SURVEYS.

The area of public surveys executed was as follows:

Surveys of public lands

Surveys of Indian lands..

Surveys of private land claims

Total number of acres surveyed during the fiscal year.....

Two thousand six hundred and seventy township plats and field notes of surveys of public lands and private land claims were examined during the year, and three hundred and fifty-one surveying contracts entered into by surveyors general were examined and approved.

PUBLIC LAND STRIP.

The boundaries of the tract of unorganized territory south of the Kansas and Colorado State lines, and between the Indian Territory and New Mexico, have been established and exterior township lines surveyed. Subdivisional township surveys yet remain to be made.

Settlers are commencing to enter this territory, and means should be provided by which they may be enabled to secure titles under the public land laws and also to be protected in person and property by the laws of the land. The territory is not at present attached to any judicial district. In my last annual report I recommended that it be attached to the surveying district of New Mexico for the purpose of subdivisional township surveys and the disposal of the land. The land is, however, nearer the recently established Southwestern land district in the State of Kansas, and it would be more convenient for settlers to make their entries at Garden City, in that district, than at the Santa Fé land office in New Mexico. I recommend, therefore, the attachment of this public land strip to the Southwestern land district in Kansas, and, as there is no surveyor general in Kansas, I also recommend that authority be given the Secretary of the Interior to cause the subdivisional surveys to be made under the general appropriation for the surveying service.

ALLOTMENT LANDS FOR UTE INDIANS.

The surveys made previous to the last fiscal year of lands for allotment to the Southern Utes in Colorado and New Mexico, amounting to 326,675.56 acres, have been examined and approved. In the past year surveys have been returned of 148,255.65 acres.

Two hundred and eighty-seven thousand one hundred and forty-seven and seventy-six one-hundredth acres have been surveyed within the Uintah Reservation in Utah for allotment to the White River Ute Indians.

Some progress has been made in the field work of surveys in Utah for allotment to the Uncompahgre Utes, but no returns have been received.

INDIAN RESERVATIONS.

A contract has been entered into for the survey and subdivision of seventeen townships in the late Uncompahgre Reservation in Colorado. The survey of the boundary between the Crow Reservation and Crow ceded lands in Montana, and surveys of Crow lands for allotment, have been contracted for. The survey of the boundary lines has not yet been executed. Some progress has been made in field surveys for allotment

The lands within the old Sioux Indian reservation west of Big Stone Lake in Dakota, have been resurveyed, and the western boundary line. retraced, the original surveys having been reported fraudulent. The area shown by the original survey was 115,157,68 acres, and by the resurvey 137,648 acres, making an increase by the resurvey of 22,540.32

acres.

NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF WYOMING.

The survey of the northern boundary of Wyoming has been examined in the field by a surveyor detailed for that duty by the Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the boundary line found correctly established.

MILITARY RESERVATIONS.

The Fort Larned reservation has been surveyed and subdivided as other public lands, and the necessary steps taken for the appraisement and sale of the land to actual settlers as provided by law.

A statement of military reservations created, enlarged, reduced, modified, or restored to the public domain during the year, will be found in the appropriate place in this report.

GENERAL SURVEYING OPERATIONS.

For the details of surveying operations in the several surveying districts, and much valuable information in respect to the public lands in said districts, reference is made to the accompanying reports of the sixteen surveyors-general.

DESTRUCTION OF MONUMENTS.

The frequent removal or destruction of corners marking the public surveys render it necessary for me to call attention to the absence of any statute bearing upon the matter in cases where the surveys have been completed.

The protection of these monuments is of great importance both to settlers and the Government, and I recommend the passage of an act by Congress making the willful removal or destruction of monuments or corners of public surveys an offense, and providing proper penalties therefor.

FALSE AND FRAUDULENT SURVEYS.

Under existing laws deputy surveyors are liable on their bonds for the execution of false or fraudulent surveys, and are also liable to the penalties of perjury for falsely taking and subscribing an oath that surveys have been faithfully and correctly made. These penalties are ineffective to prevent gross frauds in the surveying service. Recoveries upon bonds are rarely possible, and the difficulty in obtaining convictions for perjury in general cases is well known.

I am of the opinion that punishment by fine and imprisonment for making false and fraudulent returns of public surveys is a matter of necessity for the better protection of the public interests, and I recommend the passage of an act to that effect.

RESURVEYS.

It often becomes necessary to resurvey townships which have been erroneously surveyed, or where the corners marking the surveys have

become obliterated. The annual appropriations for the surveying service are not deemed applicable to such resurveys. Frequent applications are also made for the survey of beds of meandered lakes, sloughs, and ponds, and for the extension of surveys over tracts omitted from survey for some cause in the progress of the general survey of townships. It was formerly the practice to survey and dispose of tracts falling within the above-named classes and which were considered public land of the United States, but owing to the difficulty of determining questions of title, and doubt as to the authority for making surveys under current appropriations, such practice was discontinued by my immediate predecessor, and I have not felt authorized to renew it without legislative sanction.

There are many cases of this character in which, for the purpose of adjudicating the swamp grant to States, or other administrative purposes, it is the duty of this office to determine questions involved, and to this end an examination of the land, and its survey, becomes necessary.

I recommend that authority be given the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the resurvey of townships erroneously surveyed, or where corners have become obliterated, and for the examination and survey of the beds of meandered lakes, sloughs, and ponds, and for tracts omitted from previous surveys; such surveys or resurveys to be made under general appropriations or the individual deposit system.

MAPS AND PLATS.

