June 30, 1880, there were 60 private land claims in Colorado and New Mexico pending in Congress for confirmation, embracing an area, so far as the same have been surveyed, of 4,294,672.473 acres. The largest contains 472,736.90 acres, and the smallest 1,003.55 acres, as follows:

List of private land claims in New Mexico and Colorado reported to Congress, and now awaiting action.

List of private land claims in New Mexico and Colorado, &c.—Continued.

In General Land-Office, to be transmitted to Congress: Una de Gato grant. Reported to be fraudu lent by special agent Department of Justice and surveyor-general of New Mexico."

ARIZONA AND COLORADO.

The legislation of July 22, 1854, related to that part of New Mexico which was included within the lines defined by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo until the act of August 4, 1854 (10 Stats., p. 575), which provided that, "until otherwise provided by law, the territory acquired under the late treaty with Mexico, commonly known as the Gadsden treaty, be, and the same is hereby, incorporated with the Territory of New Mexico, subject to all the laws of said last-named Territory."

Under this act the Secretary of the Interior, in his decision, dated February 17, 1872, held that the laws therein referred to were United States laws, including the above act of July 22, 1854, and hence that the jurisdiction of the surveyor-general of New Mexico for the settlement of these claims extended over all the territory acquired by the Gadsden treaty, unless, in the words of the act of August 4, 1854, some other mode had been "provided by law." Since the date of this act the settlement of a part of these claims in the Gadsden purchase has been otherwise provided for by law.

The provisions of the eighth section of the said act of July 22, 1854, were extended to Colorado by the seventeenth section of the act of February 28, 1861 (12 Stats., p. 176).

By the act of February 24, 1863 (12 Stats., p. 664), a part of the Gadsden purchase was incorporated into the Territory of Arizona, and by the same act authority was given for the appointment of a surveyor-general for that Territory. By the subsequent act of July 15, 1870 (16 Stats., p. 304), the provisions of the eighth section of the act of July 22, 1854, were extended to Arizona, and the surveyor-general thereof was thereby clothed with as ample jurisdiction over grants therein as was vested in the surveyor-general of New Mexico over like claims in the Territory of New Mexico.

On the 9th of January and 11th of April, 1877, this officer issued instructions to the surveyors-general of Arizona and Colorado, approved by the Secretary of the Interior,

respectively on the 11th of January and 1st of May, 1877, directing those officers to proceed, in compliance with the requirements of said act of July 22, 1854, and supplemental legislation, to report to Congress the origin, nature, and extent of all private land claims within their respective districts.

List of private land claims in Arizona in General Land Office to be reported to Congress.

San José de Sonoita
San Rafael de la Sanja..

Total

Acres. 7,598.070 17,361. 108

24,959. 178

As the law stands, there are two Territories, New Mexico and Arizona, and one State, Colorado, in which there are no provisions of law for the settlement of Spanish and Mexican titles, the protection of which is guaranteed by treaty stipulations. See "Report with testimony of Public Land Commission, 1880," for condition of grants and recommendations.

See Reports Commissioner General Land Office, 1876, '77-79. Title, "Private land claims."

MINERAL IN LANDS EMBRACED IN PRIVATE LAND GRANTS.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his annual report for 1876, says: The owners of the grants which have been confirmed by Congress claim all the minerals embraced within their limits, upon the ground that the unqualified confirmation by Congress, and subsequent issue of patents, operates as a quit-claim to the minerals on the part of the United States Government.

The Spanish and Mexican Governments reserved the right to the minerals unless expressly granted; therefore, if the United States patents include the minerals, they not only make good the grants made by Spain and Mexico, but convey additional rights, and there is no inducement to prospectors to make discoveries. (See report of special agent to investigate this subject in report of Public Land Commission, February, 1880, pp. 4-12; also, see "Compilation of laws, regulations, usages and conditions of Spain and Mexico, under which lands were granted and held, and missions, presidios, and pueblos established and governed," by John Wasson, U. S. surveyor-general for Arizona.)

