purchase; also a map of the world on Mercator's projection, showing our territory, including the Russian purchase, and the relations of the country to important points of trade in the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Respectfully submitted: JOS. S. WILSON, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT of the Interior, GENERAL Land Office, October 15, 1867. SIR: The public lands, including the Russian purchase in northwestern America acquired by treaty of May 28, 1867, are to..... From the beginning of the land system to the end of the last fiscal year the aggregate of surveyed lands is.... Leaving unsurveyed... now equal in area 1,834,998,400 acres. 485,311,778 acres. 1,349,686,622 acres. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1867, the total cash The aggregate of military bounty-land warrant locations In the same period there were approved swamps And selected as swamp indemnity Making a total of swamp lands or their equiva lents, confirmed to States, of..... 1,030,020.22 36,429.93 In same fiscal year titles under railroad, wagon-road, and shipcanal grants have been vested in certain States, for the quantity of.... The agricultural and mechanic college land-scrip locations under act of 1862, and supplementals of 1864 and 1866, with selections by certain States within their respective limits under said acts, make an aggregate of..... Making a total of public lands disposed of during the year ending June 30, 1867, of..... Acres. 756,619.61 476,760.00 1,788,043.49 1,066,450.15 533,168.52 2,420,072.73 7,041,114.50 The moneys received in the same period for ordinary cash sales, pre-emptions, in military scrip received as money, for the ten-dollar homestead payments, for homestead commissions, for fees in the locating of agricultural college scrip, for same on military warrants, and on railroad selections, for commissions on preemptions, donations, and for proceeds from furnishing transcripts under act of July 2, 1864, make a cash aggregate of $1,347,862.52 received during the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1867. By these results it appears that in virtue of the cession by treaty concluded on 30th March, 1867, between the United States and the Emperor of Russia, an enlargement of the national territory has been effected equal to five hundred and seventy-seven thousand three hundred and ninety square miles, or three hundred and sixty-nine millions five hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred acres, possessing extensive belts capable of yielding food for the support of man, mineral resources, important fisheries, and extending our possessions toward the continent of Asia and by the chain of the Aleutian islands equal in length to one thousand and sixty-five statute miles, bringing us, comparatively speaking, to the vicinity of the Japanese islands. These results further show the disposal in round numbers of two millions four hundred and eleven thousand eight hundred acres in excess of the quantity for which evidences of title were granted during the year ending 30th June, 1866, caused by the cash sales being nearly doubled, by additional bounty land locations, by a very large increase in selections under railroad grants, also by nearly a quadruplication of the quantity in the previous year in locations and selections under the agricultural college grants, the cash receipts for the last year having exceeded those of a like previous period by a sum considerably in excess of half a million of dollars. Among the most important principles in the transfer of landed property are certainty and brevity of description in the conveyed premises. The public land or rectangular system is pre-eminently valuable, and in that respect stands unrivalled. It was adopted on 20th May, 1785, and has been modified and enlarged by subsequent laws until it has reached its present proportions and completeness of scientific structure. Under that system base lines are first established, corresponding with latitude. These are then intersected at right angles by principal meridians in coincidence with longitude. From such bases, townships of six miles square are run out and established with regular series of numbers counting north and south from these bases, while the ranges are counted by like series of numbers as running east and west of the meridians. The six mile square townships are divided into sections of one mile square or 640 acres, again into half sections of 320, quarters of 160, half quarters of 0, and quarter quarters of 40 acres. Since the adoption of the system, covering a period of eighty-two years, twenty principal bases and twenty-three principal meridians have been permanently established, and it has been initiated, the Russian purchase excepted, in all the land States and Territories of the Union, in several of which it has completed the work of surveying. In its progress the whole of the surveys everywhere, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are referable for the identification of any division or subdivision, great or small, to the initial points or intersections of the surveyed base lines with the principal meridians. The first principal meridian divides the States of Ohio and Indiana; the second is a controlling line in the surveys of Indiana, and in part in Illinois, the third also governing to a certain extent in the latter State; the fourth traverses the western part of Illinois, extending through Wisconsin and Minnesota to our northern international boundary; the fifth, passing through Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, with a common base line running due west from the St. Francis river in Arkansas, governs the surveys in these States, also in part of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, and in Dakota west of the Missouri; then there is the sixth principal meridian, the initial point of intersection being coincident with the fortieth parallel and 92° 13' west longitude from Greenwich. Upon this line depend the surveys in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and that part of Dakota west of the Missouri. In addition to these six principal meridians and bases, there has been established the Michigan meridian, with a base line running on a parallel of seven miles north of Detroit, and guiding all the surveys in that State. In the south, the Tallahassee meridian in Florida has been surveyed north and south from the point of intersection with the base line at the city of Tallahassee, which regulates Florida surveys. In Alabama is found the meridian of St. Stephens, starting from Mobile and intersecting the principal base on the 31st parallel, upon which rest to a certain extent the surveys in that State, and also in Mississippi east of Pearl river. Besides, there is the Huntsville meridian, with the northern boundary of Alabama for its base, upon which are adjusted the surveys in the northern part of that State. The Choctaw meridian in Mississippi, starting from the base, twenty-nine miles south of Jackson, runs due north, passing within two miles west of that city, and terminating on the south boundary of the Chickasaw cession, controlling the surveys east and west of that meridian, and north of the base. The Washington meridian, in Mississippi, begins on the base corresponding with the 31st degree