I.-Estimate of the appropriation required for the extension of the public surveys in Wyoming Territory during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879. For extending surveys of standard lines, 288 miles, at $10 per mile.. $2,880 8,736 46,080 For salary of surveyor general.. $57,696 For salary of chief clerk 3,000 For salary of principal draughtsman. 1,800 For salary of assistant draughtsman 1,500 For salaries of two transcribing clerks 1,400 For rent, fuel, stationery, messenger, and incidental expenses. 2,800 2,500 13,000 Total for field and office work.... 70, 696 SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, EDW. C. DAVID, Cheyenne, Wyo.. August 10, 1877. K.-Statement showing the names, duties, nativity, whence appointed, residence, date of appointment, and rate of compensation per annum of persons employed in the surveyor general's office of Wyoming Territory at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877. The principal and assistant draughtsman and one transcribing clerk have been discontinued on account of deficiency in the appropriation. SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Cheyenne, Wyo., August 10, 1877. EDW. C. DAVID, L.-Table prepared by Asa C. Dobbins, esq., observer in charge of the United States signal service office at Cheyenne, Wyo., showing the monthly mean temperature from June 30, 1876, to June 30, 1877. M.-Table prepared by Asa C. Dobbins, esq., observer in charge of the United States signal service office at Cheyenne, Wyo., showing the daily temperature of the months of January and February, 1877, from observations at 5 a. m., 2 p. m., and 9 p. m. N.-Statement of the number of cars of live stock shipped on the Union Pacific Railroad, in Wyoming Territory, from June 30, 1876, to June 30, 1877 as reported by W. P. Davis, esq., division superintendent. G.-Report of the surveyor general of New Mexico. UNITED STATES SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: In compliance with the instructions contained in your letter of the 3d of April last, I have the honor to submit, in duplicate, the annual report of the operations of this office for the year ending June 30, 1877. This report would have been submitted at an earlier day, but press of business has necessarily delayed it beyond the desired time. FIELD WORK. There have been surveyed during the year 90 miles of standard parallel, and 30 miles, 34 chains, 19 links of guide meridian, which have been returned and paid for, and 14 miles of the fourth correction line south re-established by Deputy R. J. Reeves, the notes of which have been returned, but not being authenticated, have not been approved; also, 325 miles, 90 chains, 57 links of township exteriors; 1,659 miles, 16 chains, 20 links of subdivisional lines, and 6 miles, 26 chains, 27 links of closings on parallels in the prosecution of the public work, costing, in the aggregate, $13,504.45, or an excess of $4.45 over the Congressional appropriation of $13,500 for public surveys, (see Exhibit A ;) the subdivisional lines of which embrace 653,722.87 acres; which, added to the amount previously surveyed, gives a total of 7,307, 157.22 acres surveyed in this district. (See Exhibit B.) In addition to the public surveys, there have been surveyed and returned since my last report 11 private land claims from the appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, which at date of my last report had not been returned, and 16 surveyed from the appropriation for the past fiscal year, the former aggregating 708 miles, 1 chain and 77 links of line, including connections, costing $10,372.83, an excess of $472.83 over contracts, and $372.83 over the appropriation for survey of private land claims for that year, less $18 paid out of said appropriation for expense incurred in the investigation of the survey of the town of Tecolote, grant No. 7. as per your letter of instructions of July 21, 1875. The 16 claims surveyed out of the appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30 last, amounted to 425 miles, 60 chains, 32 links of line, including connections, as allowed by you, costing, in the aggregate, $8,332.95 for field work, as allowed, and $684.42 for office work, or a total of $9,017.37. If the cost of the field work alone is chargeable to the appropriation, it would leave unexpended of the $17,000 appropriated to this district for the survey of private land claims, $8,667.05. The aggregate area embraced in the grants surveyed during the year is 2,171,259.30 acres. (See Exhibit C.). Of the grant surveys made out of the appropriation for the past fiscal year, the Pueblo of Acoma grant, letter B; Los Trigos grant, No. 8, and Chilli grant, No. 11, were resurveys, the former surveys of same having been disapproved. The work, with the exception of the 14 miles, 40 chains of standard line, referred to as unapproved, has all been executed in the field, returned to, examined, and completed in the office, and forwarded. The public surveys were confined to lands embraced in the classifications made by Congress, as nearly as practicable, and in such localities as were deemed most urgent, and where the settlers had petitioned to have surveys made, yet there are numerous localities from which I have received petitions for surveys, but owing to the small appropriation it was impossible to comply with but a few of them, and I selected those which I thought would benefit the most settlers. As predicted in my last annual report, there has been a considerable immigration to the Territory the past year, and as its advantages in climate, mineral wealth, and general resources become better known, the more rapid will be the influx of population. I have now on file numerous petitions for surveys in various sections, and there are other localities known to me by reputation, to be