On the 25th of August, 1854, the Secretary of the Interior issued instructions to the United States surveyor general for New Mexico, as required by the legislation aforesaid, and that officer thereupon entered upon his duties, as prescribed by said instructions and the acts of July and August, 1854, and he has since transmitted to Congress a number of reports on this class of claims, some of which have been approved by Congress and some of which are now awaiting action before either the Senate or House. In Colorado and Arizona, however, no such instructions have been issued, partly because it was hoped Congress would, in view of the evident necessities for further legislation, make some provision for the more speedy adjustment of these claims, and partly be cause the quasi judicial duties conferred by the acts aforesaid could not be exercised without injury to that branch of the surveyor general's duties which more properly appertain to the office of surveyor general. Hence no claims have been reported from either the surveyor general of Colorado or Arizona.

During the past four years this office has, by reports and otherwise, repeatedly called the attention of Congress to the defects in the present system of settling these claims; and to these I add my opinion, that the present method prescribed for the determination of the validity of these grants is not sufficiently speedy to do justice either to the claimants or settlers or to the United States. Nor does it secure the requisite ability for a proper settlement of such grants; nor does it provide for the settlement of all such claims, the protection of which is guaranteed by treaty. It is now more than twenty years since the surveyor general of New Mexico commenced the examination of claims in that Territory, and he has since reported to Congress less than one hundred and fifty claims, though in 1856 he had more than one thousand upon his files, and of the number reported Congress has confirmed but seventy-one! From these data it will be seen that the probable date when the last of these thousand claims in New Mexico alone will be reported on and confirmed is in the far future.

In the mean time the claimants must wait without remedy, and their grants, which would be valuable if the title were completed by a United States confirmation or patent, must remain comparatively worthless, as is all property where the vendor offers for sale an incomplete title and prospective litigation.

The settler dares not settle and improve land lest it be subsequently found to be within the limits of some unconfirmed and unsurveyed grant; and the United States by such delay not only loses the sale of its land, but, judging from past experience with private land claims in other localities, the development of the resources of that country will create additional incentives for the manufacture of fraudulent title papers, with the view of securing public land therewith. Each year's delay, with the consequent death of living witnesses and loss or destruction of ancient records relating to land, dds to the probabilities that such forged and otherwise fraudulent title papers will pass without detection the scrutiny of the officers whose duty it may become to determine their character.

This delay is neither the fault of the surveyor general nor of Congress. A proper attention by the surveyor general to his executive duties leaves him but little time to attend to the examination of complicated and confused evidences of title, most of which are in a foreign language. And when the claim, having been reported to Congress, has been assigned to its appropriate committee, no member of such committee can conscientiously recommend that the United States convey the large tract of land which most of these grants contain without giving to each case that careful, patient, and protracted examination which belongs to the

judge rather than the legislator. In the multitude of business pressing upon Congress during its session, it cannot be expected that these claims will be attended to to the exclusion of business more important to the general welfare.

However able, competent, and valuable a surveyor general may be as an executive officer, or to conduct the usual business arising in a surveyor general's office, he may, and probably will, lack the technical legal knowledge which will enable him to cope successfully with volu minous title papers, complicated by the sophistry of skillful attorneys. Yet, under the present system, the surveyor general must surmount these difficulties, or they cannot be surmounted; for, however carefully Congress may re-examine his work, it must not be forgotten that Congress acts on a copy of the papers filed with the surveyor general, and hence cannot possibly know whether the grant be antedated or forged, or contains any of those defects which can be detected only by an inspection of the original record. The practical result of this system appears in the confirmation of immense tracts of land the location of which is now boldly asked by the claimants and their agents, not in accordance with the limits of their grant from Mexico, but within the limits of their grant as defined in the recommendation and report of the surveyor general, and as confirmed by Congress.

The remedy which I suggest for the correction of these evils is the repeal of the jurisdiction now vested in the surveyors general, and the appointment of three or more commissioners, with full power to hear and decide upon the validity of all grant claims within the limits of the territory acquired from Mexico, except in the State of California, and with appeal from their decision to the United States courts. By the selection of men specially qualified for, and who can devote their time exclusively to, these duties, a more speedy and otherwise more satis factory settlement will be obtained. It is believed that, if the papers in each case be put in order and the record made up by these commissioners, more speed will be obtained than if the courts, with their other important duties, are given original jurisdiction over these claims.

