Opinion of the Court. of the railroad company the title vested absolutely in the company, and the lands were thereby freed from restraints of alienation, from conditions subsequent, or from liability to forfeiture. In support of this contention reference is made to Bybee v. Oregon & California Railroad, 139 U. S. 663, 674, 676-7; Van Wyck v. Knevals, 106 U. S. 360; Wisconsin Central Railroad v. Price County, 133 U. S. 496; Deseret Salt Co. v. Tarpey, 142 U. S. 241; St. Paul & Pacific Railroad v. Northern Pacific Railroad, 139 U. S. 1, 6. But these are cases, as an examination of them will show, in which the grant was directly to the railroad company, or in which the act of Congress required that the patents for lands earned should be issued, not to the State for the benefit of the railroad company, but directly to the company itself. In the case now before us, the statute directed patents to be issued to the State for the benefit of the company. So that, until the State disposed of the lands, the title was in it, as trustee, and not in the railroad company. Schulenberg v. Harriman, 12 Wall. 44, 59; Lake Superior Ship Canal &c. Co. v. Cunningham, 155 U. S. 372. See also McGregor &c. Railroad v. Brown, 39 Iowa, 655; Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad v. Osceola County, 43 Iowa, 318, 321. In the case last named, the Sioux City company was relieved from the payment of taxes upon some of the lands patented to the State for its benefit, upon the ground that the legal title was in the State, and the lands for that reason were not taxable. The question is altogether different from what it would be if patents for these lands had been issued, or if the State had conveyed them directly, to that company. 5. The company, also, contends that any calculation of the quantity of lands that the railroad company was entitled to receive, on account of constructed road, duly certified, must be on the basis, that it was entitled to lands, in lieu of those awarded to the Milwaukee company in the common place limits of the two intersecting roads. In this interpretation of the statute we cannot concur. The rule is well settled that when lands are granted by acts of Congress of the same date, or by the same act, to aid in the Opinion of the Court. -- construction of two railroads that must necessarily intersect, or which are required to intersect, each grantee the map of definite location having been filed and accepted-takes, as of the date of the grant, an equal undivided moiety of the lands within the conflicting place limits, without regard to the time of the location of the respective lines. Sioux City &c. Railroad v. Chicago, Milwaukee &c. Railway, 117 U. S. 406, 408; St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad v. Winona & St. Peter Railroad, 112 U. S. 720, 727; Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway v. Kansas Pacific Railway, 97 U. S. 491, 501; Cedar Rapids &c. Railroad v. Herring, 110 U. S. 27; Grinnell v. Railroad Co., 103 U. S. 739. In Donahue v. Lake Superior Canal &c., 155 U. S. 386, 387, this court said: "The rule is that where two lines of road are aided by land grants made by the same act, and the lines of those roads cross or intersect, the lands within the place' limits of both, at the crossing or intersection, do not pass to either company in preference to the other, no matter which line may be first located or road built, but pass in equal undivided moieties to each." The grants for the Sioux City and Milwaukee roads were by the same act. Of the granted sections in place limits common to both roads, each company, having filed its map of definite location, took, as of the date of the grant, an equal undivided moiety - no more. The equal undivided moiety granted for one road was not granted, nor could it be used, for the other road. Congress knew, when it passed the act of 1864, that there would be an overlapping of place limits at the required point of intersection of the two roads. And the Sioux City company when it accepted the benefit of the grant knew that such must be the case. As the act did not provide for a selection of lands for either road, on account of the undivided moiety of place lands granted for the other, we may not assume that the right to such selection was intended to be reserved. Lands lost to the Sioux City company in one of the modes named in the act of Congress, and for which other lands could be selected, were lands granted for that company, not lands granted to another company for a different road. The lands which the Sioux City company claims to have so lost — Opinion of the Court. namely, the undivided moiety granted, and subsequently awarded, to the Milwaukee company out of the common place limits were never granted for the Sioux City road, but were granted for the McGregor or Milwaukee company. This question was examined in 1887 with great care by Secretary Lamar. The claim was made before him by the Sioux City and the Milwaukee companies that each was entitled to indemnity for the lands which it claimed to have lost by reason of the grant for the other company of an equal undivided moiety within the conflicting place limits. The Secretary said: "I am unable to conclude that such was the intention of Congress in making the grant. To say that it was would be to say in effect that, in so far as the ten-mile limits of the two grants overlap, the purpose of the granting act was to make what would amount to a double grant. Each company got a moiety of the lands in odd-numbered sections within the common granted limits. Now, should there be allowed to cach company indemnity for