of the Revised Statutes in regard to town sites, with the provision, however, that the towns, six in number, which have already filed plats according to the principles thereof as formerly embodied in the acts of July 1, 1864, and March 3, 1865, may obtain title to their lots thereunder, or that the lots not yet disposed of in these towns may be sold to the mayor or proper county judge, acting as trustee for the occupants, at a stated price, say one dollar per lot of 4,200 feet. 3. Recommends legislation with regard to certain lapsed railroad grants for either declaring the grants forfeited and laying the lands open to other disposal, or extending the time for the completion of the roads. 4. Recommends an amendment of the law with regard to mineral claims (section 2320 of the Revised Statutes), requiring that the end lines of each mineral claim shall be parallel to each other, such as would admit of disposing of small triangular-shaped portions of mineral land which cannot be embraced entirely in any survey with parallel end lines. 5. Renews recommendation of his last annual report for an amendment of paragraph 2 of section 2238 of the Revised Statutes, which would in express terms limit the commissions of registers and receivers therein provided for to moneys received on account of cash sales. 6. Recommends an amendment of section 2362 of the Revised Statutes to enable the department to extend prompt relief to parties entering public land where the title cannot be confirmed, and also in cases where erroneous and illegal exactions have been made, by refunding to them the money paid in error. 7. Recommends such legislation as will relieve the district land officers from the existing requirement of the law that they account for moneys received by them for reducing to writing testimony adduced for establishing pre-emption, homestead, and mining claims, as public moneys. 8. Recommends legislation whereby this office may be allowed to retain the money received for exemplifications furnished from its records as a fund to provide the necessary clerical labor for the work instead of being required as now to pay it into the Treasury. 9. Renews former recommendation that Congress should pass an act transferring any title the United States may possess in the islands and beds of meandered lakes, sloughs, and ponds to the States in which they respectively lie. 10. Recommends legislation for permitting certain abandoned military reservations, where the lands are unimproved and of no special value, to be disposed of as are public lands generally. 11. Recommends legislation for disposing of the remnant of what are known as the Shawnee Absentee Lands in Kansas. 12. Recommends that the surveyors general be all provided with an official seal, and authorized to authenticate copies from the files and records of their respective offices, as the surveyors general of Louisiana, California and Oregon now are in section 2224 Revised Statutes. 13. Refers to former representations made by him regarding the need of an increase of the number of clerks and a reorganization of the office. Respectfully submitted. J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner. ANNUAL REPORT. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: The following is presented as a report of the business of this office in dealing with the matters committed to its charge in connection with the survey, the sale, or other disposal of the public lands of the United States during the fiscal year which expired with the 30th June, 1878. It has in these operations followed the methods and employed the agencies prescribed by law, including the surveyors general, with their deputies, in sixteen surveying districts, and the registers and receivers of the district land offices in ninety-eight land districts. Congress having abolished the district offices in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, by its act of July 31, 1876, it has devolved upon the Commissioner of this office to act as register and receiver ex officio in regard to the remnant of lands therein, under the act of March 3, 1877. The surveys during the fiscal year reach the aggregate of 8,041,011.83 acres, making the total area surveyed since the beginning of public surveys 724,311,477 acres, and leaving as unsurveyed area of the States and Territories containing public lands 1,090,461,171 acres. This is exclusive of private claims, of which 4,356,377.45 acres were surveyed during the fiscal year. The number of acres entered under the laws for the disposal of the public lands during the fiscal year ending with the 30th June, 1878, include the following: Cash entries... Being an increase over the previous fiscal year of 136,868.57 acres. Homestead entries... Being an increase over the previous fiscal year of 2,240,336.75 acres. Timber-culture entries. Being an increase over the fiscal year of 1,349,760.79 acres. Desert land entries, under act of March 3, 1877, this being the first entire year of its operation.... Agricultural-college scrip locations Being a decrease of 640 acres as compared with the previous fiscal year. Locations with military bounty land warrants, under acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855.. Acres. 877, 555. 14 4, 418, 344. 