upwards to a Million of acres, for if I be not very much misinformed, there is more than one that contain that quantity.

No quantity of Land or number of Acres, for the most part, are mentioned in any of these Grants, nor is it possible to discover the Quantity, by inspection of the Patents, as it may be done in those Grants which are founded on a previous Survey and where any quantity is expressed, it seems to be

colden's report on the lands in the province or new-york.

done more with design to hide the real quantity (if their present claims be truly conformable to their original bounds) than to set forth the truth, lor I have heard of one instance at least, where the patent Grants 300 acres, and the patentee now claims upwards of sixty thousand acres within the bounds of his Grant.

Others suspecting that such disproportion, between the real quantity and the

quantity expressed in the Grant, might invalidate the Grant, got the quantity of Land to be expressed

manner, Containing for example, One thousand acres of profitable Land, besides wood Land, and waste and yet, when these Lands were Granted, perhaps there was not ten acres that was not wood Land, or One Acre that at the time of the Grant yielded any profit or one acre

in the following

by improvement might not be made profitable. Others guard against this exception to their Grant, by adding to the quantity of Land expressed in the Grant these words Be it more or less, or some such words, and by virtue of these they not only claim a small quantity more than is expressed in "the patent, but claim twice as much, and often ten times as much, and sometimes above one that