the company tendered a voucher in the nature of a draft for $2,038.50 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898.

Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company.—July 6, 1898, the company tendered a draft for $1,500 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898.

Southern Kansas Railroad (leased to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company).—June 25, 1898, the company filed in the Department a voucher in the nature of a check for $85.50 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898.

Denison and Washita Valley Railroad Company.-June 30, 1898, the company tendered a draft for $150 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898.

Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway Company.-June 30, 1898, the company submitted a draft for $2,444.55 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898.

Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad Company.-January 14, 1898, the Department approved the map of definite location of the branch line of road of the above-named company from near Oak Lodge Station, on the main line of the road, to the east line of the Indian Territory at a point directly opposite the town of Fort Smith, Ark. On July 16, 1898, the company tendered a draft for $1,930.68 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for each mile of road constructed through Indian lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898. September 13 the company tendered a voucher in the nature of a check for $751.50 in payment for right of way of branch line of road from near Oak Lodge to Fort Smith.

St. Louis and Oklahoma City Railroad Company.-March 16, 1898, the Department approved a map showing a change in the location of line of road of the above-named company through the Creek Nation, said change in location lying between survey stations 678+ 70 and 137169 as shown on the original map of definite location, which was approved October 24, 1896. July 2, 1898, the company tendered a draft for $12.50 in payment of the annual tax of $15 per mile for the first 10-mile section of constructed road for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898. July 14, 1898, the company tendered a draft for $500 in payment for right of way for the first 10-mile section of the road. July 16, 1898, the Department approved the schedule of damages to land of individual allottees of the Sac and Fox Agency, Okla., for right of way through their allotments. August 24 the company tendered a draft for $1,362.50 in payment of balance due for right of way through the Creek Nation.

White Earth and other Chippewa Reservations, Minnesota.-Duluth, Superior and Western Railway Company.—March 25, 1898, the Acting Secretary of the Interior approved two amended maps showing the definite location of the line of road of the above-named company through the Chippewa Reservation; and on the same date he approved an amended map of definite location of the line of road through the White Earth Reservation. On April 23, 1898, Hon. Darwin S. Hall, Chippewa commissioner, and John H. Sutherland, esq., agent of the White Earth Agency, were instructed to determine the tribal damages and to act with and for the allottees in determining the individual damages resulting from the location and construction of the road through the above-named reservations. Their report concerning the matter has not yet been received.

St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company.-March 10, 1898, the Secretary of the Interior approved the map of definite location of the above-named company through the Chippewa Reservation. On April 23, 1898, Hon. Darwin S. Hall, Chippewa commissioner, and John H. Sutherland, esq., agent of the White Earth Agency, were instructed to determine the tribal damages and to act with and for the allottees in determining the individual damages resulting from the location and construction of the road through the Chippewa Reservation. Their report under said instructions has not yet been received. Brainerd and Northern Minnesota Railway Company.-On February 2, 1898, John H. Sutherland, esq., United States Indian agent of the White Earth Agency, was instructed to assist the individual allottees of the Leech Lake Reservation, Minn., in negotiating with the abovenamed company for right of way through their allotted tracts. His report has not yet been received.

San Carlos Reservation, Ariz.-Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway Company.-By act of Congress on January 13, 1898 (30 Stats., 227, and p. 00 of this report), the above-named company was granted an extension until February 18, 1900, within which to construct its line of road through the San Carlos Reservation. On March 1, 1898, the council proceedings of the San Carlos Indians, giving their consent to the construction of the road through the reservation, were approved · by the Secretary of the Interior, and by the President on March 3. On March 7 the maps of definite location of the line of road through the reservation were approved by the Acting Secretary of the Interior. March 25 Acting Agent Rice, of the San Carlos Agency, by direction of the Secretary of the Interior, was instructed to pay the compensation agreed upon between the company and the Indians to the male adults of the tribe of 14 years old and over, share and share alike.

Red Cliff Reservation, Wis.-Bayfield Harbor and Great Western Railway Company-August 13, 1898, the President approved two rightof-way deeds in the nature of an easement in favor of the above-named company covering certain allotted lands on the Red Cliff Reservation.

These additional deeds were made necessary by a slight change in the location of the road. August 16 the Secretary of the Interior approved the amended map of definite location showing the change referred to in the deeds. This change in location affected but two allotments in the northwest quarter of section 25, township 51 north, range 4 west.

Sioux Reservation, S. Dak.-Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company. By act of Congress of June 25, 1898 (30 Stats., 748, and p. 00 of this report), the Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed. to return and refund to the above-named company the sum of $15,335.76, deposited by the company with this Department in payment for right of way and depot grounds through certain lands which were afterwards ceded to the United States, and which lands the company claimed that it had never secured or used.

CONDITIONS TO BE COMPLIED WITH BY RAILROAD COMPANIES.

In the construction of railways through Indian lands a systematic compliance with the conditions expressed in the right-of-way acts will prevent much unnecessary delay. I therefore quote the requirements, which have been stated in previous reports. Each company should file in this office

(1) A copy of its articles of incorporation, duly certified to by the proper officers under its corporate seal.

