settlers, the farming interest keeping pace with the wants of the population, and that a large surplus of all the necessaries of life is the anticipated production of the present year. The mineral and other resources of Colorado, particularly the product of gold, now on the increase, and of silver, copper, iron, petroleum, coal, and timber, are fully described in the interesting report of the surveyor general. NEW MEXICO. No field operations have been prosecuted in that Territory during the last fiscal year, on account of the hostility of the Indians. The personnel of the office, the surveyor general and translator, maintain the organization of the surveying service, translations having been made of a number of Spanish documents on file in the surveyor general's office, relating to foreign titles. of the con Contracts have been made by the surveyor general for the survey firmed private claims of San Pedro and Cañon del Agua, the expenses of the field operations and office work to be paid by the claimants, as the law directs. The surveying department proposes the extension of the public surveys on the waters of the Bonito, Ruidaso, and Hondo rivers, and in the valley of the Tularosa, south of Fort Stanton, where settlements are reported to exist, and also in the direction of Fort McLane, Gila, and Mimbres rivers. It is of the first importance to the interests of the government, and of individuals claiming under Spanish and Mexican titles, that authority by law be delegated for the early and final adjustment of all claims in New Mexico and Arizona. This may be done either by delegating power to the local officers to hear and determine both as to the validity of the grant and the locus, subject to the final decision of the department, or by referring all such claims, under proper limitation as to time for filing and prosecuting, to the judiciary for adjustment, so that titles not valid under treaty may be forever barred in law and equity, and all valid may be confirmed and segregated from the public domain. A principle should be adopted in the suggested legislation to locate, with proper limitations as to quantity, according to the lines of the public surveys, all claims with undefined and uncertain limits, embracing not only past but future confirmations, and to fix a period within which parties shall hereafter apply and pay for the survey of the confirmation, in default of which the boundaries shall be made to conform to the public surveys. Under the law as it now stands, the surveyor general of New Mexico is required to receive, pass upon, and report his opinions for the final determination of Congress, his jurisdiction not, however, extending to the Gadsden tract. It is not only proper that the line between New Mexico and Colorado should be run and established, in order that the land officers on either side may keep within their jurisdiction, but, in a public point of view, it is necessary the line of demarcation between New Mexico and Colorado should be permanently run and established. Concurring in the views of the surveyor general of New Mexico in that respect, an estimate for the purpose, of $19,000, is submitted. ARIZONA The surveyor general has been instructed to establish and survey the base, meridian, and other lines embracing settlements, Indian hostilities having hitherto arrested the service. The mineral and agricultural resources of Arizona, it is reported, are largely developed, several quartz mills being in operation in the vicinity of Prescott, and copper mines found on Bill Williams river near the Colorado of the West. IDAHO. Surveys have not yet been extended to that Territory, on account of its re moteness from the seat of the office, at Denver, of the surveying department of Colorado, of which it once constituted a part. By an act of the 29th June, 1866, however, a surveyor general for Idaho is authorized, and has been appointed, commissioned, and has started for his post at Boise City. That officer will be instructed to establish the principal bases for future surveys, existing appropriations being adequate. By another act approved June 27, 1866, authority is given for a land district in Idaho, and for the appointment of land officers. UTAH. No surveys have been made in Utah since 1857, attributable doubtless to the anomalous condition of affairs in that Territory. Cases have been reported to the surveyor general of Colorado, whose district now includes Utah, of people who had made improvements on unoccupied lands and were driven off. It is suggested that a land district be created in Utah, and the public lands already surveyed, covering about two millions and a half of acres, be offered for sale. This policy, it is believed, would bring to the Territory loyal settlers and afford them opportunity to acquire title. The surveyor general reports the discovery of rich veins of argentiferous galena and silver, which are attracting many miners to Utah, who are building towns in sections of the country heretofore imperfectly known, and hence the establishment of a land office is imperatively demanded, with such additional surveys as settlers may require in developing the resources of the Territory. Under the act of Congress approved May 5, 1864, for vacating and selling the present Indian reservations in Utah Territory, returns of surveying have been received of the Spanish Fork and San Pete reservations, the former situated on the southeastern shore of Utah lake, and embracing eleven thousand two hundred and fifty-three acres, the latter at the coufluence of Arapaho creek with the Sevier river, being sixty miles due south from Utah lake, and containing sixty-five thousand nine hundred and seventy-three acres. These reservations are on the surveyed public lands, and in the progress of their survey but few of the corners of the public surveys have been found, the surveyor, however, stating that by a slight expenditure in retracing and re-establishing some of the missing lines the lands which were surveyed in Utah could be brought into market and sold. In view of this fact the surveying department submits an estimate of ten thousand dollars for that purpose, but owing to the unsettled condition of affairs in Utah, and the absence of legislation for a land district, the estimate for the field operations in Utah is deferred until Congress inaugurates a policy for that Territory, which it is submitted should now be established, with a view to the disposal of the public lands. WASHINGTON TERRITORY. The field of operations in this, the most distant political community of the Union, during the last year embraces nearly two hundred thousand acres. This quantity, added to the work heretofore executed, reaches an area of upwards of three million five hundred and thirty thousand acres surveyed in Washington since the initiation in that Territory of the public surveys. The surveyor general recommends that during the year ending 30th June, 1868, the lines shall be extended east and west of the Cascades, and between those mountains and Puget sound, the country being traversed by numerous streams, and the valleys well adapted to agriculture; and that surveys shall be prosecuted in the region of the Columbia river, along the White Bluffs, the head of navigation, likewise in the vicinity of Fort Colville, and in the Willow pah valley, immediately east of Shoal Water bay. OREGON. The returns since the last annual report include surveys of two hundred and eighty-one thousand three hundred and twenty acres, which, added to those of former years, gives an area of over five million seven hundred and thirty thousand acres, which is the aggregate of surveys in Oregon. The population of the State has been on the increase at the rapid rate of from twenty to twenty-five thousand annually, settlements having advanced to many points far beyond the surveys. The principal localities requiring the extension of the public lines are reported to be in the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue River, Smith's, Coos, and Coquille River valleys. There are, also, settlements scattered along John Day's river, in northern Oregon, from its mouth to Cañon City, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. On the waters of Grande Ronde and Powder rivers there is an earnest demand for surveying extensions. In the estimates of the surveyor general for 1868 an item is inserted to pay the cost of ninety miles of guide meridian, to extend the eastern guide towards the State boundary. The object in view is to prepare the way to meet the demand for extension of surveys in the southeastern portion of the State, to include the settlements of Jordan creek and Alvord valley, and to keep pace with the wants of the Oregon Central Military Road Company, in ascertaining and locating the lands donated for that improvement, and also to accommodate settlements as they extend along its route and westward from Idaho. The route has been located, but surveys along its line have been delayed on account of Indian difficulties. Under the appropriation of $20,000 by act of 7th April, 1966, the surveyor general has made engagements for the subdivision of ten townships on the upper waters of the Umatilla river; the extension of the base line east to the Snake river; for subdivisional surveys east of Klamath lake, along the Oregon Central Military road, adjoining the north boundary of the State; and that officer has also contracted for the survey to the Pacific through the strip of the Coast Range Indian reservation, as diminished by President's order dated December 21, 1865. The object is to throw open to occupancy and use the detached portion of the reserve, so as to be open to citizens, as other public lands, and in order to carry out the provision of an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863, authorizing the President to reserve town sites on the shores of harbors at the junction of rivers, or any natural or prospective centres of population. A harbor has been discovered at Yaquina bay, on the coast directly opposite the centre of Willamette valley, by which many hundreds of miles of navigation will be saved to the community in that region. It has been determined to establish there a town site, under said act of 1863, and afford facilities to such municipal residents as may desire to avail themselves of the privileges governing the disposal of town property. NEVADA. The surveying service in this great mineral State covers an aggregate area of fifty-two million one hundred and eighty-four thousand nine hundred and sixty acres, of which two hundred and seventy-six thousand seven hundred and twelve acres have been surveyed since the act of 2d March, 1865, including Nevada as a surveying district with California. The sphere of field service extends east of Bigler, or Tahoe lake, through which the boundary between California and Nevada passes, and on the Truckee river, along the route of the Pacific railroad. The fourth standard parallel north has been extended one hundred and fifty miles east from the great bend of the Truckee, in order to reach agricultural lands in the interior of Nevada. This standard line passes between Carson and Humboldt lakes, and, after crossing Reese River and Key's valleys, terminates near the 39th degree of longitude, west of Washington, affording the necessary basis for the extension of the public lines in Carson and Humboldt valleys. In virtue of the 4th section of an act approved the 4th of July, 1866, concerning certain lands in the State of Nevada, the President is authorized to appoint a surveyor general for Nevada, thereby erecting the State into an independent surveying district. That officer, under existing regulations, will be clothed with highly responsible duties, relating not only to