being unavoidably delayed by the urgency and volume of other lines of work. Considerable progress has been made in the execution of that object, however, and publication may soon be resorted to. I wish, therefore, to urgently recommend that said appropriation be continued and made available during and until the expiration of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913.

(9) I wish to renew the recommendation heretofore presented in annual reports from this office, urging the repeal of section 2301 of the United States Revised Statutes, by which the residence and cultivation required of homestead entrymen may be commuted on payment of $1.25 for each acre of the entered lands after 14 months from the date of entry. It is unnecessary here to repeat the reasoning by which this recommendation has been justified, or to state the objectionable consequences of the practical operation of this

statute.

(10) The attention of this office has been ofttimes invited to the evils and hardships resulting from the practices of incompetent and unscrupulous professional locators. Field-service representatives receive frequent complaints from persons who have been victimized by these gentry, representing that persons employed for a compensation to locate them upon desirable tracts of public lands had exhibited to them lands which afterwards proved to be not public lands or lands which were not of the description supplied to them. In most cases this misrepresentation is designed and intentional, while in a few it is the consequence of gross ignorance and total want of care or caution. It seems to me that these persons who intervene between the Government and the would-be settler upon public lands should be placed under some responsibility to the law and afforded some reason, other than a purely moral one, for keeping good faith with the settler by whom they are employed. I believe that this evil could be remedied by legislation along the line now to be suggested, as follows:

Any person who, for a reward paid or promised to him in that behalf, shall undertake to locate an intending purchaser, settler, or entryman upon any public lands of the United States subject to disposition under the public-land laws, and who shall willfully, wrongfully, and falsely represent to such intending purchaser, settler, or entryman that any tract of land shown to him is public lands of the United States, subject to sale, settlement, or entry, or that it is of a particular surveyed description, thereby deceiving and intending to deceive the person to whom such representation is made, or who, without sufficient or any knowledge of the facts concerning the character and description of such lands, shall make such representation, and accomplish such deceit, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Legislation of this character would appear to be subject to no constitutional objection. (United States v. Hall, 98 U. S., 343;

United States v. Fox, 95 U. S., 670; Frisby v. United States, 157 U. S., 160; United States v. Van Leuven, 62 Fed. Rep., 52.)

(11) The reservation made by the tenth section of the act of Congress approved May 14, 1898 (30 Stat., 409), for the purpose of providing a public roadway 60 feet wide along and parallel to the shore line of navigable waters in Alaska, should be continuous and unbroken if it is to be of any real value. For this reason, I recommend such amendment of section 26 of the act of Congress approved June 6, 1900 (31 Stat., 321), as will subject mining claims to the easement of that roadway. Such easement would not, of course, in any wise diminish the right of the mining claimant to extract minerals beneath the surface of the roadway, and would, on the other hand, greatly enhance the value of the wharves and landing places reserved by the tenth section of the act of 1898, supra, making them accessible from any and every point in the near vicinity thereof. Owing to the existence of streets and highways through and across town sites, the provision in the act of 1900, supra, exempting townsite entries from the reservation in question is not objectionable.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE BUILDING.

Your attention is again invited to the condition of the floors in a very great majority of the rooms in this bureau. These are of slate and our experience with them has forced the conclusion that wooden floors alone will meet the requirements of this bureau. We have tried linoleum and have found that it is practically impossible to have the same laid in a manner that will prevent its curling up at the seams, thereby becoming dangerous to walk upon, and it does not wear sufficiently long to warrant further experiment with it. I understand that the department has planned to lay wooden floors in all the rooms of this office, those already laid being eminently satisfactory, and I urge that further effort be made to secure an appropriation necessary to install this needed improvement. FRED DENNETT, Commissioner.

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

STATISTICS RELATING TO THE DISPOSITION OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Area of States and Territories.

[Based upon careful joint calculations made in the General Land Office, the Geological Survey, and the

Bureau of the Census.]

Owing to their location adjoining the Great Lakes, the States enumerated below contain approximately an additional number of square miles as follows: Illinois, 1,674 square miles of Lake Michigan; Indiana, 230 square miles of Lake Michigan; Michigan, 16,653 square miles of Lake Superior, 12,922 square miles of Lake Michigan, 9.925 square miles of Lake Huron, and 460 square miles of lakes St. Clair and Erie; Minnesota, 2,514 square miles of Lake Superior; New York, 3,140 square miles of lakes Ontario and Erie; Ohio, 3,443 square miles of Lake Erie; l'ennsylvania, 891 square miles of Lake Erie; Wisconsin, 2,378 square miles of Lake Superior and 7,500 square miles of Lake Michigan.

In addition to the water areas noted above, California claims jurisdiction over all Pacific waters lying within 3 English miles of her coast; Oregon claims jurisdiction over a similar strip of the Pacific Ocean 1 marine league in width between latitude 42° north and the mouth of the Columbia River; and Texas claims jurisdiction over a strip of Gulf water 3 leagues in width, adjacent to her coast and between the Rio Grande and the Sabine River.

NOTE. The land offices in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa are abolished, and the vacant tracts of public lands in those States are subject to entry and location at the General Land Office, Washington,

D. C.

Cheyenne.

Feb. 5, 1870

Aug. 10, 1870

Douglas.

Apr. 23, 1890

Nov. 1,1890

Evanston..

Aug. 9, 1876

Aug. 13, 1877

Lander.
Sundance..

Apr. 23, 1890

Nov. 8, 1890

Apr. 3, 1890

Oct. 27, 1890

Field division headquarters of special agents of General Land Office,

Average number of employees of the General Land Office.

In General Land Office, Washington, D. C.....

In 13 offices of surveyors-general.

In 103 district land offices.

In the field service.....

526

185

416

185

142

1, 454

In the surveying service..

Total.....

Final homestead entries from the passage of the homestead act to June 30, 1911.