ber of expiration notices served, 566; number of answers to expiration notices filed, 90; number of entries yet to be investigated as to good faith, 262.

Up to July, 1911, indictments returned in Alaskan criminal proceedings, affecting coal lands, covered 641 claims out of a total of 1,125 coal claims.

The vexed question of adjustment and adjudication of claims in the Imperial Valley, California, has proceeded very satisfactorily. This matter, which has been pending for so many years, has been virtually settled.

The total cash receipts from the sale of public lands, including fees and commissions on both original and final entries, for the fiscal year 1911, were $7,245,207.69. Miscellaneous receipts were as follows: From sales of Indian lands, $2,822,600.71; reclamation water-right charges, $892,414.29; sales of timber in Alaska, depredations on public lands, sales of Government property, and copies of records and plats, $129,704.91, making the aggregate total of cash receipts of the General Land Office for the fiscal year 1911, $11,089,927.60, a decrease of $373,996.46 from the preceding fiscal year.

The total expenses of district land offices and salaries and commissions of registers and receivers, incidental expenses, and expenses of depositing public moneys during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, were $870,242, a decrease of $3,395.33. The aggregate expenditures and estimated liabilities of the public-land service, including expenses of district land offices and surveys, were $3,195,759.38.

The total area of public and Indian land originally entered during the fiscal year 1911 is 17,639,099.54 acres, a decrease of 8,752,169.55 acres as compared with the area entered during the fiscal year 1910. The area patented during the fiscal year 1911 is 12,272,495 acres, an increase of 1,289,345 acres as compared with the fiscal year 1910. The number of patents issued during the fiscal year 1911 were 72,189, as against 72,080 for 1910.

During the past year there were approximately 215,300 acres of agricultural lands in national forests opened to settlement and entry in accordance with the provisions of the act of June 11, 1906 (34 Stat., 233).

COMMISSIONER'S RECOMMENDATIONS.

The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in his annual report, recommends legislation providing for some changes in the administration of his office, and other matters of various kinds. Some of them have been discussed herein before in this report. He makes a number of recommendations which should be given careful consideration. Special attention is called to the following:

(a) The abolishment of the office of receiver in the local land offices, and the substitution of a civil-service employee, drawing an

adequate but smaller salary than that allowed under existing statute to the receiver; it is believed that a saving of about $150,000 per annum could thus be effected, and that better results would be obtained.

(b) The enactment of legislation authorizing the taking of proofs on the land. In this way the interests of both the settler and the Government would be better subserved and more expedition attained.

(c) An act making false swearing in relation to the character of the land of which entry is sought, or concerning the legal qualifications of the would-be entryman, an offense punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both.

(d) An act empowering registers and receivers to require a witness in a pending case to bring with him and produce papers, books, and documents in his possession which constitute material and important evidence.

(e) The renewal of the appropriation of $3,000 made by act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 797), providing for the preparation and publication of the revised edition of the "Manual of Surveying Instructions."

(f) Legislation providing for the punishment of unscrupulous and incompetent professional locators by fine or imprisonment, or both.

(g) An amendment of the act of January 31, 1903 (32 Stat., 790), so as to provide for uniform fees chargeable by officers before whom depositions provided for in said act are submitted.

(h) The amendment of section 26 of the act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat., 321), so as to subject mining claims to the easement of a public roadway, 60 feet wide, along and parallel to the shore line of navigable waters in Alaska, such as is now provided in section 10 of the act of May 14, 1898 (30 Stat., 409), entitled "An act extending the homestead laws and providing for right of way for railroads in the District of Alaska, and for other purposes."

PUBLIC SURVEYS.

The first year's work under the direct system of surveys has been very successful. It is estimated that, in a survey of approximately 30,000 miles, the saving to the Government by the direct system, as compared with the contract system, will be about $5 a mile, or in the neighborhood of $150,000. In addition there is a saving of from one to two years in time in the final approval of the surveys performed.

TEXAS-NEW MEXICO BOUNDARY.

The so-called "Clark" boundary line between Texas and New Mexico has been retraced and monumented in accordance with the provisions of the resolution passed by Congress February 16, 1911 (36 Stat., 1455). The work was done economically and efficiently.

CAREY ACT.

The records of the Land Office show that there is an increasing demand for segregation lists under the Carey Act. During the last fiscal year there were examined in the neighborhood of 1,650,000 acres of selections by the various States to which the Carey Act applies. There have already been withdrawn under the act of March 15, 1910 (36 Stat., 237), for Carey Act exploration and survey, 3,500,000 acres.

STATE AND TERRITORIAL GRANTS.

During the past fiscal year there were approved to States and Territories an area of 316,572.44 acres, of which 299,123.17 acres were school-land selections.

RAILROAD GRANTS.

During the year 1911 there were patented on account of railroad and wagon-road grants an area of 1,152,827.77 acres.

CHIPPEWA LOGGING, MINNESOTA.

During the past fiscal year there were logged under contracts on ceded Chippewa lands 80,005,150 feet of timber, of the value of $572,830.73, as compared with 88,503,880 feet of timber, valued at $553,005.42, during the year 1910.

SALES OF CHIPPEWA PINE TIMBER.

