Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 27.djvu/418

 FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 382. 1892, 39] releasing to the United States all its claims upon the lands described in said list, and shall also procure and cause to be released to the United States all liens and claims to said lands derived through or under said company, whereupon all right, title, and interest of the said railway company to each of such tracts shall revert to the United States, and such tracts shall be treated, under the laws thereof, in the same manner as if no rights thereto had ever vested in the said railway company, and all qualified persons who have occupied and made sm1.-as to perfect improvements on said lands, as herein provided, or who have purchased "“°S· said lands in good faith, their heirs and assigns, shall be permitted to perfect their titles to said lands according to law as if said grants had never been made. Sec. 2. That the said railway company is hereby permitted to select, ,m§j;°j;{g§;,{{* 1** °*` in lieu of any lands forming odd-numbered sections or parts thereof ` situated in the State of North Dakota or in the State of South Dakota, within the tenanile limits of a grant of lands made to the Territory of v01_,, p_,,,5_ Minnesota by act of Congress, entitled “Au act making a grant of i land to the Territory of Minnesota, in alternate sections, to aid in the construction ot certain railroads in said Territory, and granting public lands, in alternate sections, to the State of Alabama, to aid in the construction of a certain railroad in said State," approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, as amended by an act of Congress, vous, p. 526. entitled “An act extending the time for the completion of certain landgrant railroads in the States of Minnesota and Iowa, and for othe1· purposes/’ approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-tive, and of a grant made by act of Congress entitled “An act authorizing V·>l.16.p.588. the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad Company to change its line in consideration of a relinquishment of lands/’ approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, opposite to and coterminous with such portion of said railroad as was constructed and completed within the time required by the said grant and the acts amendatory thereof for the construction and completion of the whole of said railroad, which, prior to January nrst, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-one, any person had purchased or occupied or improved, in good faith, under color of title or right to do so, derived from any law of the United States relating to the public domain, but not including any I6i','fd,“};?f,?l§,‘_§},?d‘ lands within the limits of the grant, to aid in the construction of the Saint Vincent branch of said road, as located under the act of March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, upon which any person or ‘ persons had, in good faith, settled and made or acquired valuable improvements thereon prior to March, eighteen hundred and seventy- seven, an equal quantity of non mineral public lands, so classified as non mineral at the time of actual Government survey which has been or shall be made, of the United States not reserved and to which no adverse right or claim shall have attached or have been initiated at the time of the making of such selection lying within any State into or through which the railway owned by said railway company runs, to the extent of the lands so relinquished and released: Providezl. That proviso;. the lands to be released by said company, and in lieu of which said _ company shall be entitled to select other lands of equal area, shall only ,,{;}‘,§"?,*f,{§'Ej§f’{;*Q,{{lj include lands to which, at the date of the definite location of the lines .i•{<;¤¤>¤<·rri·¤ <>W¤~r- of railroad in aid of which said land grants were made, no paramount S "p‘ grant, sale, preemption, or homestead right had attached, this proviso not to be considered as in any way extending the limitation as to eighteen hundred and seventyseven herein above provided: And provided further, That the tracts of land so by said company to be selected in S,,,,,,,,.,,, of new any one body under the authority of this act shall not exceed six hun- *¤>°***· dred and forty acres, and such selections shall not exceed in the ag gregate sixtyfive thousand acres. But said company shall not he required to relinquish any greater amount of land than it is permitted by this act to select.