Where the title has become a matter of record, and in all cases where patent has issued, a duly executed deed, relinquishing to the United States all right and claim to the land under the entry or patent, must accompany the application. This deed must be duly recorded, and a certificate must also be produced from the proper recording officer where the land is situated, showing that said deed is so recorded and that the records of his office do not exhibit any other conveyance or incumbrance of the title to the land.

Where a valid title to the land embraced in a canceled entry has been conveyed by the Government to other parties, the applicant for repayment under such canceled entry must reconvey to the United States the title derived from such invalid entry. If, however, the applicant has acquired the valid title already conveyed by the United States, it will not be necessary for him to reconvey the land, but he may make a full statement, with corroborative evidence of the facts, waiving all claim under the invalid entry, and thereupon receive repayment of the amount erroneously paid.

The reconveyance to the United States must conform in every particular to the laws of the State or Territory in which the land is located relative to transfers of real property; in the case of a married man, in localities where the right of dower exists, there must be a release of dower by the wife, and in case of an exécutor or administrator, due proof of authority to alienate the estate.

HEIRS, EXECUTORS, AND ADMINISTRATORS.

Where application is made by heirs, satisfactory proof of heirship is required. This must be the best evidence that can be obtained, and must show that the parties applying are the heirs and the only heirs of the deceased. Where application is made by executors, a certificate of executorship from the probate court must accompany the application. Where application is made by administrators, the original or a certified copy of the letters of administration must be furnished.

ASSIGNEES.

Assignees of land who purchase after entry are, in general, deemed entitled to receive the repayment when the lands are found to have been erroneously sold by the Government. But this rule does not

apply to the repayment of double minimum excesses.

Where applications are made by assignees, the applicants must show their right to repayment by furnishing properly authenticated abstracts of title, or the original deeds or instruments of assignment, or certified copies thereof, and also show by affidavits or otherwise that they have not been indemnified by their grantors or assignors for the failure of title, and that title has not been perfected in them by their grantors through other sources.

Where there has been a conveyance of the land and the original purchaser applies for repayment, he must show that he has indemnified his assignee or perfected the title in him through another source, or produce a full reconveyance to himself from the last grantee or assignee.

REPAYMENT OF FEES, COMMISSIONS, AND EXCESSES.

The first section of the act of June 16, 1880, provides for the repayment to innocent parties of the fees, commnissions, and excess payments made upon soldiers' additional homestead entries which were, after location, found to be fraudulent and void and have therefore been canceled.

Applications for repayment under this section must be accompanied by the duplicate receipt, or evidence of the loss of the same, and by a concise statement under oath setting forth all the facts and circumstances connected with the procurement and use of the fraudulent papers upon which the canceled entries were based, together with such documentary or other proof as may tend to establish the innocence of the parties relative thereto.

In the case of soldiers' additional homestead entries, repayment of fees, commissions, and excesses can be made only to the party who paid the same-not to a party to whom the claimant conveyed the land. In the case of applications for the repayment of fees, commissions, etc., on canceled homestead and other entries, under the second section of the act, the duplicate receipt must be surrendered, with a relinquishment of all right, title, and claim in and to the land described in the receipt indorsed thereon, attested by two witnesses, and acknowledged before the register and receiver or before any officer authorized to take acknowledgments. If the duplicate receipt has been lost or destroyed, an affidavit stating the fact must be furnished, together with a relinquishment of the character indicated. The applicant must make affidavit that he has not made another entry with the credit of the fee and commission paid by him on the canceled entry.

REPAYMENT OF DOUBLE MINIMUM EXCESS.

The last clause of the second section of the act of June 16, 1880, provides that "in all cases where parties have paid double minimum price for land which has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant, the excess of $1.25 per acre shall in like manner be repaid to the purchaser thereof or to the heirs or assigns." In such cases the duplicate receipt must be surrendered; or if lost or destroyed, an affidavit stating that fact must accompany the application.

Repayment of double minimum excesses will be made only to the original entryman, his heirs, or legal representatives, or to the assignee, specifically, of the excess purchase money. The sale and transfer of the land is not of itself treated as an assignment of the right to receive repayment of double minimum excess.