The present method of surveying these claims, after coufirmation, is also defective. At present, the whole weight of correctly locating a grant by survey rests with the United States deputy surveyor, who executes the survey in the field.

The greater part of these grants are bounded by adjoining grants or natural objects; such, for example, as on the north by the grant to A, on the south by the stream called B, on the east by the table lands of C, and on the west by the spring of D. Now, it is often a matter of the greatest difficulty, in a country such as the Southwest, abounding in springs and streams, and covered with table lands, to determine which of two springs, several miles apart, is the spring A, or which of two streams or table lands, likewise miles apart, is the stream B, or the table land C. To aid him in reaching a correct conclusion, the deputy surveyor has no guide other than such information as he can glean from statements of persons in the vicinity, not under oath, and perhaps interested in extending or curtailing the limits of the grant about to be surveyed. When the deputy surveyor has performed his duty to the best of his ability under these adverse circumstances, he returns the survey to the surveyor general, who, not being required to examine these natural objects in the field, transmits the survey to this office, and the claimants appear and ask for a patent in accordance therewith. Manifestly, if this office acts upon such a survey by approving it, it acts blindly.

It is difficult to suggest a remedy that will be entirely satisfactory;

but, as the result of a careful examination of the settlement of these claims elsewhere, I recommend that a law be passed authorizing the surveyor-general to publish each survey for a period not exceeding six weeks in two newspapers, one publication being in the newspaper nearest the land, and one at the principal business or political center of the Territory or State in which the claim is located, the said publication to call upon all parties interested to appear and show cause, if any there be, why the said survey should not be approved, and such objection as may then be made, or such evidence as may then be produced, to be transmitted, with the opinion of the surveyor general, to this office. Provision should also be made for a return of the papers, a further notice, and the taking of further testimony, where deemed necessary by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

The success which has attended this method in a similar class of claims in California warrants me in predicting a favorable result should it be adopted in the adjustment of the claims now under consideration. In addition to the foregoing, I might add, that while these private land claims remain in their present unsettled condition it will continue to retard emigration to and settlement in said Territories; for, until the titles thereto are ascertained, and the laud segregated from the public domain, it will be impossible to determine which is public land subject to appropriation and settlement under the public land laws and which is not; therefore, settlement made with a purpose of acquiring title under the public laud system is necessarily at the risk of finding in the future the land settled upon included within the limits of a private land claim, and the improvements lost to the party who made them. There have already occurred many cases of severe hardship in this respect.

The experience of the past fully demonstrates that after these claims have been reported to Congress, as required by the aforesaid act of 1854, Congress is loth to take them up and confirm them without more definite knowledge regarding their genuineness, extent, and location; which it is impossible to have under the present defective system.

If it is the intention of Congress to continue in force the present system of presenting the private land claims in the Territory of New Mexico for confirmation, I would make, in addition to those already made, the following recommendation, viz: that the act of July 22, 1854, be so amended as to require the surveyor general of said Territory, under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to cause to be made a preliminary survey, at the expense of the United States, of all private land claims favorably reported upon and recommended by him for confirmation, and that a plat of said survey shall accompany the report and papers in each case transmitted to Congress for its action.

I join in the recommendations of my predecessors, that the jurisdiction vested in the surveyors-general be repealed, and the appointment of a board of three or more commissioners, with full power to hear and decide upon the validity of all grants within the limits of the territo y acquired from Mexico, except California, with an appeal from their de cision to the United States courts.

1. Abstract of surveying operations in the different surveying districts under the immediate supervision of the respective surveyors general.

Louisiana. The surveyor general represents that the estimate of $6,300 for clerk hire in his office is inadequate, and that it is impossible to bring up the arrears of work with the present reduced clerical force, and asks for $12,000 additional for the purpose. He urges the completion of surveys of public lands in the southwestern district of Louisiana, the lands in that locality being the best in the State.

The modification of the homestead act of 1866 by Congress, reinstating the ordinary modes of disposing of public lands in Louisiana, seems to him to contemplate the resumption of ordinary private entries only after public offerings shall have taken place, and one of the effects of this act will be to stimulate the prosecution of private land claims, and the availability of certificates of location to be issued in satisfaction of such claims would have the effect of giving value to this kind of scrip and increasing the efforts of claimants to secure a resumption of the work of satisfying such claims. The surveyor general calls attention to the defects of the code of instructions, &c., under the scrip acts of 1836 and 1858, and asks that it be revised, modified, and relieved of its conflictions so that he may have a clear rule for his official conduct. The surveyor general thinks there will be a necessity. of surveys to determine the quantities of donation claims in the former Greensburgh district. The question soon to be met is whether, in case applicants obtain from the proper register and receiver the usual orders of surveys under the acts of 1819, 1822, and 1826, and file them with the surveyor general, it would become his duty to contract with deputies to make the surveys, and at whose expense the work should be done.

