served; but no patent shall issue to any homestead settler who has not resided upon, improved, and cultivated his homestead for a period of at least one year after he shall have commenced his improvements:" Provided, That in every case in which a settler on the public lands of the United States under the homestead laws died while actually engaged in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States as private soldier, officer, seaman, or marine, during the war with Spain or the Philippine insurrection, his widow, if unmarried, or in case of her death or marriage, then his minor orphan children or his or their legal representatives, may proceed forthwith to make final proof upon the land so held by the deceased soldier and settler, and that the death of such soldier while so engaged in the service of the United States shall, in the administration of the homestead laws, be construed to be equivalent to a performance of all requirements as to residence and cultivation for the full period of five years, and shall entitle his widow, if unmarried, or in case of her death or marriage, then his minor orphan children or his or their legal representatives, to make final proof upon and receive Government patent for said land; and that upon proof produced to the officers of the proper local land office by the widow, if unmarried, or in case of her death or marriage, then his minor orphan children or his or their legal representatives, that the applicant for patent is the widow, if unmarried, or in case of her death or marriage, his orphan children or his or their legal representatives, and that such soldier, sailor, or marine died while in the service of the United States as hereinbefore described, the patent for such land shall issue. Approved, March 1, 1901. SWAMP LANDS-ACT OF SEPTEMBER 28, 1850. STATE OF LOUISIANA. The allowance of an entry under general laws providing for the disposal of the public lands, the final approval thereof for patenting, and the issue of patent thereon, is an adjudication by the land department that the lands entered are of the character and class subject to such entry, and necessarily determines that they had not been previously granted or otherwise appropriated. Any question as to the character of lands claimed by the State under the swamp land act of September 28, 1850, which lands are covered by patents issued prior to any claim thereto by the State, is subject to inquiry only in the courts and by judicial proceedings. Secretary Hitchcock to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, (W. V. D.) June 21, 1901. (F. W. C.) The State of Louisiana has appealed from your office decision of December 26, 1899, adhered to on review February 6, 1901, rejecting its claim under the act of September 28, 1850 (9 Stat., 519), to certain described lands as swamp and overflowed lands within the meaning of that act. Said act granted to the States then in the Union all the swamp and overflowed lands, made unfit thereby for cultivation, within their limits, which at the time remained unsold. The second section thereof made it the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, as soon as practicable after the passage of the act, to prepare a list of the lands described and transmit the same to the Governor of the State, and at his request to cause a patent to be issued therefor. . The State of Louisiana adopted the field notes on file in the surveyorgeneral's office as the basis for adjusting its grant of swamp and overflowed lands, and the surveyor-general of that State regularly reported lists of swamp and overflowed lands in each of the townships in which the lands under consideration lie, but said lists do not include the lands in question. These lists bear date from October 7, 1850, to December 20, 1872. After the making, and reporting of said lists by the surveyorgeneral, and after March 3, 1857, the United States made disposition of the lands in question, by sale, location, or under homestead entry, and the patent of the United States has long ago issued to those making purchase, location or entry of these lands. In May and June, 1886, after the patenting of the lands as aforesaid, the State of Louisiana filed in your office certain lists of lands, including those here in question, which it is claimed are swamp and overflowed lands within the meaning of the act of 1850, as shown by the field notes of survey on file. Your office decision held, in effect, that as the disposal of these lands was after the report by the surveyor-general of lists of swamp and overflowed lands in the townships in which they lie, and prior to the assertion of claim thereto in 1886, the lands were properly disposed of, and by the issue of the patent of the United States to the entryman it was necessarily determined that the lands were not of the character granted to the State by the act of September 28, 1850. The appeal by the State raises many questions not necessary to be considered in disposing of its claim to these lands. The allowance of an entry under general laws providing for the disposal of the public lands, the final approval thereof for patenting, and the issue of a patent thereon, is an adjudication by the land department that the lands entered are of the character and class subject to such entry, and necessarily determines that they had not been previously granted or otherwise appropriated. In the case of Rogers Locomotive Works . Emigrant Co., (164) U. S., 559) the lands involved had been certified to the State under a grant made in aid of the construction of a railroad, and it was held (page 574 of the opinion of the court)— that when the Secretary of the Interior certified in 1858 that the lands in controversy inured to the State under the railroad act of 1856, he, in effect, decided that they were not embraced by the swamp-land act of 1850. Under the act of 1850 the determination of what were swamp and overflowed lands was entrusted to the Secretary of the Interior. The lands in question have never been identified as swamp and overflowed lands by the Secretary of the Interior, nor have they been reported by the surveyor-general of the State, under the plan adopted, as lands shown to be swamp and overflowed by the field notes of survey. There was no reason, therefore, to notify the State of the adjudication had upon the entries made of these lands; and as patents have long ago issued upon said entries, any further question as to the character of these lands is subject to inquiry only in the courts and by judicial proceedings. The claim asserted to these lands by the list filed in 1886, after the patenting of the lands, must necessarily be denied. Your office decision is accordingly affirmed. INDEX. Page. Page. Abandonment. See Contest; Residence. Absence, Leave of. See Residence. Adverse Claim. See Mining Claim. Alaskan Lands. See Mining Claim. Instructions of September 29, 1900, respect- There is nothing in the act of March 3, 368 397 The Secretary of the Interior has never Children born of a white man, a citizen Coal Land. Instructions of June 27, 1900, under act of The words "the existing mining laws of Coal lands are mineral lands within the 629 410 543 606 368 92 92 Commutation. See Homestead; Indian Lands. Confirmation. See Railroad Lands. Contest. Page. In a contest under section 2 of the act of The requirement of the act of June 16, The requirement of the act of June 16, A long period of abandonment on the In determining whether the allegations 11 57 999 294 Contestant. Page. Whatever preferred right a contestant A successful contestant who, in exercis- Deputy Mineral Surveyor. Desert Land. Ditches and Canals. Entry. See Final Proof. The desert-land act of March 3, 1891, au- 6 61 71 The departmental instructions of April 626 |