EDUCATIONAL GRANTS.

1st. For the support of primary schools, the grant is made of the land in place, being in the older land States, the section 16 in each township; but latterly the policy of the government has been liberalized, and in each township sections 16 and 36 are reserved for the endowment of primary schools. The lands cannot be disposed of by the territorial government, but are held in reserve until the organization of the State and its admission into the Union; when the title to the granted sections in place is vested in the State, and may be disposed of by the State government, the proceeds of sale forming the principal of a primary school fund, the interest of which may be annually applied to the support of public schools.

But in fractional townships, in which there is no granted section, its place being covered by the waters of the ocean, lakes, or rivers, the State under the act of May 20th, 1826, is entitled 'to indemnity, in the proportions shown in the following form,* in which the indemnity selection list is to be made out. The same to be signed by the State selecting agent, and verified by the local United States land officers of the district in which the lands are situated.

The act of February 26th, 1859, authorizes persons who settle upon the 16th and 36th sections prior to the survey to preempt the same, and in such cases allows indemnity to the State, the following being the form for selecting indemnity, under this provision of the statute:

Grants for seminary or university purposes have been made to each State to the amount of seventy-two sections. These lands may be selected by the Territorial government, in which case they are held in reserve until the admission of the State, when the title is consummated by certified list prepared by the General Land Office, and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

Grants for agricultural colleges in States containing a sufficient quantity of public lands to satisfy the grant, may be

* See opposite page

FORM B.

selected by the State, and upon the list being approved by the General Land Office and the Secretary of the Interior, the title vests in the State.

SALT SPRING LANDS.

Saline reservations are made in each Territory; and upon becoming a State and being admitted into the Union, these reservations to the amount of seventy-two sections have been granted to each State.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

By the act of September 4th, 1841, 500,000 acres of the public lands within the State are granted to each State for general works of Internal Improvements. Form C, page 191, has been prescribed in selecting this class of Lands. The following application and certificate are to be attached to the selections when made.

State of

I hereby apply in behalf of the State of

186.

for the tracts described in this list, as being selected for said State under the 8th section of the act of 4th September, 1841.

Land Office at

Agent.

18

I hereby certify that the foregoing list was filed in this office on the and that the selections are correct, and that no valid conflicting right is known to exist.

Register.

MINING CLAIMS

UNDER

THE ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED JULY 26, 1866.-U. S. STATUTES, PAGE 251, CHAPTER CCLXII.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

General Land Office, January 14th, 1867.

GENTLEMEN: Herewith will be found the act of Congress approved 26th July, 1866, "granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes." By the first section of this act all the mineral lands of the United States, surveyed and unsurveyed, are laid open to “all citizens of the United States, and to those who have declared their intention to become such, subject to statutory regulations," and also "to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts not in conflict with the laws of the United States."

It therefore becomes your duty, in limine, to acquaint yourselves with the local mining customs and usages in the district in which you may be called upon to do those official acts which are required by law, whether the same are reduced to authentic written form, or are to be ascertained by the testimony of intelligent miners, which you are to obtain as occasion may require and justify, in acting upon individual claims, a perfect record whereof is to be carefully taken and preserved by the Register and Receiver, and to be accompanied by a diagram or plat fixing the out boundaries of the district in which such customs and usages exist.

The second section of the act declares that "whenever any person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing