Note and Comment

Adverse Possession in the Case of the Rights of Way of the Pacific Railroad Companies - While the weight of authority is probably to the effect that railroad rights of way may be lost by adverse possession, the authorities are by no means agreed. The rights of way of certain of the Pacific Railroad Companies have been declared not to be subject to the ordinary rules as to adverse possession, on the ground that by the Congressional grants the four-hundred-foot-strips -were conveyed only for railroad purposes with the ultimate possibility of reverter in the United States, which had the effect of making such lands inalienable by the railroad companies whether by voluntary deed or by lapse of time under the general statutes of limitation. Before the decision in the last mentioned case an act of Congress (April 28, 1904) was approved whereby it was declared "That all conveyances heretofore made by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company or by the Northern Pacific Railway Company,