The total estimated area of lands embraced within the limits of private land claims on the public domain, patented and unpatented, is 80,000,000 acres.

UNDER THE THIRD ARTICLE OF THE TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN OF JUNE 15, 1846,

there is another class of private land claims growing out of possessory rights to lands held by and under the Hudson's Bay Company and by the Puget Sound Agricul tural Company, on the north side of the Columbia. The claim of the last-named company was for 160,000 acres. These claims were for lands now in Washington Territory and Oregon, and were all settled by the executive and legislative departments many years ago. (See Statutes at Large, 1858, 1860, &c.)

UNDER TREATY WITH RUSSIA-THE ALASKA PURCHASE.

Under the third article of the treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska March 30, 1867, the United States agreed and guarantied that the inhabitants of Alaska should be "maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."

The Russian and American commissioners, authorized to make and receive transfer of the province of Alaska, at Sitka (New Archangel), October 18, 1867, signed inventories of public and private property held by individuals under grant from Russia. (For lists of these, see Ex. Doc. No. 125, second session Fortieth Congress.)

There has as yet been no legislation in reference to private land claims in Alaska.

MANNER OF SURVEY OF PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS.

Private land claims are surveyed by deputy surveyors, who enter into a contract with the surveyor-general for that purpose, which contract is approved by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

After the contract has been approved and the necessary bond filed by the deputy, the surveyor-general issues special instructions for the survey, describing the boundaries of the claim as confirmed. These surveys are invariably of an irregular shape, and therefore do not conform to the legal subdivisions of the public surveys

CHAPTER XXXII.

EXISTING METHODS OF SALE AND DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC LANDS.

The several existing laws for the sale and disposition of the public domain permit entries and locations by individuals, associations, and corporations.

A single man, a married man, a single woman, or a married woman, if (legally) the head of a family, citizens of the United States, or have declared their intentions to become such, can have the benefits of the several settlement laws.

The theory of the settlement laws is that an individual, if he be not already the owner of 320 acres of land, can purchase 160 acres under the pre-emption act after six months' settlement, occupation, and improvement, and can acquire 160 acres under the homestead act by residence, improvement, and cultivation for a term of five years, with certain legal rebates as to time of settlement, or can purchase at the end of six months by commutation.

Under the several settlement and occupancy laws, however, a person can legally acquire 1,120 acres of the public domain.

CLASSIFICATION.

The existing laws recognize several classes of lands, as follows:

Mineral.-"In all cases 'lands valuable for minerals' shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law." (Section 2318, R. S.)

Timber and stone.-Lands valuable chiefly for timber and stone, unfit for cultivation. Saline.-Salt springs.

Town-site lands.-Any unoccupied public lands.

Desert.-Lands which will not, without irrigation, produce an agricultural crop. Coal lands.-Lands containing coal.

And all others as agricultural.

Special laws are provided for each of the seven classes named. Lands reserved or withdrawn "are not subject to entry or location."

AGRICULTURAL LANDS.

Agricultural lands can be taken in tracts of from 40 to 160 acres under the pre-emption, homestead, and timber-culture acts, or purchased at public sale or private entry. Of agricultural public lands there are two classes: the one class at $1.25 per acre, which is designated-as minimum, and the other at $2.50 per acre, or double minimum. The latter class consists of tracts embraced within the alternate sections of land reserved to the United States in acts of Congress making grants within prescribed limits of the lines of railroads, or other works of internal improvements, to aid in the construction thereof, such reserved sections being double in price. Congress, by an act approved June 15, 1880, reduced to $1.25 per acre any lands then subject to entry (meaning, in this connection, ordinary cash entry of offered lands), which were put in market at the enhanced price prior to the 1st of January, 1861. Title may be acquired by purchase at public sale, or by ordinary "private entry," and in virtue of the pre emption, homestead, timber-culture, and other laws.

All lands obtained under the homestead laws are exempt from liability for debts contracted prior to the issuing of patent therefor.