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(2) Maps representing the definite location of the line. In the absence of any special provisions with regard to the length of line to be represented upon the maps of definite location, they should be so prepared as to represent sections of 25 miles each. If the line passes through surveyed land, they should show its location accurately according to the sectional subdivisions of the survey; and if through unsurveyed land, it should be carefully indicated with regard to its general direction and the natural objects, farms, etc., along the route. Each of these maps should bear the affidavit of the chief engineer, setting forth that the survey of the route of the company's road from a distance of miles (giving termini and distance), was made by him (or under his direction), as chief engineer, under authority of the company, on or between certain dates (giving the same), and that such survey is accurately represented on the map. The affidavit of the chief engineer must be signed by him officially and verified by the certificates of the president of the company, attested by its secretary under its corporate seal, setting forth that the person signing the affidavit was either the chief engineer or was employed for the purpose of making such survey, which was done under the authority of the company. Further, that the line of route so surveyed and represented by the map was adopted by the company by resolution of its board of directors of a certain date (giving the date) as the definite location of the line of road from

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-, a distance of miles (giving the termini and distance), and that the map has been prepared to be filed for the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, in order that the company may obtain the benefits of the act of Congress approved

(giving date).

(3) Separate plats of ground for station purposes, in addition to right of way, should be filed, and such grounds should not be represented upon the maps of definite location, but should be marked by station numbers or otherwise, so that their exact location can be determined upon the maps. Plats of station grounds should bear the same affidavits and certificates as maps of definite location.

All maps presented for approval should be drawn on tracing linen, the scale not less than 2,000 feet to the inch, and should be filed in duplicate.

These requirements follow, as far as practicable, the published regulations governing the practice of the General Land Office with regard to railways over the public lands, and they are, of course, subject to modification by any special provisions in a right-of-way act.

INDIAN DEPREDATION CLAIMS.

The number of Indian depredation claims of record in this office is 8,007. At the date of the last annual report there were 4,260 claims remaining in the office to be disposed of in accordance with the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stats., 851). Since then, up to June 30, 1898, the papers on file in 62 claims have been transmitted to the court and 6 claims have been reported as having been previously transmitted to Congress. There remain, therefore, 4,192 claims to be disposed of in accordance with the act aforesaid.

Considerable work devolves upon the office in the care and custody of the papers, making transfers of claims to the court with reports thereon, keeping proper records, and furnishing miscellaneous information to interested parties. During the past year there have been more calls than usual for information by attorneys, claimants, and others interested in the prosecution of Indian depredation claims.

In the last annual report it was stated that $1,120,680.29 had been appropriated by Congress for the payment of judgments of the Court of Claims rendered in pursuance of the act of March 3, 1891. By act of July 7, 1898, $331,771.55 was appropriated for the same purpose, making the total amount appropriated for the payment of judgments of the Court of Claims $1,452,451.84. The records of the office show that up to June 30, 1898, judgments have been paid and charged against those appropriations amounting to $1,144.863.77.

A few small judgments have been paid and charged against the tribal funds of different tribes in accordance with the sixth section of the act of March 3, 1891.

At the last session of Congress there was introduced House bill No. 6712, "To amend an act entitled 'An act to provide for the adjudication and payment of claims arising from Indian depredations,' approved March 3, 1891." The first paragraph of the act of March 3, 1891, now in force, providing for the adjudication of claims, reads as follows:

All claims for property of citizens of the United States taken or destroyed by Indians belonging to any band, tribe, or nation in amity with the United States, without just cause or provocation on the part of the owner or agent in charge, and not returned or paid for.

The proposed amendment substantially provides for adjudicating three classes of claims not provided for in the act of March 3, 1891, viz: (1) All claims for property of any "inhabitant" of the United States; (2) claims for property merely "damaged," and (3) claims against Indians not "in amity" with the United States.

In office report on this bill dated May 6, 1898, after reciting the

laws heretofore passed relating to Indian depredation claims, particu larly with reference to the questions involved in the proposed amendment, attention was called to the fact that while possibly it may have been the intention of Congress prior to March 3, 1885, to consider claims of "inhabitants" as well as claims of "citizens" of the United States against tribes in amity with the United States, yet the act of 1885 plainly provided only for the investigation of claims of citizens, excluding claims of "inhabitants;" as did also the act of 1891. (Johnson v. The United States, 160 U. S., p. 546.)

Attention was also invited to the fact that while it has been the policy of the Government for the past century to make provision for the satisfaction of just and bona fide claims for property taken or destroyed, yet no provision has ever been made for the adjudication of claims for property merely "damaged."

Senate bill 897, which was introduced in the Fifty-third Congress, first session, contemplated amendments similar in effect to House bill 6712, but it never became a law. It proposed to omit from the first paragraph of the act of March 3, 1891, the words "in amity with the United States." With the same end in view, House bill 6712 proposes to insert "or which had, prior to such taking or destruction, entered into any treaty of amity, peace, or friendship with the United States." In the same report of May 6, reference was made to the case of Marks et al. v. The United States et al. (160 U. S., p. 297 et seq.), and it was stated that if the above quoted clause of House bill 6712 were enacted into law, Indians actually at war with the United States would be compelled to pay, out of their annuities and trust funds, claims for property taken or destroyed by them during the existence of war, a policy contrary to all former policies of this Government.

There are no doubt many claims that have been rejected which would be allowed if the proposed amendments were adopted, and possibly some of them were just and proper at the time the depredations were alleged to have been committed; yet they were not adjudicated under the laws then in force, and the changes in the condition of the affairs of the Indians which have taken place since a large portion of these depredations were committed, and the difficulty the Government would now and in verifying the evidence of the claimants, in view of the great length of time which has elapsed since the commission of the depredations, would render the injustice to the present generation of Indians many-fold greater than any injustice which the claimants would suffer under the law now in force. Not only would it impose an unreasonable hardship upon the present generation of Indians, who are trying amid adversities to advance in civilization, by compelling them to make compensation for depredations committed by their ancestors while in a state of savagery, but it would take millions of dollars from the United States Treasury to pay claims, of which many would at least seem questionable.