Current work has included the revision and correction of the annual map of the United States (edition of 1882); the compilation of new maps of Florida and Arizona; revising and correcting maps of Alabama, Idaho, and Montana; the commencement of the compilation of new maps of Utah and Wyoming, and the revision of the map of Washing. ton Territory; extending public surveys and railroad lines on State and Territorial maps; protracting and drawing diagrams of new surveys, and making numerous calculations for official purposes. Three hundred and seventy right-of-way railroad maps have been examined; 20 railroad land-grant maps constructed; 717 copies of railroad, private land claim, Government reservation, and district maps and township plats copied, and the tracings of 3,188 worn township plats examined preparatory to photolithographing them. Nearly 10,000 photolithographic copies of township plats have been furnished public officers, and a large number to private applicants. Indexes have been prepared to 150 volumes of field notes and plats of survey.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The number of letters received was 117,800, an increase of 26,238, or 30 per cent. over the year 1882. The number of letters written was 88,955, covering 66,384 page of letter record.

EXEMPLIFICATION OF RECORDS.

Section 461 of the Revised Statutes makes it the duty of the Com missioner to furnish all exemplifications of patents or papers on file or of record in this office that may be required by parties interested, at a price fixed by the statute, the fees so received to be paid into the Treasury. The amount received from that source the past year was $8,118.05.

This class of work increases year by year, and now involves the aggregate time of several clerks, resulting in a corresponding loss to the ordinary business of the office.

In order that this special service for the accommodation of private parties who pay the expenses of it may not be an interference with the general service, nor a tax upon the general appropriation, I respectfully recommend that provision be made by law by which the money received at this office for certified copies of plats and records shall be deemed specially appropriated for defraying the expenses of preparing such copies, the same to be disbursed by the Treasury Department in the usual manner.

PUBLIC LAND STATISTICS.

This office is constantly called upon for information from the records for the use of committees and members of Congress and other branches of the Government; State and county officials; scientific, historical, and politico-economic societies, American and foreign; immigration and agricultural associations; statistical compilers and others. The information so sought cannot usually be furnished without the expenditure of much time and labor in the examination of miscellaneous and voluminous records, and it is frequently impracticable for that reason to furnish it at all. Accuracy is hardly attainable in the preparation of statements that may be made in the unmethodical and often hasty manner indicated.

It is a matter of current official necessity, public convenience, and historical consequence, that essential public land statistics should be brought into accessible condition. To collate and arrange this data in convenient form for ready reference would probably require the work of six clerks for three years. But when done it would be done for all time, and a great saving of labor now annually required in making up statements and reports would be effected.

The compilation of data for my annual report has taken the constant labor of four clerks for three months. A call the past year for information in regard to sales of about 10,000,000 acres of Choctaw lands for use in a suit in the Court of Claims required the labor of six clerks six months to collate the facts. With a proper digest of record results the greater portion of such labor would be saved. It has never been possible, with the great need of all clerical force in current work, to even commence a systematic compendium of public land statistics.

INDEX OF LAND PATENTS.

An early provision of the Statutes (section 459 Revised Statutes) makes it the duty of the recorder to prepare alphabetical indexes of the names of patentees of public lands. This work has never been done, and a special appropriation is now necessary to carry out that provision of law.

Such indexes are needed for constant reference, and the want of them involves greater labor in searching the records upon calls for information than would be required to annually continue them when once brought up to current dates.

FIRE EXTINGUISHERS.

The recent destruction by fire of the land office and surveyor-general's office at Olympia, Wash., should invite the attention of Congress to the

necessity of making some provision against such calamity in the future. Fire-extinguishers are provided for several of the public offices and buildings in this city, including the Capitol building, and are used at army posts, barracks, navy-yards, and hospitals, at signal-service stations, Indian agencies, and other places.

A majority of land offices are located in towns in which there is no fire department. The offices are therefore exposed, and destruction by fire is not an unusual occurrence, resulting in considerable loss to the Government and expense in replacing records, and in great disadvantage to settlers and land claimants.

The use of fire extinguishers having been found expedient by other departments of the Government, and in private buildings and places of public resort, I recommend an appropriation for the purchase of a suitable number for the several local land offices and offices of surveyors general.

PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.

Special agents have been appointed under the act of March 3, 1883, to investigate cases of illegal and fraudulent entry and appropriation of the public lands.

The time required for organizing the special service, and the brief period elapsing between the date of the act and the close of the fiscal year, afford little opportunity for exhibiting results. There were, however, 1,237 cases of fraudulent entry reported, 702 of which were completely examined. Two hundred and ninety-six entries were canceled or held for cancellation, and twenty-six suits were recommended to set aside patents fraudulently procured. The entries which have been the subject of investigation were pre-emption, homestead, timber-culture, timber land, desert land, and placer, mineral entries, and entries under the New Mexico donation act.

Since the close of the fiscal year much further progress has been made in this work, the field of which is extensive and the necessity for it paramount.

Provision was made by the last Congress fixing the sum of $3 per day as an allowance for the traveling expenses of special timber agents in lieu of the indefinite allowance of actual expenses. This change has worked advantageously and to economy in expenditures, and I recommend that the same provision be applied to all special agents in the public land service.

RELINQUISHMENTS OF LAND ENTRIES.

The first section of the act of May 14, 1880 (21 Stat., 140), provides that when a relinquishment of any pre emption, homestead, or timberculture claim is filed in the local land office the land covered by such claim shall immediately become subject to entry by any other person, without awaiting the formal cancellation by this office of the relinquished entry.

The effect of this statute is to invite speculative entries for the purpose of selling relinquishments. The practical result is that when a new township is surveyed large portions of the land are at once covered with filings and entries, relinquishments of which are then offered for sale like stocks in the market. To such an extent is this proceeding carried that it is becoming difficult for an actual settler to obtain access to a quarter section of public land in desirable agricultural localities without buying off a pretended claim that has no foundation other than