arable but mineral lands. CALIFORNIA. The public surveys during the last year were mainly along the line of the Pacific railroad, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, and in the direction of Lake Tahoe or Bigler, and along Truckee river, adjoining the eastern boundary of the State. The aggregate surveys in this State include twenty-seven million six hundred and eighty thousand six hundred and eighty-five acres, nearly two hundred thousand of which were surveyed in the year ending June 30, 1865, and not then reported, and some four hundred and seventy-seven thousand six hundred acres during the last fiscal year. The public surveys in California have approached the boundary between that State and Nevada. It is therefore important that the dividing line should be definitely established in order that surveys in both States may be closed upon the same. By the law of May 26, 1860, the survey of the eastern boundary of Califor nia was authorized, and by act of June 25, 1860, an appropriation of $55,000 was made for the service, which has not been accomplished, the subject having been treated of in the report of 1861, which shows the extent of what has been done in the matter. The legislature of California has declined consenting to the modification of the boundary proposed by the act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, organizing the then Territory of Nevada, for the reasons referred to in the annual report of 1865, which indicates the condition of the unfinished eastern boundary of California, both in regard to its geographical position and the survey. It is in place here to state that the position of the common boundary between California and Nevada, which lies between the thirty-ninth and forty-second parallels of latitude, has been surveyed and marked, under joint commission from those States, and it is therefore recommended that authority of law be given by Congress for the adoption of that survey, should the evidence produced be satisfactory to the department that the line has been established in accordance with the law of Congress, and authorities governing the surveys of boundaries. SPANISH AND MEXICAN GRANTS IN CALIFORNIA. The act of March 3, 1851, referred the adjudication of this class of claims to a board of three commissioners, their decision subject to appeal to the district and Supreme courts, the action by those tribunals under that law being mainly directed to confirmation of grants. The act of June 14, 1860, provided for the publication for four weeks of the surveys of confirmed grants, and return of same into the district court, with right of appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The supplemental act of July 1, 1864, directs that surveys made subsequent to its date shall be under the control of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, instead of the district court; surveys made prior to that act remaining subject to judicial determination, except that where appeal had not been taken to the Supreme Court, no appeal to that court was allowed, but could be taken to the circuit court for California. The new surveys or corrections of former ones ordered by the latter court were placed under the supervision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The act approved July 23, 1866, to “ quiet land titles in California," makes it necessary for the owners of foreign titles, where such claims were at the date of that act confirmed, to apply for the survey thereof within ten months from the passage of the act, and where confirmed after its passage, to apply for survey within ten months after confirmation; and in default, confers authority for the extending of lines of the public surveys over such grants, yet requiring the lands to be set off as near as practicable according to the decree of confirmation, but not to interfere with the rights of bona fide pre-emption claimants. Instructions in reference to the various interests contemplated by said act of 1866 have been communicated to the land offices in order to give full effect to that statute. Under the several acts aforesaid, the last excepted, there have been returned to this office since the beginning of operations in the State, three hundred and thirty-six cases of finally confirmed claims, ranchos and other tracts, covering five million one hundred and eighty-eight thousand acres, of which patents in two hundred and fifty-one cases have been issued, covering about three million eight hundred and eighty-nine thousand acres. The public lands, as shown in the foregoing, are found, on revised data, to contain.... From the beginning of the system to the end of the last fiscal year, it appears that the aggregate area surveyed is equal to Leaving unsurveyed....... Acres. 1, 465, 468, 800 474, 160, 551 991, 308, 249 The surface covered by actual survey embraces less than one-third of the area of the public domain. The tracing and establishing of meridians, bases, townships, sectional and subdivisional lines over the aforesaid surveyed surface, it is ascertained, involved the necessity of actually running and marking lines, in the aggregate, equal to 788, 426 lineal miles. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, the total cash sales embraced.. The aggregate of military bounty land warrant locations..... The total quantity taken by homestead for actual settlement, under acts of 1862 and 1864..... In the same period there were approved swamps "in place" to several States as grantees, under acts 1849 and 1850 .... And selected as swamp indemnity 1, 082, 308.30 117, 349.97 Making a total of swamp lands or their equivalents, confirmed to States, of... In the same fiscal year, titles under railroad grants have been Making a total of public lands disposed of during the year end- Acres. 388, 294.15 403, 180.00 1, 892, 516.S6 1, 199, 658.27 94, 596 99 651, 066.60 4, 629, 312.87 |