shores; second, from the calls and plots of Tennessee surveys and grants of land on the Tennessee side of the then channel of the river. The map, in reduced form, is set out herewith (see Humphrey's map, below). Humphrey's Map. On this map the old banks of the river are represented by black shaded lines, as are also the collateral channels or chutes called "McKenzie's Chute" and "Dean's Chute." The channel now occupied by the river is shown by black lines shaded with blue. The land in dispute is that shown between red lines, though the western lines are not indicated. The Centennial Island tract, of 131 acres, is indicated by the lines marking off a tract of 131 acres on northwest corner of Centennial Island. This is claimed by the plaintiff to have been upland included within the lines of deeds under which he holds his Centennial Island lands, and that it was washed away by the river when its new channel was formed, and has been since restored by accretion. This Centennial Island tract is by the evidence indisputably shown to be included within the boundaries of a 2,000-acre grant to Simon Huddleston. As we shall have occasion to refer to the lines of that grant more than once, we here set them out: "Beginning at a willow marked S. S. Stephen Slade's northeast corner, on the bank of the Mississippi river; thence south with his line one hundred and fourteen chains to a mulberry marked S. H.; thence east two hundred chains to a mulberry marked S. H.; thence north seventyeight chains to a white oak marked S. H., on the bank of the Mississippi river; thence down said river with its meanders north, 41 degrees west, thirty-five chains, south, 82 degrees west, thirty chains, north, seventy-one west, thirty-two chains, south, 70 degrees west, sixty-two chains; thence north, 72 degrees west, fifty-two chains, to the beginning." This grant bears date January 22, 1824. The eastern 1,500 acres of this tract were conveyed to John Trigg in 1837 by deed duly recorded, and this deed plainly includes the 131-acre tract now in dispute. The plaintiff claims to deraign title from this John Trigg, and for this purpose introduced the following conveyances: (1) Will of John Trigg, 1865, giving the east 1,500 acres of Huddleston grant to his son W. W. Trigg. (2) Quitclaim deed of certain persons claiming to be the widow and only surviving children and heirs of W. W. Trigg to plaintiff, Stockley. This deed is dated March, 1897. (3) A decree of December 4, 1879, of the Shelby county, Tenn., chancery court, entitled as follows, "T. A. Nelson, Ex., v. M. L. Trigg, et al.," and reciting that "Sledge, McKay & Co., a mercantile partnership," had purchased two certain tracts of land in Tipton county, Tenn., one containing 33.75 acres and the other 305.75 acres, belonging to the estate of John Trigg, deceased, sold under the former decrees of this court, herein described as follows: "Portions of a certain tract of about 1,300 acres of land, situated in Tipton county, Tennessee, which has been surveyed by C. C. Burke, who reports that the Centennial Cut-Off has placed nearly 1,000 acres under the X of the Mississippi river, and which is in range 9, section 5, on said river; the said cut-off leaving 33.75 acres on the main land and 305.75 acres on the island: (a) The tract containing 33.75 acres begins at a stake on the bank of the Mississippi river, thence down said river with its meanders north, 75 degrees west, 16 chains, north, 761⁄2 degrees west, 32 chains, south, 50% degrees west, 3 chains and 8 links, south, 43 degrees west, 11 chains and 50 links; thence east 56 chains and 80 links to the point of beginning,-all open land," etc. "(b) The tract containing 305.75 acres begins at a stake on the bank of the Mississippi river, on Centennial Cut-Off, at the dividing line between C. A. Stockley's and John Trigg's land; thence north 97 chains and 14 links to a small cottonwood, marked T, on the bank of old river; thence up old river south, 71 degrees east, 11 chains, south, 50 degrees east, 13 chains, south, 40% degrees east, 12 chains, south, 22 degrees east, 17 chains, south, 10 degrees east, 7 chains and 60 links, south, 9 degrees east, 9 chains, south, 181⁄2 degrees east, 9 chains, south, 7 degrees east, 2 chains, south, 12 degrees east, 6 chains and 44 links, south, 30 degrees east, 6 chains, south, 71⁄2 degrees west, 6 chains, and south, 281⁄2 degrees east, 5 chains and 29 links, south, 3 degrees east, 5 chains and 30 links, to a point of entrance of Centennial Cut-Off; thence down said cut-off north, 864 degrees west, 8 chains, south, 83 degrees west, 8 chains, north, 85 degrees west, 9 chains, south, 844 degrees west, 11 chains and 60 links, south, 69 degrees west, 5 chains and 13 links, south, 691⁄2 degrees west, 9 chains and 30 links, to the point of begin ning, of which there is 175 acres open land and in cultivation, with eight tenant houses, fencing moderately good," etc. The decree then proceeds to devest out of "the parties to this suit" all their right, title, claim, and interest, and vests the same "in the said partnership of Sledge, McKay & Co." No other part of this record is introduced, and there was no evidence as to who were parties to the suit, nor as to who constituted the partnership of Sledge, McKay & Co. These deeds were made in 1883. (4) Deeds of persons describing themselves as the heirs and executors of Norfleet R. Sledge, Sr., and heirs of Wm. M. Sledge, conveying their interest in settlement of partnership affairs to A. N. McKay, described as surviving partner of the late firm of Sledge, McKay & Co. (5) Deeds from persons describing themselves as executors and devisees under the will of A. N. McKay, and also as his heirs at law, to Thos. H. Allen, Jr. This is dated January 2, 1888. (6) Thos. H. Allen, Jr., to plaintiff, W. H. Stockley, January 2, 1888. The land claimed on Island 37 by the plaintiff is embraced in a single deed from one W. J. Cæsar to him, under date of April 18, 1898. The description is as follows: "A certain tract, piece, or parcel of land lying, being, and situate on Island No. 37 in the Mississippi river, in said Tipton county, Tennessee, and more particularly described as follows, to wit: Beginning at the northeast corner of a 2042 acre tract in the name of R. H. Byrne, the same being also a corner of a 1,010-acre tract sold by R. I. Chester to L. Speck and John V. Wise; thence