Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/32

30 specimens of that species, is small and many of the large trees in it are injured by ire.

I would therefore recommend that the President be authorized to withdraw from sale or other disposition an area at least equal to two townships in the coast range in the northern, and an equal area in the southern part of the State of California, the precise form and location of the tracts to be determined at his discretion.

In each of my annual reports I have called your attention to the necessity for legislation by Congress, providing a way for the more speedy settlement of the private land-claims in the territory (except California) acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1818, and the Gadsden treaty of 1853, than is now provided by law.

The reasons for asking such legislation are —

No law has thus far been enacted by Congress to provide a more speedy settlement of such claims since I first called your attention to the subject, although several bills have been introduced looking to that end.

All of the reasons to which I have heretofore invited your attention still exist, and the rapid settlement of said territory, both for agricultural and mining purposes, has greatly intenisfied the necessity for such a law.

Under the provisions of an act of Congress approved March 3, 1879, the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, and the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, hitherto conducted under the supervision of the Department of the Interior, were discontinued on the 30th of June, 1879. The office of Director of the Geological Survey was established by the same act, and $100,000 were appropriated for the expenses of said survey and for the classification of the public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

In accordance with the provisions of the act, the President appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, Mr. Clarence King, a gentleman eminently qualified, to conduct the survey. No report can yet be made of his operations in the field; but advices received indicate a season of successful labor and satisfactory results.