settled, that should be surveyed. In some sections there will be one or two townships only which could be surveye i under the classifications made by Congress, and as the settlements are in many instances isolated and remote from each other, with the reduced price per mile allowed for surveys it is difficult to induce deputies to undertake the survey of such tracts. The act of Congress making the appropriation prescribes the classes of lands which shall be surveyable; they are first, those adapted to agriculture without artificial irrigation; second, irrigable lands, or which can be redeemed, and for which there is sufficient accessible water for the reclamation and cultivation of the same, not otherwise utilized or claimed; third, timber lands, bearing timber of commercial value; fourth, coal lands containing coal of commercial value; fifth, exterior boundaries of townsites. It is utterly impossible for this office or any other to designate townships for subdivision which would be known to fall within any one of these classifications, and the character of the lands can only be determined by previous inspection, and in most instances after the exterior township lines have been run by the deputy, and then he may discover that it would not be lawful to subdivide the township. The settlements in this Territory are generally in the valleys on streams, and these valleys vary in width from a half mile to five and ten miles, but with few exceptions they are from one-fourth to one and two miles in width, and the country on each side hilly or mountainous, or, as is the case in many instances, there are table (or mesa) lands on either side, affording fine grasses, and which would be purchased for grazing purposes at private entry, but as it is unfit for agriculture on account of there being no means of irrigation, it cannot be surveyed under the law as it now stands. One-fourth to one-half the lands of a township may fall within the classifications made by law, while the remainder will be unsurveyable thereunder, but if surveyed and subject to entry would be readily purchased as stock range for the contiguous homesteader or pre-emptor living upon arable land. The extension of standard lines may be for some distance through arable lands, and then there will be intervening distances where the character of the lands is such that they would not be surveyable. No allowance is made for obtaining starting points by triangulation for surveys in settlements remote from the regular lines of public surveys, and, with the large reduction in the price allowed for the same, it is impossible to get competent deputies to undertake work remote from present surveyed standard lines, unless they are allowed to extend such lines under compensation. If the law required the surveyors general to give precedence to the survey of the settled portions of the public lands, it would, in my judgment, be a sufficient restriction, without stipulating the classes to be surveyed, as such conditions operate to embarrass the deputies in the field, and in this Territory it is almost impossible to comply strictly therewith. Of the 121,201 square miles, or 77,568,640 acres, embraced within the boundaries of the Territory, but 11,417 square miles, or 7,307,157.22 acres, including reservations, have been surveyed. I herewith transmit a map of the Territory, marked " D," upon which are noted all public surveys, grants, Indian and military reservations, and changes of county boundaries in this district, up to the close of the fiscal year. The map shows in blue ink the survey of grants executed during the year. It also shows one additional Indian reservation, that of the Zuñi Pueblo Indians, upon the New Mexico-Arizona boundary. This reserve embraces the grant made to that Pueblo by the Spanish Government in 1689, the original grant having been filed in this office by the United States agent for the Pueblos, July 3, 1875, but not having been yet acted upon and reported by the surveyor general its existence is unknown to the department. I believe it would be to the interest of the government if an inspection were made of all surveys by persons designated by the department, independent of the surveyors general, as it would impress the deputies with the necessity of doing thorough and complete work from fear of the possibility of losing the fruit of their labor, should their work not be perfect in all respects. If the inspectors are appointed by the surveyor general they would be most apt to designate local surveyors who, through prejudice, might make captious objections, or from friendship might favor the deputies in their reports. Hence, in my opinion, the selection by you of disinterested persons to make the inspections would be preferable OFFICE WORK. The field notes of all surveys made under contracts entered into previous to the close of the past fiscal year have been examined and approved by this office, and transcripts of same have in every case been forwarded to the General Land Office, and the plats thereof have been prepared and disposed of as the law and regulations require. The current work of the office has been kept up as nearly as possible with the small clerical force employed, which is entirely inadequate, and the business is necessarily considerably in arrears, occasioned by a lack of means to employ sufficient force to dispose of same, and keep the records in proper condition. In addition to the usual work of offices of this character, Congress has imposed the investigation of private land claims originating under the Spanish and Mexican Governments prior to the acquisition of the Territory by the United States. The original title papers and documents in connection with these claims being in Spanish, their translation is imperatively necessary, and a proper record of the original