general, deputy surveyors, registers and receivers, special agents, &c., covering 13,350 pages of record.

In addition to the clerical work performed in the several divisions of the office, the following is a list of papers accompanying the annual report.

1. Statement showing the number of acres called for by military bounty land warrants located in the several land States and Territories.

2. Decision rendered by the Secretary of the Interior in regard to the question of jurisdiction over the assignments of warrants after their issue and delivery by the Commissioner of Pensions.

3. Condition of business relating to revolutionary bounty land scripVirginia military district in Ohio-warrants under act of July 27, 1842, and Porterfield warrants.

4. Tabular statement showing condition of bounty land business since the commencement of operations to the close of the fiscal year last past.

5. Decisions and rulings relating to desert lands.

6. Decisions and rulings under the timber culture acts.

7. Decisions and rulings under the homestead laws.

8. Withdrawal of lands in the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota for reservoir purposes.

9. Condition of military reservations-Fort Ripley, Dalles, Fort Kearney, and Fort Harker.

10. Indian lands; Osage trust and diminished reserve lands; absentee Shawnee lands.

11. Statement showing disposal of Indian lands in Kansas.

12. Indian reservations: Pawnee, in Nebraska; Sac and Fox and Otoe and Missouria Reservations.

13. Decisions relating to private land claims in California, New Mexico, and Missouri.

14. Construction of act of June 15, 1880, affecting heirs or legal representatives of Israel Dodge, deceased.

15. Table showing the apportionment to the several surveying districts of the sum of $300,000, appropriated for the survey of public lands by act of Congress approved June 16, 1880.

16. Abstract of surveying operations in the sixteen surveying districts under the supervision of the respective surveyors general.

17. Table exhibiting the comparative progress of surveys, number of surveying districts, land districts, cost of surveys, number of acres surveyed, and number of acres disposed of during the five years ending with June 30, 1881.

18. Surveys under the deposit system, authorized by sections 2401, 2402, and 2403, United States Revised Statutes.

19. Survey and subdivision of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Indian Reservations in Dakota.

20. Military reservations declared reduced or enlarged during the fiscal year.

21. Lists of surveyors general and their residences.

22. Principal meridians and bases.

23. Tabular statement showing the areas of the land States and Territories; the extent of surveys of public and Indian lands; total area of land surveyed from the beginning of the surveying system, and the area remaining unsurveyed in each of the land States and Territories at the close of the fiscal year.

24. Estimates of appropriations required for surveying the public

lands and private land claims-for compensation of surveyors general and clerks in their offices, and for contingent expenses of surveyors gen. eral.

25. Decisions affecting railroad grants.

26. Status of the "Old Cherokee Indian Reservation" in Arkansas. 27. Statement exhibiting land concessions by acts of Congress to States and corporations for railroad and wagon road purposes from 1850 to June 30, 1881.

28. Statement showing what town sites have been patented since September 27, 1878.

29. Decisions affecting pre-emption rights.

30. Decisions relating to swamp lands and indemnity for swamp. lands.

31. Tabular statements showing the quantity of land selected, approved, and patented to the several States as swamp.

32. Swamp land laws, regulations, and rulings.

33. Tabular statements showing operations under the laws governing the survey and disposal of public lands and Indian lands, sales and receipts under various heads, with amount of fees and commissions derived therefrom, &c.

34. Estimates of appropriations required for the General Land Office and for local land offices.

35. List of mining claims patented during the fiscal year.

36. Recent decisions affecting rights under the mining laws of the United States.

37. Circular issued under act of January 22, 1880.

38. Construction of act of January 22, 1880.

39. Condition of business relating to depredations upon the public. domain by the cutting and removing of timber therefrom.

40. List of local land offices.

41. Reports of United States surveyors general, numbered from A to P inclusive.

42. Historical and statistical table of the United States and Territories, showing the area of each in square miles and acres, the date of organization of Territories, date of admission of new States into the Union, number of acres surveyed and remaining unsurveyed, and the popula tion of each State and Territory at the taking of the last census in 1880. In all the land districts there is a large and legitimate demand for copies from the official records, and for copies or tracings of the maps and plats of survey, &c. As the country is settled and improved, values increase and interests multiply, the records of the local land offices are more frequently consulted, and such copies more largely required. Those who desire transcripts from the records are willing and desirous to pay for the same, but registers and receivers are precluded, under penalty of removal from office, from receiving fees or other rewards not authorized by law (see section 2242, Revised Statutes), and no authority of law exists for any fee for such copies except in consolidated land districts where, under section 2239, Revised Statutes, such fees are authorized to be charged by the land officers as are authorized by the tariff existing in the local courts of the district.

