C.-List of public land surveyed in Montana Territory during the fiscal year ending June 30,

I.-Report of the surveyor general of Montana.

UNITED STATES SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, Helena, Mont., August 8, 1877. SIR: In compliance with instructions contained in your communication "E," of April 3, 1877, I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of this office, with accompanying statements, in duplicate, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, viz:

A.-Showing condition of appropriation for the survey of public land in Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

B.-Showing amount of special deposits made for office work on mineral claims in Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

C.-Showing list of lands surveyed in Montana during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

D.-Showing condition of surveys contracted for by the surveyor general for Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

E.-Showing condition of appointments of United States deputy mineral surveyors. F.-Showing the number of township plats and descriptive lists of land, timber, corners, &c., furnished the Helena and Bozeman land offices during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

G.-Showing condition of appropriation for clerks in office of surveyor general for Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

H.-Showing condition of appropriation for salary of surveyor general for Montana for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

I.-Showing condition of appropriation for incidental expenses for office of surveyor general for Montana for fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

J.-Showing amounts of special deposits made for the survey of public land other than mineral in Montana during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

K.-Showing the number of plats made in the office of surveyor general for Montana during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

L.-Showing the total number of acres surveyed in Montana to June 30, 1877. M.-Showing the number of linear miles surveyed, the rates per mile, and the cost of surveys in Montana during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

N.-Giving names, nativity, &c., of surveyor general and clerks in his office during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877.

O.-Estimate for surveying service and office work and expenses for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879.

SURVEYS.

The entire appropriation of $17,000 apportioned this district, excepting a balance of $173.44, has been exhausted, all of the work under contracts having been performed under instructions based upon Congressional action in relation thereto.

The following meridian and standard lines have been established during the past fiscal year:

The base line through ranges 11 and 12 and portions of 13 and 16 east, to its intersection with the Yellowstone River, the boundary of the Crow Indian reservation. The Big Hole guide meridian, through township 5 south, between ranges 14 and 15

west.

The Red Rock guide meridian, through townships 11, 12, 13, and 14 south, between ranges 6 and 7 west.

The Sweet Grass guide meridian, through townships 1, 2, 3, and 4 north, between ranges 15 and 16 east.

The Judith guide meridian, through township 7 north, between ranges 15 and 16 east.

The first standard parallel south, through range 15 west; the first standard parallel north, through ranges 14 and 15 east; these being the preliminary lines to the extension of surveys into the Yellowstone, Big Hole, Musselshell, Red Rock, and Sweet Grass Valleys and tributaries, in which localities fifty-four townships were surveyed and returned, embracing an aggregate area of 790,359.42 acres, at a cost to the government of 3 cents per acre. A portion of this area contained settlements, including the towns of Butte, Silver Bow, Travona, and Rocker, located in the most valuable mineral belt in Montana at present.

The valley of Red Rock Creek was entirely surveyed, in which a number of settlements have been made. This valley, lying on the main stage and telegraph line between Montana and Utah, contains a large amount of agricultural land as yet unimproved, offering many advantageous locations to those desirous of settling in Montana. A hitherto unsurveyed agricultural and grazing tract of country was discovered in the prolongation of surveys during the past season, known as the Upper Sweet Grass Valley, a tributary of the Yellowstone River, commencing at a point about twelve miles above its mouth, and extending thence up the creek to the base of the Crazy Mount

ains, a distance of about thirty-five miles, is a beautiful tract of country, averaging about fifteen miles in width, covered with most luxuriant grass for the stock-grower, and the finest arable land for the agriculturist, with an abundance of water for irrigation and other purposes.

The valleys of the Musselshell and Big Hole also contain many fine locations for settlers, and need but the improvement to bud into blooming beauty and freshness. The establishment of government posts on the Lower Yellowstone has given a feeling of security to settlers, as predicted in former reports, and a tide of immigration is steadily flowing in. Many families have settled in that vicinity within the past year, and many others on the route. A petition, signed by three hundred residents of that locality, for the survey of the Yellowstone Valley, in the vicinity of Big Horn and Tongue Rivers, has been filed in this office, and upon this and other necessities my estimate for surveys for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, is based.

MINERAL SURVEYS.

There have been seventy-three surveys of lode and placer claims, ordered during the past fiscal year, the amount of deposit for office work on which amounted to $1,810, to which is added $15 deposited in case of the survey of fractional portion of township 10 north, range 1 east, under the deposit system, makes an aggregate of $1,825 for office work.

I would again suggest that the blank maps and forms required in the workings of the mineral department is no inconsiderable item in our incidental expense account, and some provision should be made to meet these expenses separate and apart or combined with the regular appropriation.

OFFICE WORK.

Five hundred and eighty-nine plats bave been made in the office during the past fiscal year. The accounts for surveys, both agricultural and mineral, have been worked up promptly, and with no unnecessary delay to deputies, settlers, or claimants, my office force working day and night during the surveying season, in order to push the work forward, and attending to the regular daily duties of the office. I would respectfully call your attention to the article on office work embraced in my last report, the necessities therein mentioned still existing.

AGRICULTURE.

From appearances every farm in Montana will be cultivated and improved the present season; farmers who, from the devastating ravages of grasshoppers in former years, had become disheartened and almost completely discouraged, have commenced labor with renewed ardor and hope, and the indications are that the present season will be the best for agricultural products in the history of the Territory.

The past spring has been an unusually wet one, the climate seeming to have undergone a radical change, and on the whole this branch of industry promises better than ever before. Lands that three years ago were considered valueless have, by improvement, proven very lucrative to the settlr, and in many places, in altitudes of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet, all kinds of cereals and vegetables were raised, except tomatoes and corn, the production of which the high altitudes and early frosts will not permit.

PLACER MINES.

The success attendant upon the development of silver lodes has to a great extent reduced the working of placer mines, they being left for this greater inducement and returns of opening and developing quartz lodes, until the past season, during which the heavy fall of snow and rain has added a new impetus to placer mining. Several old districts have been reorganized and worked energetically and steadily, fully demonstrating the fact that as a placer mining and gold producing country Montana stands next in order to California.

Some of the mountainous country on the Big Horn, Powder River, and Clark's Fork, and their tributaries are as yet unknown, but it is predicted that these localities will present a greater field for placer and gold mining than any other portion of the Territory has, or will accommodate. There is said to be five hundred gulches in Montana of varied length from one to twenty miles, in which placer mining is carried on during six or seven months of the year, with a good prospect of yielding well for several years to come.

GOLD LODES.

The development of gold lodes is steadily progressing, and new and improved machinery constantly being added for the working of auriferous ores.

A new district has come into public notice during the past year, that known as Pony Mining District, located near the head of Pony Gulch, one of the tributaries of Willow Creek, in Madison County.