fice work. payment of the cost of such survey, including field and office work, and any excess over the cost of such survey and the expenses incident thereto shall be repaid pro rata to the persons making said deposits or their legal representatives; that the proportionate cost of the field and office work for the resurvey or retracement of any public-lands in such township shall be paid from the Field and of current appropriation for the survey and resurvey of public lands, in addition to the portion of such appropriation otherwise allowed by law for resurveys and retracements; that similar resurveys and retracements may be made on the application, accompanied by the requisite deposit, of any court of competent jurisdiction, the returns of such resurvey or retracement to be submitted to the court; that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make all necessary rules and regulations to carry this Act into full force and effect. On application of court. Injuring or removing survey marks. for. Approved, September 21, 1918 (40 Stat. 965). Extract from the Penal Code of the United States, approved March 4, 1909 (35 Stat. 1088-1099). SEC. 57. Whoever shall willfully destroy, deface, change, or remove to another place any section_corner, quarter-section corner, or meander post, on any Government line of survey, or shall willfully cut down any witness tree or any tree blazed to mark the line of a Government survey, or shall willfully deface, change, or remove any monument or bench mark of any GovernPunishment ment survey, shall be fined not more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. Interrupting SEC. 58. Whoever in any manner, by threats or force, shall interrupt, hinder, or prevent the surveying of the public lands, or of any private land claim which has been or may be confirmed by the United States, by the persons authorized to survey the same, in conformity with the instructions of the Commissioner of the General Punishment Land Office, shall be fined not more than three thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than three years. surveys. for. An Act To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to adjust disputes or claims by entrymen, selectors, grantees, and patentees of the United States against the United States and between each other, arising from faulty surveys in townships twenty-nine south, range twenty-eight east; also in townships thirty-six, thirty-seven, and thirty-eight south, ranges twenty-nine and thirty east, Tallahassee meridian, in the State of Florida, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assemPublic lands. bled. That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is faulty surveys in hereby, authorized to equitably adjust disputes and designated town claims by entrymen, selectors, grantees, and patentees of Adjustment of and au the United States, their heirs or assigns, against the United States and between each other, arising from faulty surveys in township twenty-nine south, range twenty-eight east; also in townships thirty-six, thirtyseven, and thirty-eight south, ranges twenty-nine and thirty east, Tallahassee meridian, in the State of Florida, the said surveys having been shown to have been faulty by the resurvey of certain lands in said townships, and for this purpose the said Secretary is authorized to accept conveyances from and grant patents to any such Conveyances entrymen, selectors, grantees, patentees, their heirs or thorized to cor assigns, of any of the lands of the United States in the rect errors. said townships open to entry or settlement which, in the judgment or discretion of said Secretary, it shall be just and equitable to grant or convey to such parties or any of them, to make up any deficiency or loss sustained by any such parties by reason of such faulty surveys, or by the meander lines, location, or existence of lakes or other bodies of water, not shown or incorrectly shown by such original faulty surveys of the United States in said townships, to the end that such entrymen, selectors, grantees, patentees, their heirs or assigns, may be duly vested with the title to such part of the lands of the United States as shall be necessary or proper to make up any deficiency in acreage or loss, as far as possible, due to such faulty survey, as shown by the resurvey of the said townships, preserving to the owners, who have lands shown by the former faulty surveys to be actually bounded Boundaries on by lakes or other bodies of water, as far as practicable, lakes, etc., prethe right to have patented to them the lands shown by such new resurveys to lie between their holdings and such lakes or bodies of water: Provided, That in the said adjustment no greater area shall be patented to any to areas conclaimant than that which is surrendered by him or of veyed, etc. which he is deprived by the fact that, under the corrected survey, the area to which title, derived from the United States, is now asserted by the entryman, selector, grantee, patentee, his heirs or assigns, is found to have no existence in fact, or to be covered by water and to have been so covered at the time of the faulty survey: Provided further, That nothing herein shall be construed as authorizing the Secretary of the Interior in the lowed. said settlement to patent to any entryman, selector, grantee, or patentee, or his heirs or assigns an area which, when added to the area retained by the said entryman, selector, grantee, patentee, or his heirs or assigns, shall give a larger acreage than that originally entered or thought to be acquired from the United States, or any grantee of the United States. served. Provisos. Maximum al SEC. 2. That the said Secretary of the Interior be, and surveys oris hereby authorized, to cause to be made such surveys or dered. resurveys in said townships as may in his judgment be necessary in order to carry out the provisions of this Act. Received by the President, October 20, 1919 (41 Stat. 325). [NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.