V. THE DIVISION OF PENSIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS. 1178. This division is charged with matters pertaining to duties devolving upon the Secretary of the Interior regarding pensions and bounty lands, patents, and the census; also those concerning the Government Hospital for the Insane, Freedmen's Hospital, Columbia Hospital for Women, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the National Soldiers and Sailors' Orphans' Home, and the new jail, all in the District of Columbia.

VI. THE DIVISION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

1179. This division has charge of the care and distribution of all public documents issued by the Govern ment, the custody and distribution of which devolve by statute (R. S., §§ 497-511) upon the Secretary of the Inte rior. These documents include all excepting those published for the especial use of Congress or of any of the executive departments.

The division is under the charge of an officer provided for by law and designated Superintendent of Public Docu

ments.

1180. In addition to the custody of these documents, this division has the management of the library of the department. It has charge of the compilation and publi cation of the United States Biennial Register, or "Blue Book," containing the names of all officers of the United States, &c. It has the charge of the issuing of requisitions for the printing and binding of the Interior Department.

VII. THE RETURNS OFFICE.

1181. The statutes require the Secretary of the Interior to provide a proper apartment, to be called the Returns Office, in which are to be filed the returns of contracts

made by the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Interior:

1182. These returns are filed, as required by law, so as to be of easy access; they are arranged in classes according to the officer by whom they are made, and numbered in the order in which they are made. An index book is also kept in this division, containing the names of the contracting parties, with the number of each contract opposite the names respectively. This index book and the returns are by law subject to the inspection of any person desiring the privilege.

1183. The clerk in charge furnishes copies of the returns to any person paying therefor at the rate of five cents for every one hundred words, and causes such copies to be attested in the proper form.

THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

1184. This board, although not a bureau or organization of the Interior Department, is nevertheless so intimately connected with the same, through its relations with the Indian service, as to demand some mention in this place. It was created by act of Congress of April 10, 1869, to consist of ten persons, to be appointed by the President from men eminent for intelligence and philanthropy. They serve without compensation.

1185. The board is authorized to supervise all expenditures of money appropriated for the benefit of the Indians, and, in connection with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to inspect all goods purchased for the Indians. (R. S., § 2041.)

1186. Any member of the board is empowered to investigate all contracts, expenditures, and accounts in connection with the Indian service, and is allowed free access to all books and papers relating thereto in any Government office. (R. S., § 2042.)

1187. Payments are prohibited by any officer of the United States to contractors for supplies, transportation, buildings, or machinery, on the receipts or certificates of the Indian agents or superintendents, beyond fifty per cent. of the amount due, until the accounts and vouchers shall have been submitted to the executive committee of the Board of Indian Commissioners for examination and approval. These accounts and vouchers, after passing the scrutiny of the board, are required by law to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for his final determination. (R. S., § 2107.)

CHAPTER XXV.

THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

1188. The General Land Office was established as a bureau of the Treasury Department by the act of April 25, 1812. (2 Stats. at Large, p. 717.) On the creation of the Department of the Interior, in the year 1849, it was transferred to the latter, of which department it is now a most important bureau. It has charge, under the general supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, of the care, preservation, sale, and disposition of our vast public domain. It is through this office, under the immediate agency of surveyors-general and their subordinates, that all surveys of the public lands are made, and, under the like agency of reg. isters and receivers, that those lands are entered, sold, and located. Through the latter agency the proceeds of the sales are collected and paid into the Treasury. It is in this office, subject to appeal to the Secretary of the Interior, that the innumerable questions arising under the homestead, pre-emption, and bounty land laws are considered and determined.

SURVEYS.

1189. The public lands are required to be surveyed, and for this purpose the statutes provide for the appointment of surveyors-general for Louisiana, Florida, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Nevada, Oregon, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, and the Territories of New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona. Each of these surveyors-general is required to engage a sufficient number of skillful surveyors as his deputies.

1190. All the public lands are required, where practicable, to be divided by north and south lines, run according to the true meridian, also by others crossing them at right angles, and to be formed into townships of six miles square. These townships are required to be subdivided into thirty-six sections, each section to contain, as near as may be, six hundred and forty acres, or one mile square of land. Any number of contiguous townships north or south of each other constitute a range. The townships bear numbers, in respect of the base line, either north or south of it; and the tiers of townships or ranges bear numbers, in respect of the meridian line, according to their relative position to it, either on the east or west. The sections are numbered consecutively, beginning with number one, the northeast section, and proceeding then west to and including number six; thence alternating east and west with progressive numbers until the thirty-six are completed. Further subdivisions of these sections into tracts of one hundred and sixty acres are designated quarter sections, viz., northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest quarters.

1191. In Nevada, Oregon, and California, when deemed advisable, a departure may be made from this rectangular form of surveys.

1192. The statutes designate by boundaries ninety-three land districts, and fix the location therein of the respective land offices: but this designation may be varied, but not increased, by the President and the Secretary of the Inte rior as the public interests may seem to require.

PRE-EMPTIONS.

1193. Every person being a head of a family, or widow, or single person over the age of twenty-one years and a citizen of the United States, or having filed a declaration of intention under the naturalization laws, who has made a