north with the line of the same to the northeast corner of same, a stake in the north boundary line of N. Potter's 640 acres, and in the south boundary line of 610 acres in the name of T. P. Hall; thence east in said line 350 poles, more or less, to the northwest corner of entry No. 8, for 152 acres in the name of John Trigg; thence south along west boundary line of said John Trigg's 152 acres to the bank of the Mississippi river; thence down said river as it meanders to the east or upper boundary line of said 204-acre tract in the name of R. H. Byrne; thence north on said line to the place of beginning. "It is hereby understood and agreed that at the present time the Mississippi river has changed its course, and does not now touch any of the above described lands, and that where said river is named as a boundary line it is understood to mean where said river once ran, which course of bed is now dry, and known as 'McKenzie's Chute'; and it is further understood and agreed that this conveyance carries with it all accretions now formed or added to said above-described lands. This deed is made and delivered in lieu of the deed heretofore executed by W. J. Cæsar to the grantee herein, covering the same premises, and which was lost or destroyed before its delivery." The plaintiff's title is connected by several conveyances back to Robt. I. Chester, who in February, 1869, conveyed same to Mrs. Martha P. Smith, who was the owner and occupant at date of the origin of the Centennial CutOff, in 1876. The intermediate conveyances between Chester and the plaintiff all contain certain recitals and boundaries identical with those set out above. The deed from Chester omits the paragraph set out above, beginning, “It is hereby understood, etc.," and contains no reference whatever to the fact that the Mississippi river had gone dry, or to any accretions. There was evidence tending to show considerable encroachment of the river upon lands bounded on McKenzie's Chute and lying on Island 37. Just when this washing away occurred, and its extent, was not very clearly shown, though there were some evidences that considerable parts of the small grants shown by the Humphrey plat to lie south of the southern boundary of the 640-acre grant to Potter had been lost by erosion. The evidence also showed very conclusively that the two small grants to J. Trigg, one for 152 acres and one for 37 acres, and shown on the Humphrey plat, had been washed away prior to the cut-off of 1876, except a narrow strip of the 152-acre tract, along which a public county road ran. This remaining strip of the 152-acre tract is shown on the Humphrey map. The evidence shows that at that point the bank was high and firm, and that the high bank bent westward and passed the western line of the 152-acre tract, and is found then on the eastern end of the plaintiff's land, a corner of which, shown fairly on the Humphrey map, had likewise been washed away prior to the cut-off of 1876. In this manner a part of the eastern boundary was on the river as it existed at time of the cut-off, although the eastern boundary called for the western line of the Trigg 152-acre tract, and not the river. Accretions. There was evidence tending to show that immediately after, and as a direct consequence of, the Centennial Cut-Off, land began to form all along the eastern border of Island 37, and along the northern and eastern corner of Centennial Island, and that within a few years the entire bed of the river was dry, except during very high water or because of the presence of ponds or sloughs in the deeper holes of the old bed. There was evidence, also, tending to show that, prior to the cut-off, land was forming rapidly on the western shore of Dean's Island, an island on the Arkansas side of the middle thread of the river, and that, as a result of the change in the course of the river at the cut-off of 1876, this formation went on with accelerated rapidity until the land resulting from such accretion united Dean's Island to the southern and northeastern shores of Island 37. There was also evidence tending to show that after the cut-off the river ceased entirely to flow either around Island 37 or through McKenzie's Chute, save in very high water, and that the water at once shallowed, and that shoals and islands appeared in the body of the stream, as well as along both shores, and that the bed of the river became rapidly dry, because the water had ceased to flow between the old banks. Certain it is that the whole bed of the river was substantially dry land within from three to ten years after the cut-off. G. J. McSpadden, for plaintiff in error. Before LURTON, DAY, and SEVERENS, Circuit Judges. LURTON, Circuit Judge, having made the foregoing statement of the case, delivered the opinion of the court. 1. Jurisdiction of the court below: There was the requisite diversity of citizenship, and the jurisdiction of the circuit court was obvious, provided the locus in quo was within the boundaries of the state of Tennessee. When the territory now constituting the state of Tennessee was ceded by the state of North Carolina to the United States, the center of the main channel of the Mississippi river was the boundary separating North Carolina from the Spanish territory west of that river. Moss v. Gibbs, 10 Heisk. 283; treaty of Paris, Sept. 3, 1782; 8 Stat. 81; act admitting Arkansas, June 15, 1836 (5 Sat. 50); Missouri v. Kentucky, 11 Wall. 395, 401, 20 L. Ed. 116. The sudden change in the channel made in 1876, by which the river abandoned its long course around the bend known as the "Devil's Elbow," and cut a new, straight, and short channel across the neck of that bend, did not operate to change the boundary between Tennessee and Arkansas. The new channel was the result of a sudden and uncontrollable change in the direction of the main current of the stream. In cutting the new channel, some 2,000 acres of cultivated river bottom land was washed away in the course of about 60 hours. Within that time a new channel, some 20 to 40 feet deep, in ordinary water, was permanently established; being the channel now know as "Centennial Cut-Off." This channel shortened the distance around the bend some 15 miles. As another direct result, the old channel of the river, so long the boundary between the two states of Tennessee and Arkansas, was completely deserted by the river, and in a short |