On September 15, 1910, a sale of pine timber was held at Cass Lake, Minnesota, at which there was sold timber estimated to contain 51,310,000 feet of white pine and 263,475,000 feet of Norway pine, the total amount of the accepted bids being $2,709,330.04, an average price of $8.59 per thousand feet. This was the largest sale of Chippewa timber yet held. All of the unsold pine timber on ceded Chippewa lands was offered for sale at Cass Lake, Minnesota, October 21, 1911. The price paid for timber on ceded Chippewa lands sold at the different sales is $5,933,242.41.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

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The scientific investigations of the Survey have been continued along lines similar to those followed in other years and the usual number of contributions have been made to the knowledge of geology and related subjects. The appropriations for the work of the United States Geological Survey for the fiscal year 1910-11 aggregated $1,477,440.

Classification of public lands.—Among the special features of the year's activities the work in the public-land States should be given first place.

The field investigations and examinations have been more extensive and more detailed, and reports covering a wider range of subjects have been prepared and submitted to the Secretary's Office and to the General Land Office and the Office of Indian Affairs. The Geological Survey is called on for reports covering lands listed for patent and lands which it is proposed to eliminate from the Indian or forest reservations and throw open for settlement, in order that their mineral or nonmineral character or adaptability for power or irrigation purposes may be determined. All Carey Act lists are submitted to the survey for a statement as to the sufficiency of the water supply and the adequacy of the proposed plan of irrigation before the lists are approved for segregation.

Coal lands have been classified during the year at an increased rate. The area appraised as coal land during the fiscal year 1910–11 exceeded that so appraised in the preceding year by 3,000,000 acres; and the area classified as noncoal land during 1910-11 is 2,386,444 acres greater than that so classified in 1909-10. On the other hand, the average price fixed per acre and the total appraised value are notably less for the last year than for the preceding year. The difference is due to the large acreage of lignite and low-grade subbituminous coals in eastern Montana and Wyoming appraised at the minimum value fixed by law.

Two great withdrawals of land for determination of its coal character were made during the year-one in the Dakotas and one in Idaho. The restorations have, during the past fiscal year, been more than offset by the withdrawal of areas indicated as coal bearing by new information or by a study of data already at hand. However, in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, where the field work was concentrated during the season of 1910, the restorations far out balance the withdrawals. It is probable that the withdrawn area has reached its maximum this year and will steadily decrease hereafter.

During the year 630,604 acres in California and Wyoming were withdrawn from entry to be examined for oil, and 1,232,719 acres in the same States, shown by field examination to be non-oil lands, were restored, making the withdrawals for oil outstanding June 30, 1911, 3,970,429 acres in eight States and Territories. In addition all oil lands in Alaska, comprising an unknown area, were withdrawn during the year.

In the early part of the fiscal year the outstanding withdrawals of phosphate land made by the Secretary of the Interior were ratified by the President under the act of June 25, 1910. A deposit of phosphate rock in southwestern Montana, similar in character to the deposits of Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, and at the same geologic horizon, was discovered by the survey. This discovery is important

not only because of the quantity of phosphate found, but because it indicates the possibility that the deposits of phosphate rock are distributed over a much wider territory than had formerly been supposed. The area withdrawn as a result of this discovery comprises 33,950 acres, which, with withdrawals in Florida and Utah, make a total of 65,589 acres withdrawn during the year. Field examinations in Idaho resulted in the restoration of 149,929 acres, leaving in phosphate withdrawals June 30, 1911, a total of 2,399,416

acres.

The completion of the classification of lands within the Northern Pacific Railroad grant in Montana and Idaho provided for in the sundry civil act of June 25, 1910, was made by the Survey. Work of the year resulted in the classification of 288,465 acres.

The work of classifying the public lands with relation to their value for water-power development has followed the general plan pursued in previous years. On July 2, 1910, the earlier withdrawals, amounting to 1,454,499 acres, were ratified and continued by the President. As a result of field investigations, 143,555 acres included in withdrawals were determined to be without value for power purposes and were restored to the public domain and 204,460 acres were included. in new withdrawals, the total area withdrawn at the close of the fiscal year amounting to 1,515,423 acres.

Eight hundred and fifty-one applications for right of way across the public lands for railroads, canals, ditches, and reservoirs for irrigation, mining, and municipal supply and power development have been passed on by the Survey.

Thirty-one segregation lists prepared under the Carey Act have been referred during the year to the Survey for report. The projects represented by eight of these lists were determined to have sufficient water supply for reclaiming the lands considered. Examination of 18 applications showed that under the plan of irrigation proposed by the State the projects contemplated would have an insufficient water supply, and reports were made accordingly. At the close of the fiscal year three applications were awaiting a detailed statement by the applicants of the plan of reclamation proposed, and two were under consideration.

The designation of non-irrigable areas as subject to entry under the enlarged-homestead act has called for an increasing amount of field. investigation. By the act of Congress of June 17, 1910, the provisions of the original act, somewhat modified, were extended to the State of Idaho, and a large area in Idaho has been opened to such entry. The greater part of the investigations and designations under the enlargedhomestead act has been made on account of petitions for action on specific tracts. Two hundred and forty-eight petitions were received