-The foregoing act having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the House of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.] SWAMP LANDS. Revised Statutes.-Sections 2479-2484-Grant of swamp and It has been specifically provided that certain States shall not be entitled to swamp-lands, but other lands have been granted in lieu thereof. Such States in which this question might be of any special importance now, and acts of Congress affecting the same, are as follows: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington, section 17 of the act of February 22, 1889 (25 Stat. 676); Idaho, section 11 of the act of July 3, 1890 (26 Stat. 214); Wyoming, section 11 of the act of July 10, 1890 (26 Stat. 222); Utah, section 12 of the act of July 16, 1894 (28 Stat. 107); Arizona and New Mexico, sections 7 and 25, respectively, of the act of June 20, 1910 (36 Stat. 557); Kansas, Nebraska and Nevada, Revised Statutes, section 2479. UNITED STATES REVISED STATUTES. and overflowed construction of 8; Sept. 28, 1850, SEC. 2479. To enable the several States (but not in- Grant of swamp cluding the States of Kansas, Nebraska, and Nevada) to lands to certain construct the necessary levees and drains, to reclaim the States to aid in swamp and overflowed lands therein-the whole of the levees. swamp and overflowed lands, made unfit thereby for cul- St. 619; Mar. tivation, and remaining unsold on or after the twenty- 3 Feb. 19, 1874, eighth day of September A. D. eighteen hundred and 18 s. 16.. fifty, are granted and belong to the several States respectively, in which said lands are situated: Provided, however, That said grant of swamp and overflowed lands, as to the State of California, Minnesota, and Oregon, is subject to the limitations, restrictions and conditions hereinafter named and specified, as applicable to said three lastnamed States respectively. lists of such mission to the SEC. 2480. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Secretary of the Interior, to make accurate lists and plats of all such Interior to make lands, and transmit the same to the governors of the lands, for transseveral States in which such lands may lie, and at the governors of request of the governor of any State in which said swamp and overflowed lands may be, to cause patents to be issued to said State therefor, conveying to said State the feesimple of said land. States. Sept. 28, 1850, 9 S. 519. Legal subdivisions mostly wet tivation. The proceeds of said lands, whether from sale or by direct appropriation in kind, shall be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the reclaiming said lands, by means of levees and drains. SEC. 2481. In making out lists and plats of the lands and unfit for cul- aforesaid all legal subdivisions, the greater part whereof is wet and unfit for cultivation, shall be included in said lists and plats, but when the greater part of a subdivision is not of that character, the whole of it shall be excluded therefrom. Ibid. Indemnity to sold by United States. 10 S. 634. States where SEC. 2482. Upon proof by the authorized agent of the lands have been State, before the Commissioner of the General Land Office, that any of the lands purchased by any person Mar. 2, 1855, from the United States, prior to March 2d, 1855, were "swamp-lands," within the true intent and meaning of the Act entitled "An Act to enable the State of Arkansas and other States to reclaim the swamp-lands within their limits," approved September twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and fifty, the purchase-money shall be paid over to the State wherein said land is situate; and when the lands have been located by warrant or scrip, the said State shall be authorized to locate a like quantity of any of the public lands subject to entry, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, or less, and patents shall issue therefor. The decision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall be first approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Patents to issue for swamp-lands locators prior to ents to States. Ibid. SEC. 2483. The President of the United States shall to purchasers and cause patents to be issued to the purchaser or purchasers, issuing of pat- locator or locators, who made entries of the public lands claimed as swamp lands, either with cash or land-warrants, or scrip, or under any homestead or pre-emption laws prior to the issue of patents to the State or States: Provided, That in all cases where any State through its constituted authorities, may have sold or disposed of any tract or tracts of land prior to the entry sale or location of the same under the pre-emption or other laws of the United States, no patent shall be issued by the President for such tract or tracts of land, until such State through its constituted authorities, shall release its claim thereto in such form as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. In all cases where such State did not within ninety days from the second day of March, 1855, the date of an Act entitled, "An Act for the relief of purchasers and locators of swamp and overflowed lands," through its constituted authorities, return to the General Land Office of the United States, a list of all the lands sold as a foresaid, together with the dates of such sales and the names of the purchasers, the President shall issue patents to persons who made such entries of the public lands so claimed Selection as swamp-land. of swamp and SEC. 2484. All lands selected and reported to the Genoverflowed lands eral Land Office as swamp and overflowed land by the confirmed. |