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Secretary of the Interior is required to cause a new certificate or warrant of like tenor to be issued in lieu thereof; which new certificate or warrant may be assigned, located, and patented in like manner as other certificates or warrants for bounty land are now authorized by law to be assigned, located and patented; and in all cases where warrants have been, or may be re-issued, the original warrant, in whosesoever hands it may be, shall be deemed and held to be null and void, and the assignment thereof, if any there be, fraudulent; and no patent shall ever issue for any land located therewith, unless such presumption of fraud in the assignment be removed by due proof that the same was executed by the warrantee in good faith and for a valuable consideration.

SEC. 2442. The Secretary of the Interior is required to prescribe such regulations for carrying the preceding section into effect as he may deem necessary and proper in order to protect the government against imposition and fraud by persons claiming the benefit thereof; and all laws and parts of laws for the punishment of frauds against the United States are made applicable to frauds under that section.

SEC. 2443. In all cases where an officer or soldier of the revolutionary war, or a soldier of the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, was entitled to bounty land, has died before obtaining a patent for the land, and where application is made by a part only of the heirs of such deceased officer or soldier for such bounty land, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to issue the patent in the name of the heirs of such deceased officer or soldier, without specifying each; and the patent so issued in the name of the heirs, generally, shall inure to the benefit of the whole, in such portions as they are severally entitled to by the laws of descent in the State or Territory where the officer or soldier belonged at the time of his death.

SEC. 2444. When proof has been, or hereafter is, filed in the Pension Office, during the lifetime of a claimant, establishing, to the satisfaction of that office, his right to a warrant for military services, and such warrant has not been, or may not be, issued until after the death of the claimant, and all such warrants as have been heretofore issued subsequent to the death of the claimant, the title to such warrants shall vest in his widow, if there be one, and if there be no widow, then in the heirs or legatees of the claimant; and all military bounty land warrants issued pursuant to law shall be treated as personal chattels, and may be conveyed by assignment of such widow, heirs, or legatees, or by the legal representatives of the deceased claimant, for the use of such heirs or legatees only.

SEC. 2445. The legal representatives of a deceased claimant for a bounty land warrant, whose claim was filed prior to his death, may file the proofs necessary to perfect such claim.

SEC. 2446. When an actual setter on the public lands has sought, or hereafter attempts, to locate the land settled on, and improved by him, with a military bounty land warrant, and where, from any cause, an error has occurred in making such location, he is authorized to relinquish the land so erroneously located, and to locate such warrant upon the land so settled upon and improved by him, if the same then be vacant, and if not, upon any other vacant land, on making proof of those facts to the satisfaction of the land officers, according to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the general Land Office, and subject to his final adjudica

tion.

TOWN-SITE LAW.

[From U. S. Revised Statutes, Chapter Eight.]

SEC. 2380. The President is authorized to reserve from the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, town-sites on the shores of harbors, at the junction of rivers, important portages, or any natural or prospective centers of population.

SEC. 2381. When, in the opinion of the President, the public interests require it, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to cause any of such reservations, or part thereof, to be surveyed into urban or suburban lots of suitable size, and to fix by appraisement of disinterested persons their cash value, and to offer the same for sale at public outcry to the highest bidder, and thence afterward to be held subject to sale at private entry according to such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe; but no lot shall be disposed of at public sale or private entry for less than the appraised value thereof. And all such sales shall be conducted by the register and receiver of the land office in the district in which the reservations may be situated, in accordance with the instructions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SEC. 2382. In any case in which parties have already founded, or may hereafter desire to found, a city or town on the public lands, it may be lawful for them to cause to be filed with the recorder for the county in which the same is situated, a plat thereof, for not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, describing its exterior boundaries according to the lines of the public surveys, where such surveys have been executed; also giving the name of such city or town, and exhibiting the streets, squares, blocks, lots, and alleys, the size of the same, with measurements and area of each municipal subdivision, the lots in which shall each not exceed four thousand two hundred square feet, with a statement of the extent and general character of the improvements; such map and statement to be verified, under oath, by the party acting for and in behalf of the persons proposing to establish such city or town; and within one month after such filing there shall be transmitted to the General Land Office a verified transcript of such map and statement, accompanied by the testimony of two witnesses that such city or town has been established in good faith, and when the premises are within the limits of an organized land district, a similar map and statement shall be filed with the register and receiver, and, at any time after the filing of such map, statement, and testimony, in the General Land Office, it may be lawful for the President to cause the lots embraced within the limits of such city or town to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, subject to a minimum of ten dollars for each lot; and such lots as may not be disposed of at public sale shall thereafter be liable to private entry at such minimum, or at such

reasonable increase or diminution thereafter as the Secretary of the Interior may order from time to time, after at least three months' notice, in view of the increase or decrease in the value of the municipal property. But any actual settler upon any one lot, as above provided, and upon any additional lot in which he may have substantial improvements, shall be entitled to prove up and purchase the same as a pre-emption, at such minimum, at any time before the day fixed for the public sale.

SEC. 2383. When such cities or towns are established upon unsurveyed lands, it may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the extension limits of the premises according to those lines, where it can be done without interference with the rights which may be vested by sale; and patents for all lots so disposed of at public or private sale shall issue as in ordinary cases.

SEC. 2384. If within twelve months from the establishment of a city or town on the public domain, the parties interested refuse or fail to file in the general land office a transcript map, with the statement and testimony called for by the provisions of section twenty-three hundred and eighty-two, it may be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to cause a survey and plat to be be made of such city or town, and thereafter the lots in the same shall be disposed of as required by such provisions, with this exception, that they shall each be at an increase of fifty per centum on the minimum of ten dollars per lot.