Whoever undertakes the work will have a difficult task, as each survey will develop conflicts with other long established claims or with sales, locations, or homesteads made or granted by the United States.

The surveyor general recommends the closing of the crevasse called the "Jump" in the west bank of the Mississippi River, and the consequent reclamation of about ten square miles of alluvial land. He also recommends the closing of a cut made by an officer in the United States Navy through the west bank in 1862, and which has become a crevasse outlet sufficient to discharge about one tenth of the Mississippi River.

The closing of these two outlets would reclaim large bodies of land for cultivation, and at the same time greatly improve the navigation of

the river.

Florida.-The surveyor general of Florida reports the survey of the Gulf Coast from the present termination of surveys in township 50 south, range 25 east, southward; also of the mainland from township 50 south, range 25 east southward and westward, and of the islands in Lake Jesup, in township 20 south, range 31 east.

Reports contracts entered into for the survey of the unsurveyed keys from Key Largo to Key West, and of the mainland south of the Everglades, and the islands in Charlotte Harbor, the islands in Dead Lake, and on the Gulf Coast from township 26 south to Casey's Key and Fort Brooke reservation.

States he constructed fifty-nine township plats and furnished the local land office.

Submits estimate of appropriation required for next fiscal year, including salary of surveyor general, chief clerk, draughtsman, transcrib ing clerk, rent, and contingent expenses. Total, $17,700.

The surveyor general repeats his suggestions in his last annual report in relation to the Georgia boundary: "That an appropriation be made to compensate an agent to ascertain the land sold by the State of Georgia south of the present boundary, in order that the titles to the same may be passed upon by competent authority, so that such claims might be surveyed out, and the public lands be made available for settlement," &c.

The surveyor general observes that the present rate of payment for running exterior and subdivision lines is too little to compensate for work well done.

Nebraska.-The sum of $75,000 was appropriated for the survey of public lands in Nebraska during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876. For the survey of Indian lands, $35,872 was paid out of appropriations for that purpose made in 1874, 1875, and 1876.

There was deposited $18,690 by railroad companies for field work. Under these several amounts seventeen contracts were entered into and returns were made amounting to 12,624 miles of survey, embracing 2,985,050 acres of land surveyed during the last fiscal year. During the same period, 139 township plats were protracted, and 238 copies of the same were prepared for the general and local land offices. The field notes of these 139 townships were transcribed and copies were furnished to the local and general land offices. Two hundred and seventy-eight descriptive lists of corners and quality of soil were also prepared and furnished to the proper local offices.

The estimates submitted by the surveyor general for the surveying service during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, are as follows: For surveys, $88,842; for compensation of surveyor general and clerks in his office, $11,600; for incidental expenses of his office, $3,000.

Minnesota. Under the appropriation of $30,000 for the survey of public lands in Minnesota, and $15,312 assigned by order of the Department out of the appropriation of $191,820, approved March 3, 1875, for the survey of Indian reservations, the surveyor general reports the following progress made during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, to wit:

Eight surveying contracts were entered into, the returns of which amounted to 4,250 linear miles of survey, embracing 1,080,047 acres of land. During the same period the office work was expedited to the extent of 189 plats of surveys; 136 townships, the field notes of which were transcribed, recorded, and furnished to the local land offices and to this office; and 117 descriptive sheets of corner boundaries, describing the timber and the quality of the soil, as disclosed by the field notes of the land surveyed.

The surveyor general submits estimates for the surveying service in Minnesota for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, in the following manner: For surveys, $36,945; for compensation of the surveyor general and clerks in his office, $10,600; and $1,600 for incidental expenses of the office.

California.--According to the report of the surveyor general, the operations of the surveying service in California during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, were as follows:

Under the appropriation of $70,000 for the survey of public lands, approved March 3, 1875, there were let thirty-four contracts with deputy surveyors. The returns of the deputies show that there were 200 townships surveyed, embracing 2,574,893 acres of land, at a cost of $54,839. Under the deposit system provided by act of Congress approved March 3, 1871, thirty-eight contracts were entered into for the survey of