the moiety lost by grant to the other, a quantity of land equivalent to all the odd and evennumbered sections in said common granted limits would be passed under the granting act. This, I think, could not be justified by any proper construction of the act, nor can I conceive it to have been intended by Congress. The grant was of a moiety for each road within the common granted limits of both roads. This accords with the view expressed by the Supreme Court in the case of St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad v. Winona & St. Peter Railroad, 112 U. S. 720. Either this is true, or Congress by the same act twice granted the same lands. To say that it did, or intended to do, this, would be to say that it acted unreasonably, or without a proper understanding of what it was doing. Now, since indemnity is allowed only for lands granted and lost from the grant, and since in the common ten-mile limits of these two roads only a moiety was granted, it follows that neither company has any legal claim for indemnity on account of the moiety granted to the other." 6 Land Dec. 54, 62. 6. In the light of these principles we come to the practical question presented for determination, namely, whether the Opinion of the Court. Sioux City company, having failed to complete the road for the benefit of which the grant was made, has received as much of the public lands as it was entitled to receive under the act of 1864? This is entirely a matter of figures. As heretofore shown, the State patented or certified to the railroad company 322,412.81 acres out of the 407,870.21 acres patented by the United States. We have seen that of the 322,412.81 acres so transferred to the company, 41,687.52 acres were taken from the Sioux City company and given to the Milwaukee company by the decree of the Circuit Court, pursuant to the mandate of this court in Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 117 U. S. 406. This, as has been stated, left the Sioux City company with title to 280,725.29 acres, which it has disposed of or sold, and about which no question is made in this case by the United States. Was the company entitled to a larger quantity of lands on account of the fifty miles of road certified by the governor of Iowa to have been properly constructed? We have said that the Sioux City company was only entitled to the sections as surveyed and as they appeared on the public records, whether they contained more or less than 640 acres each. Upon examination of the certified list of lands, based on the diagram originally furnished by the railroad company to the Secretary of the Interior and transmitted by the General Land Office to the local land office on the 26th of August, 1867, it is found that the actual area of the odd-numbered sections within the place limits of the Sioux City road, excluding oddnumbered sections within the conflicting place limits of the two roads, contained only 247,476.85 acres; and the actual area within the conflicting place limits of the two roads, according to the same diagram, was 70,705.29 acres. Of the latter quantity one-half, or 35,352.64 acres, belonged to the Milwaukee company as its equal undivided moiety of the lands in the common place limits. Apparently, therefore, if this diagram be taken as a basis of calculation, the railroad company could have earned, on account of the fifty miles of constructed road, only 247,476.85 acres outside of the conflicting Opinion of the Court. place limits and 35,352.64 acres within such limits; in all, 282,829.49 acres, or 2104.21 acres more than the 280,725.29 acres actually received by it, and about which no question is here made by the government. But there are exhibits in the case made part of the agreed statement of facts that lead us to a different result. In 1887 the Commissioner of the Land Office, having before him the question of how much of the public lands the Sioux City company was entitled to receive, caused an accurate measurement to be made of the area of the odd-numbered sections and parts of sections lying within the grant made by the act of May 12, 1864, for the construction of the Sioux City road. The record shows, if that measurement be regarded, that within the common place limits of the two roads there were only 69,825.99 acres, of which the Sioux City company was entitled to onehalf, or 34,912.99 acres, and that outside of the conflicting limits, and within the place limits of the Sioux City road, there were only 243,807.41 acres. So that, on the basis of the measurement of 1887, the company could have earned for the fifty miles of certified road only 278,720.40 acres, that is, less, by 2004.89 acres, than it has actually received and holds or has sold. The result is, that if the diagram furnished by the railroad company in 1867 be followed, the Sioux City company is entitled to 2104.22 acres in addition to what it has received; whereas, if the measurement of 1887, made under the direction of the Land Office, be accepted, that company has received 2004.89 acres more than should in any case have been awarded to it. We are of opinion that the measurement of 1887 should be taken as the basis for determining the area of the odd-numbered sections within place limits. In the agreed statement of facts reference is made to a list, certified from the General Land Office, of the odd-numbered sections and parts of sections lying within the conflicting place limits of the Sioux City and Milwaukee roads, and it is agreed that that list is correct according to the limits laid down on the map of 1887, “and correctly shows the area of each of said tracts." In the agreed |