SEC. 2385. In the case of any city or town, in which the lots may be variant, as to size, from the limitation fixed in section twenty-three hundred and eighty-two, and in which the lots and buildings, as municipal improvements, cover an area greater than six hundred and forty acres, such variance as to size of lots or excess in area shall prove no bar to such city or town claim under the provisions of that section; but the minimum price of each lot in such city or town, which may contain a greater number of square feet than the maximum named in that section, shall be increased to such reasonable amount as the Secretary of the Interior may by rule establish. SEC. 2386. Where mineral veins are possessed, which possession is recognized by local authority, and to the extent so possessed and recognized, the title to town lots to be acquired shall be subject to such recognized possession and the necessary use thereof; but nothing contained in this section shall be so construed as to recognize any color of title in possessors, for mining purposes, as against the United States.

SEC. 2387. Whenever any portion of the public lands have been or may be settled upon and occupied as a townsite, not subject to entry under the agricultural pre-emption laws, it is lawful, in case such town be incorporated, for the corporate authorities thereof, and, if not incorporated, for the judge of the county court for the county in which such town is situated, to enter at the proper land office, and at the minimum price, the land so settled and occupied in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests; the execution of which trust, as to the disposal of the lots in such town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, to be conducted under such regulations as may be prescribed by the legislative authority of the State or Territory in which the same may be situated.

SEC. 2388. The entry of the land provided for in the preceding section shall be made, or a declaratory statement of the purpose of the inhabitants to enter it as a townsite, shall be filed with the register of the proper land office, prior to the commencement of the public sale of the body of land in which it is included, and the entry or declaratory statement shall include

only such land as is actually occupied by the town, and the title to which is in the United States; but in any Territory in which a land office may not have been established, such declaratory statements may be filed with the surveyor general of the surveying district in which the lands are situated; who shall transmit the same to the General Land Office.

SEC. 2389. If upon surveyed lands, the entry shall, in its exterior limit, be made in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands authorized by law; and where the inhabitants are in number one hundred, and less than two hundred, shall embrace not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres; and in cases where the inhabitants of such town are more than two hundred, and less than one thousand, shall embrace not exceeding six hundred and forty acres; and where the number of inhabitants is one thousand and over one thousand, shall embrace not exceeding twelve hundred and eighty acres; but for each additional one thousand inhabitants, not exceeding five thousand in all, a further grant of three hundred and twenty acres shall be allowed. SEC. 2390. The words "not exceeding five thousand in all," in the preceding section shall not apply to Salt Lake city in the Territory of Utah; but such section shall be so construed in its application to that city that lands may be entered for the full number of inhabitants contained therein, not exceeding fifteen thousand; and as that city covers school section number thirty-six, in township number one, north, of range number one west, the same may be embraced in such entry, and indemnity shall be given therefor when a grant is made by congress of sections sixteen and thirty-six, in the Territory of Utah, for school purposes.

SEC. 2391. Any act of the trustees not made in conformity to the regulations alluded to in section twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven shall be

void.

SEC. 2392. No title shall be acquired, under the foregoing provisions of this chapter, to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper; or to any valid mining claim or possession held under existing laws.

SEC. 2393. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to military or other reservations heretofore made by the United States, nor to reservations for light houses, custom houses, mints, or such other public purposes as the interests of the United States may require, whether held under reservations through the Land office by title derived from the crown of Spain, or other

wise.

SEC. 2394. The inhabitants of any town located on the public lands may avail themselves, if the town authorities choose to do so, of the provisions of sections twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven, twenty-three hundred and eighty-eight, and twenty-three hundred and eighty-nine; and in addition to the minimum price of the lands embracing any town-site so entered, there shall be paid, by the parties availing themselves of such provisions, all costs of surveying and platting any such town site, and expenses incident thereto incurred by the United States, before any patent issue, therefor; but nothing contained in the sections herein cited shall prevent the issuance of patents to persons who have made, or may hereafter make, entries, and elect to proceed under other laws relative to town-sites in this chapter set forth.

TIMBER LAW.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE ACT ENTITLED "AN ACT TO ENCOURAGE THE GROWTH OF TIMBER ON WESTERN PRAIRIES."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the act entitled "An act to encourage the growth of timber on western prairies," approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows: That any person who is the head of a family or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, who shall plant, protect, and keep in a healthy growing condition for eight years, forty acres of timber, the trees thereon not being more than twelve feet apart each way, on any quarter section of any of the public lands of the United States, or twenty acres on any legal sub-division of eighty acres, or ten acres on any legal subdivision of forty acres, or one-fourth part of any fractional sub-division of land less than forty acres. shall be entitled to a patent for the whole of said quarter section, or of such legal sub-division of eighty or forty acres, or fractional sub-division of less than forty acres, as the case may be, at the expiration of said eight years, on making proof of such fact by not less than two credible witnesses; Provided, That not more than one quarter of any section shall be thus granted, and that no person shall make more than one entry under the provisions of this act, unless fractional sub-divisions of less than forty acres are entered which, in the aggregate, shall not exceed one quarter section.

SEC. 2. That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land district in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the register, or the receiver, or some officer authorized to administer oaths in the district where the land is situated, who is required by law to use an official seal, that said entry is made for the cultivation of timber, and upon filing said affidavit with said register and said receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified; and the party making an entry of a quarter section under the provisions of this act shall be required to break ten acres of the land covered thereby the first year, ten acres the second year, and twenty acres the third year after date of entry, and to plant ten acres of timber the second year, ten acres the third year, and twenty acres the fourth year after date of entry. A party making an entry of eighty acres shall break and plant, at the times herein before prescribed, one-half of the quantity required of a party who enters quarter section; and a party entering forty acres shall break and plant, at the times herein before prescribed, one-quarter of the quantity required of a

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