1. This is a plaintiff's appeal against the dismissal of his suit by Mr. Justice Govinda Pillai on 26.7.1948 in the erstwhile Travancore High Court wherein it was numbered as O.S. 3 of 1122 having been withdrawn from the District Court of Quilon where it was filed and numbered as O.S. No. 71 of 1121.

2. The suit relates to properties of a very large extent of about 2500 acres, roughly four square miles and of considerable value estimated at seven lakhs of rupees by the appellant and over five lakhs by the respondent State. The suit was for declaration of the plaintiff's title to the aforesaid property which is in Achankovil Pakuthy, Shenkotta Taluk, Quilon District. His case was that the property was registered in the name of his predecessor-in-title even in the ayacut before the year 1000 and that from those very early times possession was continuously with the first owners and their successors. There were proceedings taken under the Travancore Forest Act, II of 1068, and the property is now part of the Achankovil Reserve as is shown by Ext. AH, the sketch. A volume of documentary evidence was adduced before the learned judge but there was nothing to prove that the plai