Opinion ID: 1495644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Reserve of islands in lake in the lake bottom lands of each patentee.

Text: With regard to the so-called islands above the bed of the lake, it is a question of fact with reference to the lake land conveyed to each of the fourteen patentees whether the island land is of substantial quantity and with its surface permanently above the high water mark. In such lakes as Malheur Lake it is obvious there may be several thousand permanent small projections of land, not surveyed because considered impracticable of reservation. Cf. Moss v. Ramey, 239 U.S. 538, 546, 36 S.Ct. 183, 60 L.Ed. 425, and Scott v. Lattig, 227 U.S. 229, 33 S.Ct. 242, 57 L.Ed. 490, 44 L.R.A.,N.S., 107. In this respect the declaratory judgment should be modified to provide for a future determination, with reference to the particular lake lands conveyed by each of the littoral patents, the existence or non-existence of such islands, substantial in quantity and permanent in character at the time of the survey.