and of the official translation is also essential. The witnesses examined in the course of the investigation of these cases are almost invariably Mexicans, and their evidence must be interpreted and reduced to writing in English, and after all the testimony has been submitted the surveyor general is required to transmit three copies of all the documents in Spanish, and the same number of copies of the translation thereof, together with the evidence and all proceedings had in the case, are copied in triplicate, the whole usually making a voluminous trans cript. This involves a large amount of labor not known to other offices of a similar character, in the adjudication, decision, and preparation of these private land claims for the action of Congress. Upon taking charge of this office, something over a year since, I found a portion of the work several years in arrears. The record of the private land claims acted upon is several years behind, and no descriptive lists of public surveys have been furnished to the various local land offices since 1868. The work of the office should be brought up and kept so, and while a portion of the work in arrears has been advanced, and the current work kept up during the past year, and that with a reduced force over previous years, yet it is impossible to make much headway in getting up the old records with the limited clerical force at my disposal, and I respectfully urge the necessity for the full allowance of clerk hire asked for in my estimates for the ensuing fiscal year, believing that it is imperatively necessary for the good of the public service. After these records are once brought up, a considerable reduction in the force of the office can thereafter be made. The return of survey of the grants now under contract to be surveyed will doubtless, as has been the case heretofore, be followed by complaints that the proper location of the natural objects forming the boundary calls were not correctly discovered, i. e., the survey does not correspond to the ideas of claimants, and an investigation into the facts must follow ere the survey is approved by me. A copy of the plat in each case of a grant survey should be furnished to the local land offices, (which has not heretofore been done,) all of which will largely increase the work of this office. A good business man will not permit his work to get in arrears, and the same rule should apply to the public business, yet no matter how much a public officer may desire to keep his work up, it not unfrequently (as is the case here) becomes a matter of impossibility unless sufficient force is allowed for that purpose. My estimates, particularly in regard to clerk hire, are based upon what I know to be the actual requirements of the public service, and I trust that Congress will realize the necessity therefor. I respectfully call attention to my remarks upon this subject in my letter of July 18 last, in connection with the estimates of this office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, and also to the estimates marked Exhibit "E," herewith submitted, together with my letters of the 3d instant, asking for a deficiency appropriation. for this year. INCIDENTAL EXPENDITURES. Exhibit "H" shows the condition of the appropriation for incidental expenses, which was so small that it was impossible to obtain some necessary articles for the office without exceeding the appropriation, although I exercised the utmost economy in the premises. When I took charge of the office the government paid $600 per annum office rent. Since October last I have reduced the rent to $480, and re-reut a portion of the building to private parties for $240 per annum, thereby reducing the rent paid by government to $240 per annum, as the amount received from private parties is deposited to the credit of the appropriation for office rent, &c. Several articles of furniture are required for the office, particularly cases for the record books and accumulating files, but the appropriation is too small to admit of their purchase. PUBLIC LANDS. As will be seen from Exhibit "B," but a small proportion of the public lands has been surveyed in this district, and while the necessity exists for the immediate survey of a large portion of what is now unsurveyed public domain, Congress does not appear to realize that fact or to appreciate the requirements of the settlers and stock-raisers. The question of securing a permanent stock range is becoming an important one to the settlers engaged in stock raising, and if that portion of the public lands which are suitable only for grazing purposes were surveyed, and could be purchased at $1.25 per acre at private entry, the government would receive an income from their disposition, and as they are unfit for agricultural purposes they remain unproductive property to the government. Upon the table lands and plains of New Mexico there is not water sufficient for irrigation, except in isolated places and adjacent to some of the numerous springs, but all of these lands afford fine grazing for cattle and sheep, as the grasses are nutritious during the entire year, and there is no necessity for winter feeding, while there is a sufficiency of water for stock even in the driest season. The cost of surveying these lauds is less than two and one-half cents per acre, and by their survey and exposition to sale at private entry at a graduated price, or even at the minimum government price, per acre, a considerable portion of them would find ready sale. Stock raisers, looking ahead to the speedy occupation of all the agricultural lands, would avail themselves of the opportunity to purchase tracts for permanent grazing ranges. And it appears to me to be sound policy to expose all of this class of lands for sale. They must all be surveyed at some time, and as they can only be |