It has, until a comparatively recent date, undoubtedly been the general practice of local officers to furnish such copies, receive pay for the same, and use the money in part at least to pay for the clerical labor made necessary by this work. The local officers justified themselves on the general ground that it was not by law made their duty to furnish such transcripts, &c., and hence it was no infraction of law to perform

a legitimate act and receive pay for the same. This proceeding was clearly illegal, however, and led to abuses of considerable magnitude, upon discovery of which instructions were issued to all the local land officers definitively advising them what fees they were authorized to charge or receive, and forbidding the receipt of any other rewards under penalty of recommendation for dismissal from office.

The matter now is in this condition: there is a legitimate and public necessity for copies from the records and files of district land offices; there is no sufficient appropriation to pay for the clerical labor essential to prepare such copies, and the only way they can be had is by allowing outside parties to have access to the official records and make the copies themselves. This course is obviously unadvisable, and I have the honor to recommend that legislation be speedily had authorizing the preparation of copies by registers and receivers, and a fee for the same at the rate of 15 cents per 100 words and $2 for copies of township plats or diagrams, and that the receivers of the several land offices shall make returns of all moneys so received, and shall pay over the same in the manner now provided by law for other moneys received by them in their official capacity.

And, in view of the fact that the clerical labor necessary to be employed will be increased in proportion to the amount of said class of work, I further recommend as absolutely essential to the furnishing of such copies that all moneys received therefor be placed to the credit of the appropriation "for incidental expenses of the several land offices," and be available for clerk hire in said offices under authority of the Secretary of the Interior.

I would also recommend that the same provisions be extended to all consolidated land offices and substituted for those of section 2239, Revised Statutes.

In this connection I would call attention to sections 460 and 461, Revised Statutes, under which it is made my duty to furnish exemplifications of patents, or papers on file or of record in this office, to parties interested, upon payment of certain rates therein named. The labor thus involved is not expended upon the adjustment of entries—a work so much in arrears and so earnestly demanded by the public, who need their evidences of title at the earliest moment-but relates almost exclusively to patented claims, or to land which is in litigation in the courts; and the fees received for such copies are turned into the Treasury. It is thus apparent that a portion of the clerical labor which Congress provides is diverted from its contemplated channel, and engaged upon work which does not relate to the current disposition of any class of land claims.

For the year ending June 30, 1880, there were received and turned into the Treasury for such copies $7,043.05, and for the year ending June 30, 1881, $6,727.90.

I recommend legislation to the effect that the moneys so annually received be credited to the appropriation for clerical services in this office for the fiscal year in which they are received, and made available for the payment of the clerical labor necessary for the preparation of said copies. In this connection I would state that, owing to the diffi cult character of much of the copying done as aforesaid, and to the necessity of careful comparison with the original, the fees authorized to be charged are not estimated to be in excess of the actual cost of the clerical labor expended upon the preparation of exemplifications.

Section 2325, Revised Statutes, specifies the proceedings necessary to obtain a patent to mineral lands. It was held by this department that

the application for such patent, which includes an allegation of compliance with law, must be sworn to by the owner of the claim. By act of January 22, 1880 (page 61, pamphlet edition, statutes of 1879-'80), amendatory of sections 2304 and 2305, Revised Statutes, it was provided that the authorized agent of the claimant might make said affidavit when he was conversant with the facts sought to be established thereby and the claimant was not a resident of the land district wherein the claim was located. In view of the fact that a large proportion of the mining claims are managed by such agents, who are thereby better qualified to make the required affidavit than the owner, I would recommend that the duly authorized agent of the claimant, when conversant with the material facts, be allowed to make said affidavit in any case, and that legislation to that effect be had.

Under section 2401, 2402, and 2403, Revised Statutes, it is provided that when settlers in any township, not mineral or reserved, desire a survey of the same under authority of the surveyor general, they shall be entitled thereto, upon filing a written application therefor, and depositing a sum sufficient to pay for the survey and all expenses incident thereto; that said sums so deposited shall be placed to the credit of the proper appropriation for the surveying service, and that the amount so deposited by any such settlers may go in part payment for their lands situated in the township, the surveying of which is paid out of such deposits.

By act of March 3, 1879, amendatory of section 2403, Revised Statutes, the certificates issued for such deposits were made assignable by indorsement, and receivable in payment for pre-emption and homestead claims.

Since the passage of this act of 1879, the deposits for surveys have increased to an unprecedented extent, and numerous representations which are believed to be true have been made to this office, that lands of no present practical value and on which there are no settlers have been largely surveyed; that applications for surveys are fraudulently prepared by or through the instigation and management of deputy surveyors, who, for the purpose of securing the contract for making the survey, either themselves or through friends advance the money for the deposit, thereafter sell and assign the certificates, and thus reimburse themselves and secure their profit from the surveying contracts.

