Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/15

Rh to this subject was had, two bills of a local character were passed, one “authorizing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes,” and one “for the sale of timber lands in the States of California and Oregon and in Washington Territory.”

In the opinion of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which is on record in this department, these two acts are more calculated to hasten the destruction of the forests in the States and Territories named than to secure the preservation of them. The first above-mentioned act provides in its first section —

The second section makes it

Of this act the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of the Interior, expresses the following opinion:

The “Rules and Regulations” issued in pursuance of the first section of this act are to be found in the report of the Commissioner of