The commissioner of boundaries, on receipt of the application, shall notify the owner or owners of the land, and also those of the land adjoining, and the attorney general, of the time when the commissioner will be prepared to hear their case. Further, the commissioner shall advertise in such newspaper or newspapers as the commissioner directs, once in each of three successive weeks, a notice sufficient in the commissioner’s judgment to identify the locality to be adjudicated and the date and place of hearing. The commissioner shall receive at the hearing all the testimony offered, shall go on the ground when requested by either party, and shall endeavor otherwise to obtain all information possible to enable the commissioner to arrive at a just decision as to the boundaries of the lands. Upon giving a decision, the commissioner shall therein describe the boundaries decided on by survey by natural topographical features, or by permanent boundary marks, or partly by each; and the commissioner shall have the power to order such surveys and marks to be made or erected as the commissioner may consider necessary, at the expense of the parties in interest, but the commissioner shall in no case alter any boundary described by survey in any patent or deed from the king or government, or in any land commission award.