In the

of a vacancy in the office for a specified time, is Acting Commissioner. His actual duty by law is to supervise the general duties of the other clerks of the office. organization of the office made by its head, a division is placed under his immediate charge, designated as above, which is engaged in general correspondence, copying, and in the transaction of general routine business.

II. THE RECORDER'S DIVISION.

1239. This division has placed at its head the Recorder of the General Land Office, an officer provided for by law. His duties, as defined by statute, are to certify and affix the seal of the office to all patents for public lands, and to attend to the correct engrossing, recording, and transmission of such patents, to prepare alphabetical indexes of the names of patentees and of persons entitled to patents, and to prepare such copies and exemplifications of matters on file or of record in the office as the Commissioner may from time to time direct. In addition to this, it is his duty to countersign all patents for lands issued from the office. It is made his duty, in the organization of the office, to keep files of all original papers forming the basis of patents issued; also of all patents undelivered or uncalled for. In this division all patents are recorded in large volumes, and the muniments of title on which these patents are founded are systematically filed and arranged by States, land districts, and numbers.

III. THE PUBLIC LAND DIVISION.

1240. This division has for its head the Principal Clerk of Public Lands, an officer named and constituted specifically in the law organizing the office. His duties, however, are left to assignment by the Commissioner. In the performance of these, he and the division under his direction

have charge of the preliminary business connected with the disposal of public lands after survey, as distinguished from the lands covered by private land claims. In this division, as soon as surveys are made tract books are open, in which the smallest legal subdivision established by the surveys and the areas thereof are noted. In these books are noted also all private claims, reservations, pre-emptions, and homestead filings; also all cash and other entries, selections by States, under the act of September 4, 1841, granting lands for internal improvements by corporations under Congressional grants for various educational purposes; also all entries and locations of the various species of land scrip. It devolves upon this division likewise to examine the greater portion of these entries and loca tions, with regard to the regularity of the papers and the sufficiency of the proof, to see that any errors therein are rectified. To this end it prepares and sends out the necessary correspondence, meantime holding the cases in suspension, and where they are in proper condition for final action it approves the same for patenting or holds them for cancellation. This division also passes upon numer ous contested cases, receives and submits appeals to the head of the department, and communicates the results to the proper officials and the persons concerned. In this division also are adjudicated, on principles of equity and justice, according to the provisions of sections 2450 and 2457 of the statutes, all suspended entries of public lands. These adjudications are submitted to a board, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior and Attorney-General, for confirmation. It also attends to much miscellaneous business, such as the work necessary for the disposal of abandoned reservations under special acts of Congress, or for giving effect to acts passed for the benefit of private parties having rights to be adjusted in regard to public lands, or for

restoring to market, lands withdrawn from time to time for various causes.

1241. Circular instructions to the district land offices, bringing lands into market under special or general laws, issue from this division. The division also prepares reports for the Commissioner on various subjects relating to official business called for by the head of the department or by Congress, and it performs miscellaneous duties of like character. It is a division of general duties and sources of information regarding lands.

IV. THE DIVISION OF PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS.

1242. This division is in charge of the Principal Clerk of Private Land Claims. The business transacted relates to the examination, adjudication of and final action in all claims based upon British, French, Spanish, and Mexican titles, recognized and protected by acts of Congress or by treaty stipulations, which in the main lie within the territory acquired from foreign powers.

1243. In this division also all locations of lands are passed upon which are authorized by Congress in lieu of lands injured by earthquakes in the county of New Madrid, Missouri.

1244. This division is also charged with the adjustment of donation and mission claims in the State of Oregon and Territory of New Mexico, and of donation claims in the Territory of New Mexico.

1245. It has likewise the charge of the examination of allotments under treaty provisions to the Indians; also of the preparation and examination of scrip issued in accordance with law in lieu of certain unsatisfied private claims.

V. THE DIVISION OF PUBLIC SURVEYS.

1246. This division is in charge of the Principal Clerk of Surveys. It is charged with the supervision of all work

relating to the survey of public lands. It prepares instructions to the Surveyors-General relative to the extension of surveys or the examination and correction of erroneous surveys.

1247. In this division all contracts for surveys of the public lands are examined, passed upon, adjusted, and submitted to the Treasury Department for payment. All returns of surveys are referred to this division for examination as to correctness, and on approval are filed therein.

1228. It has charge also of all records and correspondence relating to Indian, military, light-house, live-oak, and other reservations.

1249. To this division is also referred matters pertaining to the establishment of boundary lines, by astronomical surveys, between States and Territories of the United States; also to surveys of Indian lands, abandoned military reservations, &c.

1250. The plats and field-notes of all surveys are retained on the files of this division, in charge of a princi pal draughtsman, who supervises all work of draughting or copying plats of surveys, and who compiles and prepares the official land map of the United States. The duties pertaining to this section, known as the Draughting Divis ion, embrace the construction of lateral limits of railroad withdrawals over lines of public survey; all calculations of area and protraction of surveys; copying of plats, tracings, and diagrams for the different divisions of the office.

VI. THE DIVISION OF RAILROADS.

1251. This division is charged with the adjustment of grants, by Congressional legislation, of lands for railroad purposes, for canals, wagon roads, and other internal improvements; also with matters relating to the execution of laws giving the right of way through the public lands.

VII. THE PRE-EMPTION DIVISION.

1252. This division has charge of entries made under the pre-emption and town-site laws; also of sales of Osage Indian trust and diminished reserve lands, and of claims of parties who purchased from Mexican grantees or assigns; also of lands within grants subsequently rejected, or which were excluded from final survey of confirmed grants. It also has charge of conflicting claims between claimants of that character and others.

VIII. THE MILITARY WARRANT DIVISION.

1253. To this division are finally referred for examination and proper action the papers in locations made in satisfaction of military bounty land warrants issued by authority of various acts of Congress. Similar reference is made as regards locations made upon agricultural-college scrip and the special scrip issued to the representatives of Porterfield by act of April 11, 1860.

This division examines as to the genuineness and regularity of assignments of land warrants and scrip submitted for official approval. It also prepares all revolutionary bounty land scrip; also all patents for lands in the Virginia military district of Ohio.

IX. THE SWAMP-LAND DIVISION.

1254. This division has charge of the correspondence, records, and other matters pertaining to the adjustment of the grants of swamp and overflowed lands to the several States within their respective limits, and, in connection with the following-named division, of matters pertaining to the execution of the act of March 2, 1855, granting indemnity to the States for swamp lands disposed of by the United States after the passage of the swamp-land grant act.