming that the concentric layers in the trunk of a tree do thus indi-
cate its age; and then assuming, that trees, in general, do enlarge by a succession
of annual concentric layers of a certain thickness, the ages of other trees simi-
larly situated may be thus ascertained. But there being no proof, that the num-
ber of concentric layers in the trunk of a tree do correspond with the years of its
age, as otherwise authenticated, the hypothesis, that the formation of each one of
such concentric layers is evidence of the lapse of a year, cannot be judicially
received as evidence for any purpose.
THIS case arose on cross caveats in the Land Office. Joseph W.
Patterson and Evan T. Ellicott, who are admitted to have been
the legal holders of the tract of land called Litten's Fancy, by vir-
tue of a warrant of resurvey of that tract, claim the land in ques-
tion under a certificate of resurvey, bearing date on the 6th of
November, 1829, as a part of the tract called Litten's Fancy En-
larged. And they allege, that all the land taken in by their resur-
vey was, in truth, contiguous vacancy. Robert M'Causland claims
the tract of land called M'Causland's First Attempt, under a certifi-
cate of survey, dated on the 12th of November, 1829, made by
virtue of a common warrant; which land is altogether included
within the survey called Litten's Fancy Enlarged.
Each of these parties caveated the certificate of the other; and
under an order, obtained for that purpose, plots of the resurvey of
those tracts of land, with others for illustration, were made; and
the depositions of witnesses were taken, and the whole returned
and filed. From which it appeared, that there was a considerable
space between the original tract, called Litten's Fancy, and that
called M'Causland's First Attempt; that the tract called Long
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