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The grant owners will be slow to apply for the survey of their tracts and to deposit the funds necessary therefor so long as the work is done at their expense, as now required by law. I believe that the repeal of the statute so requiring would prompt grant owners much more cheerfully and generally to file their claims in this office for adjudication, with a view to their early confirmation and survey, which, in the absence of any present inducement or legal requirement, they manifest little disposition to do. The repeal of the law requiring grant owners to pay for the survey of their lands, when made, would, for the reason stated, seem advisable. All the old private land claims in this Territory are those properly denominated foreign grants, having emanated from the former governments in New Mexico. It is contended by the parties that the law imposing upon them the expense and cost of survey is unfair and unjust, and contrary to the stipulations and principles of the treaty of peace with Mexico, as expressed and implied in the eighth article thereof.

Congress last year (Statutes at Large, vol. 16, p. 416) repealed one of the two laws imposing this private expense, but omitted to repeal a portion of the other, to wit, the third section of the act of May 30, 1862. I trust the legislation thus apparently intended by Congress may be completed, and, if done, would recommend that an appropriation of $4,317.69 be made, to refund to depositors of money upon their application the portions of their deposits applied. Deeming it probable that Congress will complete the repeal of the deposit law just referred to, and will, in that case, as was formerly done, annually, make an appropriation for the survey of confirmed private land claims in this district, many of which are ready for survey, I have estimated, for that purpose, the sum of $25,000 for the next fiscal year.

MINES AND MINING.

No mining claims have been surveyed since the last annual report, though application has been made for the survey of two, the Chimborazo and the Heuk gold and silver mines, in the county of Taos. I have been reliably informed of no very important discoveries or extensive developments in mining during the year, in addition to those alluded to in my predecessor's last report. Nevertheless, this staple industry of New Mexico has progressed with paying success whenever undertaken with a spirit, and with means at all adequate to a proper working of lodes or placers. The Moreno, in the northeastern; the Corona del Pueblo, in central, and the Silver City, the Pinos Altos, the Chloride, the Silver Flat, and the Lone Mountain mining districts, in southwestern New Mexico, are the only ones within which mining operations have been prosecuted upon any considerable scale during the year. The Aztec mill, upon the valuable mining property of the English company, in the Moreno district, has sus pended work for the present, though gulch mining is carried on with success in the vicinity, and the Moreno ditch, which now abundantly supplies water for mining purposes, renders mining prosperous there. The New Mexican Mining Company's mill, formerly operating in Placer Mountain, near this city, for some reason still remains idle, though it is believed the company possesses a valuable mining estate there. Placer mining is carried on in that vicinity, though not by any organized enterprise. Mining operations have been carried on in the Corona del Pueblo district, and further discoveries and developments confirm all previous opinion of the richness of the ores there found. In the Ralston district, west of Silver City, operations are entirely suspended, owing, no doubt, mainly to the want of machinery for the proper working of its abun dant rich ores, the miners there interested having hitherto failed to induce capitalists to invest their money in that promising field for its employment. At the flourishing young mining town of Silver City, a spot less than two years ago a wilderness, but now teeming with a thousand busy denizens, Mr. M. W. Breman, an enterprising citizen, has an eleven-stamp quartz mill in profitable operation. At the same place Colonel William L. Rynerson has running five large arrastras, operated by steam, doing a good business, as is also the Wisconsin Mining Company's Alligator mill. In Pinos Altos and Silver Flat districts profitable mining operations are also reported. In the Lone Mountain district, Judge A. H. Hackney has just completed, and put in operation, a fine ten-stamp mill, which will, no doubt, contribute largely to the actual production of that region. In the northwestern portion of the Territory, on the Arizona boundary, there are indications of mining activity, and there has been established there a mining district called the Ruby, embracing, it is stated, a portion of the famous. diamond fields said to have been discovered thereabouts.