of latitude, running north, passing seven miles east of Washington, in that State, and governing the surveys in the southwestern part of Mississippi. The Louisiana principal meridian intersects the principal base coincident with the 31st parallel, controlling the surveys west of the Mississippi. The St Helena meridian is a continuation of the Washington meridian in the southwestern part of the State of Mississippi, the surveys in Louisiana east of the Mississippi river, from the base on the 31st parallel, running due south therefrom one mile east of Baton Rouge, and intersecting the river several miles south of that town. The New Mexico meridian, with the principal base has its intersection on a hill two hundred feet in height ten miles below the mouth of the Puerco river, on the Rio Grande, and upon those lines are adjusted the surveys in New Mexico, and in that part of Colorado in the valley of the Rio Grande del Norte. In California, there is the San Bernardino meridian, intersected by a principal base on the high peak of a mountain of that name in longitude 116° 53" west of Greenwich, that meridian controlling the surveys in the southern part of the State. The Mount Diablo meridian, intersecting its base on latitude six miles north of San Francisco, at a distance of thirty-eight miles east of the ocean, the intersection being on the loftiest peak of Mount Diablo, which is three thousand six hundred feet in height, coincides with the 123° 53' west longitude from Greenwich, and governs the surveys in middle and northern California, and in the State of Nevada; besides, there is in the State the Humboldt meridian, intersecting its base in north latitude 40° 24' on the peak of Mount Pierce, five thousand feet above the level of the ocean, the surveys west of the Coast Range, in the northwestern part of the State, having been adjusted on that meridian. On the Pacific slope there is also the Willamette meridian, which controls the surveys in Oregon and Washington. In Utah the Great Salt Lake meridian commences at the corner of Temple Block in great Salt Lake city, where it is intersected by its base, the intersection being commemorated by a monument, and the structure of surveys in that Territory resting on that meridian and base The Boise meridian, for surveys in Idaho, intersects the principal base on the summit of an isolated rocky butte on the plain between the Snake and Boise rivers, in latitude 43° 26', distant 19 miles from Boise City, and bearing south 2910 west. The Gila and Salt River meridi in, for the surveying system in Arizona, intersects the principal base line on the conical hill 150 feet in height on the south ance free of charge will require a very large outlay, independent of the amount which, from time to time, must be advanced to meet the annual expenses of the institution. I take pleasure in adding that there is no other school in the country that surpasses this in the ability, zeal, and success with which the president and professors devote themselves to the intellectual and moral training of those committed to their care. Congress, by an act approved June 1, 1866, incorporated the "Columbia Hospital for Women and Lying in Asylum." It was established for the treatment of diseases peculiar to women, and as a lying in asylum, in which board, lodging, medicine, and attendance should be gratuitously furnished to those unable to pay therefor. At the date of the report of the board of trustees there were seventy-one patients. During the past year four hundred and fifty-one women obtained admission to the asylum, or received from it assistance and medical treatment. Congress, on the 2d day of March last, appropriated ten thousand dollars ($10,000, to aid in the support of this institution. The receipts from private donations were three thousand two hundred and eighty dollars and seventy-two cents, (83,280 72,) and from patients two thousand one hundred and fourteen dollars and eighty-eight cents, ($2,114 88,) making an aggregate of fifteen thousand three hundred and ninety-five dollars and sixty cents ($15,395 60.) Congress has always given its sanction, and, whenever they could be properly bestowed, its pecuniary contributions to every well-considered benevolent enterprise adapted to supply the wants or promote the interests of the District of Columbia. This institution is a private corporation, and maintains the same relations to the government as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. The trustees have, however, determined to submit an annual report to the Secretary of the Interior, and to authorize, upon his order, the admission of patients whose indigence and helpless condition justify them in seeking eleemosynary aid. Few, if any, of the instrumentalities which the benevolence of the age has adopted to alleviate human suffering or minister to human wants present stronger claims to public sympathy than institutions of this descriptionAlthough in its infancy, and with scanty means, this asylum has liberally extended to its beneficiaries skil ́ul medical and surgical aid, and that considerate attention which their peculiar condition required. In consideration of the good already accomplished, and of the pressing necessity for extending the scope of its charities, the directors strenuously urge that it should be established upon a permanent basis. As that object cannot be attained solely by private benefactions, they request an appropriation by Congress of sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) for the purchase of a site and the erection of buildings. I cordially recommend this request to favorable consideration; but if granted, the organic act should be so amended as to secure to the United States a title to the real estate purchased, and an efficient control over the institution. The respective departments and officers of the national government, the executive departments of the several States and Territories, and the legally designated public libraries and educational institutions of the United States, have been furnished, as far as practicable, with those copies of statutes, books and congressional documentsto which they are respectively entitled under existing laws. For a period of several years, on the completion of the printing and binding of the documents of a session of Congress, there have been delivered to the Department of the Interior four hundred and seventy complete sets of those which are known as "House documents," and only four hundred and twenty sets of "Senate documents;" thus placing in the custody of this department, after the close of each session of Congress, fifty sets of "House documents" without an equal number of "Senate documents." The statutes which relate to the printing, binding, and distribution of complete sets of public documents need revision. In closing this report, I should do injustice to the officers of this department were I not to declare my high sense of the very efficient manner in which they have discharged their arduous duties. I respectfully refer to the views, in regard to their compensation, presented in the concluding portion of my last annual report, and earnestly invoke for them the favorable consideration of Congress. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, O. H. BROWNING, Secretary of the Interior. The PRESIDENT. |