TRANSMITTAL OF APPLICATIONS.

All applications for repayment under the above provisions must be made in writing and be signed by the party applying, and must describe the tract or otherwise designate the entry with certainty. They should be transmitted, with all the papers in the case, through the register and receiver of the proper district land office, who will make due report thereon.

REPAYMENTS UNDER THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1887.

In addition to the provisions for repayment mentioned in the foregoing, there are special provisions contained in the act of March 3, 1887, entitled "An act for the relief of settlers and purchasers of lands on the public domain in the States of Nebraska and Kansas." (24 Stat. L., 550; Appendix, No. 30, p. 184.) Under these provisions three classes of persons who settled upon or purchased lands within the grant made by an act entitled "An act for a grant of lands to the State of Kansas to aid in the construction of the Northern Kansas Railroad

and Telegraph,” approved July 23, 1866, are entitled to reimbursement, viz:

1. All persons, their grantees, heirs, and devisees, who settled upon or purchased lands within the limits of the grant in question, and to whom patents have been issued, but against whom decrees have been, or may hereafter be, rendered by the United States circuit court on account of the priority of the railroad grant.

2. Any person, his grantees, heirs, assigns, or devisees, who shall prove to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that his case is like those of the class above described, except that he has not been sued and subjected to judgment, and that he has, in good faith, without litigation, paid to the person holding the prior title by the railroad grant the sum demanded of him.

3. Only actual and bona fide settlers on the lands referred to in the preceding sections, their grantees, heirs, representatives, or devisees, are entitled to reimbursement under the decree, not to exceed $3.50 per acre; but no one person shall be entitled to compensation at such rate for more than 160 acres.

4. All other persons who purchased any part of said lands at $1.25 per acre, their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, are entitled to repayment at $1.25 per acre, provided said money was actually paid into the Treasury.

In the execution of this act the following regulations are prescribed: 1. All applications under this act must be made in writing, and be signed by the party applying, and must describe the tract and designate the entry with certainty.

2. Claimants of the class first described must file copy of the decree, duly certified by the clerk and under the seal of the court rendering the same, to the effect that such a decree was rendered in a bona fide controversy between a plaintiff showing title under the grant and a defendant holding the patent or holding by deed under the patentee, and that the decision was in favor of the plaintiff on the ground of the priority of the grant made by said act to the filing, settlement, or purchase by the defendant or his grantor.

3. Claimant must also file with said decree and certificate a bill of costs in such case, duly certified by the clerk and under the seal of the court in which the decree was rendered.

4. Claimants of the second class will be required to furnish a certified copy of the record of the transfer from said company, or from the company's grantee, with evidence that he has in good faith paid to the person holding the prior title the sum demanded of him without litigation. 5. Claimants of the third class should apply for a refundment of purchase money in accordance with regulations governing the repayment of purchase money for lands erroneously sold.

6. When the grantee, assignee, or devisee of the original purchaser makes application under this act, he must, in addition to the foregoing, show his right to receive the money by furnishing proper authenticated abstracts of title, or the original deed or instrument of assignment, or of the will, or certified copies thereof.

7. When application is made by heirs, satisfactory proof of heirship is required.

8. When application is made by executors, the original or a certified copy of letters testamentary must accompany the application.

copy

9. When application is made by administrators, the original or a certified copy of letters of administration must be furnished.

10. All parties who are entitled to repayment under the aforesaid act will be required to execute a relinquishment, which must accompany the application, in the following or equivalent form;

of

Know all men by these presents, that I, for and in consideration of the sum of to me paid by the United States, have released and forever discharged the United States from all claim of any kind, nature, and character whatsoever, by virtue of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1887; and that I am the identical party named in the decree, in the case of or who made said entry No. at land office, State of

Two witnesses:

STATE OF

County of

On this day of

$8:

189-, before the subscriber, a in and for said county, personally came to me well known to be the person who subscribed the foregoing release, and who upon being duly sworn by me according to law on oath declared and acknowledged that- had freely and voluntarily executed the foregoing release and for the reason stated; and at the same time came

—, residing at and also- residing at each of whom being by me duly sworn according to law deposed and said, each for himself and not one for the other, that they well knew the person making the said release to be the individual described in the decree, or who made said entry and who executed the said release.