92 1,870, 434. 18 Being a decrease of 12,480 acres as compared with the previous fiscal year. State selections approved: For school indemnity. 50, 142. 59 310, 553, 05 640.00 84,720.00 For internal improvements. 17,420,39 For agricultural colleges 24,097.40 For universities 44, 844. 43 For salt springs 24, 114, 56 For public buildings. 29, 146.33 For penitentiary. 25, 226, 83 214, 992. 53 Being an increase over the previous fiscal year of 59,354.80 acres. Locations of scrip issued under the acts of June 2, 1858, and June 22, 1860, in lieu of lands embraced in private claims, but not taken in place Lands patented to States as swamp under act of September 28, 1850, or approved as such to Louisiana under act of March 2, 1849, which has the effect of a patent...... Being a decrease as compared with the previous fiscal year of 211,492.51 acres. 7,788, 140.78 83, 143, 60 7,871, 284.38 202, 925.85 8,074, 210. 23 Lands certified for railroad purposes Being a decrease as compared with the previous fiscal year of 94,451.31 acres. Lands certified for canal purposes. 606, 340, 65 5,628.00 611, 968. 65 Total number of acres disposed of during the fiscal year Being an increase of 3,836,411.18 acres over the previous fiscal year. 8, 686, 178.88 The total amount of moneys received during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, is $2,022,532.16, derived from the following sources, viz: Fees on military bounty-land warrant locations.. Fees for transcripts of records furnished by district land officers. Fees for reducing testimony to writing by district land officers Fees on railroad and wagon-road selections... Fees on mineral filings and protests Fees on state selections Donation fees Fees on Valentine scrip... Fees for certified copies furnished by this office under sec. 461, Revised Fees from miscellaneous sources $1, 130, 752 00 556,526 32 181,535 00 24.00 87,190 00 147 00 2, 121 00 891 05 27,664 45 7, 149 15 10,610 00 4,035 44 1,460 00 28 00 12, 101 75 297 00 2,022, 532 16 There were received in this office during the fiscal year a total of 82,295 letters, and there were written and recorded during the same period, 57,421. SURVEYING OPERATIONS. I here invite attention to the surveying operations of the fiscal year, the results of which are above indicated. By the act of Congress of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., p. 348), the sum of $300,000 was appropriated for surveys of public lands and private claims for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878. This sum was apportioned among the sixteen surveying districts by the department, as shown in the following table: Pursuant to the provisions of said act, and the apportionment made by the department of the money thereby appropriated, instructions were issued by this office on the 29th June, 1877, to the respective surveyors general slightly variant in their tenor, according to the nature of the public service devolving on them, but the general character of which will appear from the following example, being the instructions issued to the surveyor general for the district of Colorado: By an act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, approved March 3, 1877, there were appropriated for survey of the public lands and private land claims $300,000, with proviso that the sum appropriated should be expended in such surveys as the public interest may require, under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and at such rates as he shall prescribe, not exceeding the rates authorized by law, which are as follows: $10 per mile for standard lines; $7 per mile for township lines, and $6 per mile for section-lines, except that in heavily-timbered and mountainous lands the Commissioner of the General Land Office may allow not exceeding $16 per mile for the survey of standard, $14 for township, and $10 for section lines. The law further provides that no lands shall be surveyed under the appropriation except 1st. Lands adapted to agriculture without artificial irrigation. 24. Irrigable lands, or such as can be redeemed, and for which there is sufficient accessible water for the reclamation and cultivation of the same, not otherwise utilized or claimed. 3d. Timber lands bearing timber of commercial value. 4th. Coal lands containing coal of commercial value. 5th. The exterior boundaries of town sites. 6th. Private land claims. In conformity with the foregoing provisions of law, the Acting Secretary of the Interior, on the 25th June, 1877, directed that the sum of $35,000 be apportioned out of the appropriation for surveys of public lands in your district and $2,000 for the survey of private land claims at the rate prescribed by the law, which amount must not be exceeded in entering into contracts for surveys specifically authorized under the six different classes hereinbefore enumerated. In so far as the survey of public lands is concerned, you will let contracts only to deputies of known ability, who are practical and faithful surveyors, for the survey of such standard lines as may be needed to reach townships settled by permanent agriculturists applying for the subdivision of the specific townships in which they are settled, or for the accommodation of mining interests, surveys of coal and timber lands |