The appropriation for surveys for the last fiscal year was $300,000. The amount of deposits for the same period, and which was placed to the credit of the said appropriation, was $1,804,166.47, and the amount of the certificates surrendered in payment of pre-emption and homestead claims for the same time was $1,346,109.26.

It is believed that the practical result of said act of March 3, 1879, has been to cause the survey of vast areas of lands of no present, and perhaps of no prospective, value, and the surrender of title to valuable lands in payment for such surveys.

With the intent to secure as far as possible legitimate proceedings under said law, I issued, September 5, 1881, the following circular instructions to surveyors general:

TO SURVEYORS GENERAL:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 5, 1881.

In order to prevent as far as possible the perpetration of frauds and fraudulent surveys, which have already assumed alarming proportions under the system of deposits by individuals, it is hereby ordered:

I. The surveyors general shall exercise the most searching scrutiny into the state

ments of applicants for survey, to satisfy themselves of the truth thereof, and unless found to be bona fide in every respect they shall not accept such applications nor furnish the estimates requested.

II. Believing that in a great many instances applications for survey, particularly in sections of country unfit for settlement, have been procured or invited at the instance of deputy surveyors seeking contracts, you are instructed that such proceedings on the part of deputy surveyors are unlawful, and that contracts thus unlawfully procured will not be recognized as valid. The surveyor general must minutely examine into all applications for surveys under the deposit system. If he is satisfied that the deputy has acted in the manner described, the commission of such deputy shall be forthwith revoked, and the surveyor general shall report all the facts, with his findings in the case, to this office. Upon approval thereof such deputy shall be deemed unfit to exercise the functions of a deputy surveyor, and the approval of a finding against a deputy will be communicated by this office to each surveyor general for his information and guidance; and any surveyor general who shall fail to report such deputy, or who shall employ any deputy so barred, will be open to charges to be preferred by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the Secretary of the Interior.

III. Surveyors general are required to exercise the utmost care and vigilance to prevent frauds and irregularities of any kind regarding surveys under the system of deposits by individuals, as also of surveys made under any other appropriation of moneys by Congress, whether general or special, and they will report each and every fact that may come to their knowledge of any attempted fraud, by whomsoever made, with all obtainable particulars, to this office for consideration and action.

IV. The plats and field notes of surveys under the system of deposits by individuals, as returned to this office, do not usually show the settlements and improvements of the settlers at whose instance the surveys are ostensibly made. In a majority of instances the location of the settler, whether bona fide or otherwise, is entirely omitted, while the improvements, if any, are never noted. In order, therefore, to still further check the abuses and dishonest practices to which this system of surveys has become subject, the attention of surveyors general and deputy surveyors is specially directed to the requirements of pages 18 and 19 of the Manual of Surveys, and pages 43 and 44 of the Instructions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated May 3, 1881. The requirements therein contained must be strictly adhered to, and surveyors general are required and enjoined to see to it that their deputies comply therewith.

V. Surveyors general are directed to instruct their deputies that they must designate in the field notes and plats of their surveys the location of each and every settlement within a township surveyed under the deposit system, whether it be permanent in character or not, together with the names of such settlers and their improvements, if any. Cattle corrals are not considered as constituting improvements.

VI. When no settlers are found within a township surveyed under the system of individual deposits, the field notes of survey must distinctly and unequivocally state that fact, and any omission so to describe and designate the settlements and their surrounding improvements, or the absence of one or both in the field notes and plat, will be deemed a sufficient cause to infer fraud, and the accounts of the deputy will be suspended until such omission shall have been supplied to both plat and field notes. A suspension of the commission of the deputy will in the meantime take place, and all the facts will be reported to this office for consideration and action.

VII. Surveyors general are directed to make known to their several deputies the provisions and nature of this order, and will be held strictly accountable for its faithful execution. Ignorance of the terms of this order will not be held an excuse for failure to comply therewith by deputies.

VIII. This order will be observed by deputies now in the field, and surveyors general are directed to so inform them with the least practicable delay.

IX. Surveyors general are reminded of the important trust confided to them, and are instructed to exercise their whole authority to secure correct and honest surveys and returns by their deputies.

X. This order will take effect from and after the receipt of the same, and its receipt will be immediately acknowledged by each surveyor general.

XI. In every case of a contract heretofore approved which the surveyor general has reason to believe was fraudulently procured, such contract and the accounts thereunder must be immediately suspended and the facts reported to this office.

I am compelled to conclude, however, that there is no effectual remedy for said abuses except by the repeal of said act of March 3, 1879. This