brought to the attention of Congress. Doubtless the company would readily co-operate in any well-considered scheme for effecting this result.

It is provided in the thirteenth section of the act of July 2, 1864, that "the government directors shall, from time to time, report to the Secretary of the Interior, in answer to any inquiries he may make of them touching the condition, management, and progress of the work, and shall communicate to the Secretary of the Interior at any time such information as should be in the possession of the department. They shall, as often as may be necessary to a full knowledge of the condition of the line, visit all portions of the road, whether built or surveyed."

As far as the present government directors are advised, (and one of them has been in continuous service since 1869,) there has never been but one inquiry made under this provision of law, nor in pursuance of any other, nor on any account whatever. In 1871, an active controversy arose concerning the eastern terminus of the road. The then Secretary of the Interior addressed a communication to the government directors, requesting them to examine the question involved in said controversy, and to report to him their opinion as to where the law fixed the eastern terminus of the road. The government directors, after considering the question, reported that the terminus was on the Iowa shore of the Missouri River. This, of course, included the bridge across said river, and its approaches, and made them a part of the main line to be operated as a continuous part thereof. This opinion was followed by the accounting officers of the government, so far as United States transportation was concerned; but no action was taken to enforce it as to the rights of the general public. Private parties instituted Union Pacific Railroad Company vs. Hall et al., (1 Otto, 343,) in which case, after persistent resistance by the company, the Supreme Court of the United States took the same view that had been reported by the government directors, and held that the legal terminus of the railroad is fixed by law on the Iowa shore of the river, aud that the bridge is a part of the railroad; there can be no doubt that the company is under obligation to operate and run the whole road, including the bridge, as one connected and continuous line." The road is now so operated, and commodious buildings are in course of erection on the east side of the river for the accommodation of the business, as herein before stated.

All or part of the government directors have made at least annual visitations of the entire line of the road. They have made annual reports to the Secretary of the Interior, in which they have endeavored to give full expositions of the road, its condition, of improvements needed, and of improvements made, of the things possible to be realized from it, of the policies of the company, of controverted questions both as to accounts and management of the property of the company, of disagreements as to the construction of the laws governing the relations and determining the rights of the government and the company.

Indeed, it may safely be stated that not a question of controversy be tween the government and company has escaped mention in one or more of the reports. The reports from 1871 down to and including the one for 1876, and excluding the present one, reduced to print in the ordinary executive-document form, would cover nearly or quite one hundred and fifty pages. They are filled with information in general and in detail, derived, in great part, from personal contact with the subjects treated of, and made with a purpose to have them as exact as such documents can be made. The filing of these reports has been, practically, their end. In many instances important recommendations have been made, with a

view to the better management of the property, its business, and affairs. They have rested with the reports.

These statements are not made in the spirit of complaint. The fault has arisen mainly, no doubt, from the defective character of the law. The law requires certain reports to be made by the company to the government, but has provided no means for the utilization of the reports when made, and the same defect exists as to the reports of the government directors. If the present relations existing between the govern ment and the company are to continue, some remedy should be devised for the defect mentioned. All matters relating to the connection of the government with all of the railroad companies that have received United States bonds in aid of the construction of their respective roads ought to be organized in a special bureau in the Interior Department, in charge of a competent and responsible head. The government directors are aware that the present Secretary of the Interior has considered this definite subject, and probably has arrived at, or doubtless will arrive at, a wise conclusion in general and in detail, and here the subject may be safely left. The government directors can but express satisfaction with the fact that special thought is now given to this important subject. The interests involved are very great, far more so than many others which have been accorded special supervision since the foundation of the government.

JAMES F. WILSON.
FRANCIS B. BREWER.
J. H. MILLARD.

JOHN C. S. HARRISON.
DANIEL CHADWICK.

Hon. CARL SCHURZ,

Secretary of the Interior.

Copy of a letter of General George Crook.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE,
COMMANDING GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Omaha, Nebr., October 9, 1877.

SIR: Referring to your communication of the 8th instant, stating that the managers of the Union Pacific Railroad propose building two branches from the main line, the initial of one east of Sherman, Wyo., with its objective point at or near Boseman, Mont., the other to start at or near Rawlins, Wyo., and join eastern branch at its terminus in Montana, the eastern branch passing through the Black Hills, and the western through the Wind River country, you request my opinion on the points explained in the following answers.

They will have a most salutary and positive effect in settling our Indian troubles, thereby saving large expenditures of public funds. They will invite to and open up for settlement most valuable farming and grazing lands; aid in the discovery of new mining sections, and promote the development of valuable mineral resources already discovered. They will save the public treasury vast amounts in economy in transportation of military supplies, troops, and mails. From my personal knowledge of the country through which the proposed lines will pass, I regard the project as eminently practicable and more easily accomplished than many of the works of similar character now in successful operation in the country west of the Mississippi.

I have confined my reply to the questions embraced in your letter, but under the head of gain, &c., I would say generally that I know of no proposed enterprise more important to the vast country they will open up, nor any that will be of more positive and enduring good to the whole country. They will, when completed, be of national importance and benefit.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEORGE CROOK, Brigadier-General, U. S. A.

Hon. J. H. MILLARD,

Government Director Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Nebr.

REPORT

ON THE

THE

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

NORRIS, MICHIGAN, October 20, 1877.

SIR: In accordance with your instructions, based upon the act of Congress, approved March 1, 1872, setting apart the Yellowstone National Park, and providing for the management thereof, I have the honor to submit the following report.

Upon receipt of my appointment as superintendent of the said park I appointed Mr. J. C. McCartney, the pioneer proprietor of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, resident assistant. I soon after published in the Norris Suburban, (a newspaper widely circulated in the West,) a copy of the act dedicating the park, your rules and regulations for its management, notice of my own and my assistant's appointments, and a spirited appeal to my old mountain comrades, tourists, and the general public, to assist in checking vandalism in the wonder-land, sending hundreds of extra copies to presses and parties in the West.

As a practical mode of attracting general attention I also had a large number of spirited cautions against fire and depredations in the park printed upon durable cloth and affixed to trees, and otherwise at prominent points of interest therein and the adjacent places of resort.

I also, in the Suburban and other sheets, regularly published items of interest relating to my explorations in the park and the routes thereto.

The published reports of Langford, Everts, Hayden, myself, and others having more clearly demonstrated the existence of matchless wonders within the park than any direct or practical route of reaching it, I sought to explore a new one by ascending the Yellowstone River, its natural outlet.

Leaving Washington in April, and Norris in May, passed the Sacred Calumet or Pipe-stone quarry of Dakota en route to Bismarck. Thence, after unusual delays upon steamboat ascending the Missouri, reached Fort Buford, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, June 18. Unfortunately for the Government, the public, and the present popularity of the Yellowstone route to the National Park, Commodore Coulson failed to secure contract for the immense Government transportation thereon. He thus hauled off the Josephine, the first boat of recent years to ascend the Yellowstone, which, in 1875, reached the highest point yet atained, at Baker's battle-field near the mouth of Clark's Fork; the Fart West, which carried the wounded after Custer's and Reno's defeat from the mouth of the Little Big Horn River, in 1876, the intrepid Captain Grant Marsh, commanding on both occasions; and also other boats and officers fitted or qualified for the trade.

This left the Yellowstone Transportation Company with a totally inadequate supply of necessary light draught powerful steamboats, or officers of experience on that route.