Subscribed, sworn to, and acknowledged before me this ——, 189—.

NOTE. This must be acknowledged before a clerk of a court or other officer authorized to take acknowledgements of deeds in the county where the lands are situated, whose official character and signature must be certified to by the clerk of a court of record.

RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE USE OF TIMBER ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

[Circular of March 17, 1898. ]

By virtue of the power vested in the Secretary of the Interior by the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1093), the following rules and regulations are hereby prescribed:

1. The act, so far as it relates to timber on public lands, as extended by the act of February 13, 1893 (27 Stat., 444), applies only to the States of Colorado, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah, the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico and the District of Alaska.

The following rules and regulations do not apply to the district of Alaska, for which rules and regulations are prescribed on page 126 of this circular.

2. The intention of the act is to enable settlers upon public lands and other residents within the States and Territories above named who have not a sufficient supply of timber on their own claims or farms for use thereon for domestic purposes and who are unable to procure the needed timber from private lands, or from public lands under other authority of law, to secure from public lands, for said purposes, timber to supply their immediate and pressing wants.

Such being the case, it was not the intention of Congress to authorize the taking of timber from public lands in said States and Territories to serve as an article of merchandise and traffic, whereby profits might be

secured, not only from the labor bestowed in handling the timber, but by charging for the timber itself, after obtaining the same free of cost from the Government; which would practically open a door for speculation in public timber, resulting in the holders of permits being in a position to prevent competition and virtually control the market for timber in their localities.

3. Settlers upon public lands and other residents of the States and Territories above named who have not a sufficient supply of timber on their own claims or farms for use thercon for such domestic purposes as firewood, fencing, or building purposes, or for necessary use in developing the mineral and other natural resources of the lands owned or occupied by them, may procure timber, free of charge, from unoccupied, unreserved, nonmineral public lands within said States and Territories strictly for use on their own claims or lands therein for the purposes enumerated in this section (but not for sale or disposal, nor for use on other lands or by other persons, nor for export from the State or Territory where procured), to an extent not exceeding, in stumpage valua tion, $100 in any one year.

It is not necessary to secure permission from the Department to take timber from public lands as above allowed. The exercise of such privilege is, however, subject at all times to supervision by the Department, with a view to restriction or prohibition, if deemed necessary.

4. In cases in which the parties needing the timber are not in a position to procure it from the public lands themselves, it is allowable for them to secure the cutting, removing, sawing, or other manufacture of the timber through the medium of others, agreeing with the parties thus acting as their agents direct, in taking or otherwise handling the timber, that they shall be paid a reasonable amount to cover their time and labor expended and all legitimate expenses incurred in connection. therewith, exclusive of any charge for the timber itself.

5. The uses specified in section 3 of these rules and regulations constitute the only purposes for which timber may be taken, free of charge, from public lands in said States and Territories, under this act.

6. The cutting and removing of timber, free of charge, under said act of March 3, 1891, is confined to unreserved, unoccupied, nonmineral public lands, in the States and Territories named therein, inasmuch as the act specifically provides that the same shall not operate to repeal the act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat., 88), which makes provision, in said States and Territories, for the free cutting of timber on public lands that are known to be of a strictly mineral character.

7. It is further provided in said act of March 3, 1891, that "nothing herein contained shall operate to enlarge the rights of any railway company to cut timber on the public domain." Consequently, no timber may be taken thereunder from public lands for use by any railroad company.

8. In order, however, that sufficient public timber may be placed upon the home market in said States and Territories, for all legitimate purposes of trade, to such a reasonable extent as shall meet existing emergencies in the matter of demand therefor, sales of timber on the unreserved lands, in general, mineral and nonmineral, in said States and Territories, may be directed by the Department from time to time.

The sale of timber is optional, and the Secretary may exercise hist discretion at all times as to the necessity or desirability of any sale. 9. While sales of timber may be directed by this Department without previous request from private individuals, petitions from responsible persons for the sale of timber in particular localities will be considered.