The recent liberal legislation of Congress, declaring free and open to exploration, occupancy, and purchase the whole mineral-bearing public domain of the United States, will, I have no doubt, impart an increased interest and activity to all kinds of mines and mining operations. All intelligent observers of the mineral indications of this Territory concur in pronouncing them at least equal to those found in any of the great mining regions of the United States. Undoubtedly the latent and undeveloped mining resources, the lodes and placers of this Territory, need but the applica

tion of capital and machinery to render New Mexico on their account the peer of either of the States and Territories famous for their mineral deposits and coal fields. Since my arrival here I have been called upon by Major John Ayers, lately appointed to be agent for the Apache Indians at the Tularosa agency, and Captain Thomas Buckley, agent of a corporation which has been formed at San Francisco for the purpose of testing and developing the diamond region, so called, in the northwestern portion of New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona. These gentlemen exhibit and present to me a considerable quantity of precious stones, of great brilliancy and beauty, which they assure me, and I believe, were found in the region spoken of.

Among these are stones said to be well-authenticated and thoroughly tested rough diamonds. There are also the following classes of rough stones: true oriental ruby; hyacinth ruby; spinal ruby; garnet; sapphire proper; emerald; zircon; topaz, of different colors; amethyst; opal, of different varieties; corundum; crystallized alumina; black carbon or diamond; beryl; turmolin, and various other kinds of native jewels of commercial value. I am also assured that the same region contains many very fine specimens of crystallized fossils, including really immense quantities of petrified wood, the latter occurring in what is called fossil groves or forests.

The soil where the precious stones have so far been found in this district is composed of crystalline matter and conglomerate, crushed, broken, and disintegrated by the action of the elements and other natural causes. There is evidence of volcanic influences in the geological formation, lava and scoria occurring frequently and in considerable quantities and masses. The prevailing rock is red and gray sandstone, the formation having the appearance of a sedimentary deposit.

All stones so far found have been picked up upon the surface of the earth, in natural washings, and upon the ant hills. It is believed that when proper energy is bestowed upon this branch of industry in that region it will become of commercial importance. The distance from this city to Fort Defiance, near which the stones are found, is about two hundred miles due west.

TERRITORIAL BOUNDARY.

The north, sonth, and all but a small portion of the east boundary of New Mexico having been surveyed and marked on the face of the earth, it remains to provide for a like establishment of the west boundary. The importance of the execution of this survey has but recently become urgent, owing to the influx and settlement of a considerable permanent mining population along the New Mexico-Arizona line, at different points, and to the settlements at and near the military post of Fort Defiance, and the new Indian reservation of Tularosa, both of which points are situated very near or directly upon the boundary line.

In the region traversed by that line, the discovery of extensive and valuable mines, placers, and diamond fields has been reported, and they are now attracting many hundreds of people to those localities. It is believed that whether this sudden immigration be permanent or not, that section will hereafter be permanently occupied by a considerable mining population, and I respectfully recommend that the interterritorial ime be surveyed and marked as soon as practicable.

USELESS RESERVATIONS.

I find standing upon the records and maps here, as subsisting, several reservations, which, as they are now useless, might be vacated by Congress without prejudice to the military or Indian interests of the Government in New Mexico. Of these now useless reservations there are two military and two Indian reserves.

First. The military reserve in township 18 north of range 20 east, embracing 5,120 aeres, from sections 9 to 16 inclusive. This reserve, as announced to this office by the Commissioner of the General Land Office in his letter of August 29, 1857, was made by the President of the United States on the 18th day of August, 1857. I am informed that the military authorities never actually used, and have no present or prospective need for the land.

Second. The military reserve known as the Fort Butler reservation, embracing 76,800 acres, on the Canadian Fork of Red River, in townships 12 and 13 north of ranges 7,28, and 29 east. The reservation was probably unduly made and announced. The register of the United States land office at Santa Fé, December 15, 1860, officially informed the surveyor general that the tract had been, "by authority of the President of the United States, reserved from sale and location for military purposes." The statement was taken as authoritative and accurate. I am not aware that the reserve was ever used as such, and am informed that there is no prospective need for it. Third. The Bosque Redondo Indian reservation, of forty miles square, on the Pecos River, embracing the old Fort Sumner military reserve, which was vacated as useless by Congress, February 24, 1871. This reservation was made by President Lincoln, January 15, 1864, for the Navajo and Apache Indians, and was for some time occupied as intended. But the Navajoes now occupy another reservation, which was provided for them in the treaty of 1968, in Northwestern New Mexico and Northeastern Arizona,

and the Apaches are located now, I believe, at Fort Stanton. The Indian Bureau, in a letter to the General Land Office of July 20, 1871, reports no further use for the Bosque Redondo as a reservation, and the tract now abandoned is rapidly filling up with settlers.

Fourth. The Gila Apache Indian reserve, fifteen miles square, at Santa Lucia spring, upon the head-waters of the Gila River. The regular status of the reservation appears to have been recognized by the Interior Department in 1860, and a letter to the surveyor general of February 15, 1862, from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, treats the reserve as a subsisting one. But it has not for many years been occupied by the Indians, and there is no doubt it has been permanently abandoned.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Owing to the imperfect manner in which both public and private surveys were often executed in former years in this district, it is sometimes found that it is important to have made upon the ground a personal inspection and investigation, or a correction of erroneous or defective work, in order to a necessary understanding of the relations of surveys crossing or affecting one the other, and the surveyor general should have at his disposition a fund sufficient to enable him to proceed or dispatch an authorized agent to the field to obtain by survey, retracing or otherwise, the information desired. In some instances grants have not been duly connected with the public surveys, and rice versa, and none of the military or Indian reservations, though contiguous to or within the public surveys, have been connected with them. In the instances of contact in these cases, it is impossible properly to calculate the contents of adjoining fractional lots. In the investigation and adjudication also of titles to lands under Spanish and Mexican grants, it is often essential to ascertain, by formal inquiry upon the ground, the locality and extent of tracts of land and their boundary calls, and also to settle questions in necessary connection therewith. It is very questionable, I think, whether the appropriations made by Congress, always for a specific purpose, would be held to be applicable to any of these uses; nor if they were, would it be desirable, if it could be avoided to decrease them thereby in amount, or to divert any portion of them from the intended object. I recommend an appropriation for the purpose indicated of $2,000.

The surveyor general of New Mexico being, under the statute creating his office, invested and charged with authority and duties larger and more responsible than those of any other similar officer, except the surveyor general of Colorado, it would seem proper that he should possess authority to have and use a seal of office. As the custodian of old Spanish and Mexican archives constituting or relating to landed interests in this Territory, his certificates are frequently necessary in connection with suits in court, or otherwise, in the Territory, and for use abroad, and in either case they ought to be authenticated by the official seal, as well as by the signature of the surveyor general. Since the passage of the law of May 10, 1872, contemplating the appointing and commissioning of mineral deputy surveyors over the district by the surveyor general, the propriety of his using an official seal to accredit the commissions furnished to these deputies, I consider manifest. One of my predecessors procured, and for some time used, an official seal, one of proper design and device, but the Commissioner of the General Land Office prohibited its further use as being unauthorized by law. I recommended that the surveyor general be authorized by law to resume its use for the purpose of authenticating his certificates and of accrediting his commissions issued to nineral deputy surveyors.

Documents accompanying this report.

A. List of surveyed townships, and contents thereof in acres, in New Mexico, June 30, 1872.

B. Statement of all surveys, not of public lands, in New Mexico, June 30, 1872. C. Statement of public surveys made in New Mexico during the year ending June 30, 1872.

D. Statement showing the condition June 30, 1872, of special deposits of funds made for town site, mineral, public land, and confirmed private land-claim surveys in New Mexico.

E. General map of the Territory and land district of New Mexico.

F. Statement of the expenditures in the office of surveyor general of New Mexico on account of salaries during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872.

G. Statement of expenditures in the office of surveyor general of New Mexico on account of incidental expenses during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872.

H. Estimates for appropriations required for the surveying service in the district of New Mexico for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIS DRUMMOND,

Commissioner General Land Office, Washington, D. C.

JAMES K. PROUDFIT,

Surveyor General.

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A-List of surveyed townships and contents thereof in acres in the district of New Mexico at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872.

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Acres. 23, 056. 60

23, 036. 72

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Remarks.

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A.-List of surveyed townships and contents thereof, &c.—Continued.

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Remarks.

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