PUBLIC DOMAIN OF THE UNITED STATES, or the lands owned by the government in trust for the people, amounted in all, including sales and grants that have been made from them to 2,012,784 sq. tn., or 1,864,382.2.23 acres. The larger portion had not been surveyed when the government adopted the system of survey into townships 6 in. square, containing 30 " sections," each 1 in. sq., containing nominally 640 acres. Each section is subdivided by "quarter posts." midway in the side lines of the quarter sections of 160 acres, in the center of the section; and these are subdivided into halves or 80 acre lots, with stakes midway in the side lines of the quarter sections. See SURVEYS OF PUBLIC LANDS. The n. and s. lines of the township are known as range lines, and the e. and w. as township lines. The cession of the claims of Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire to the lands w. of the original 13 states, embraced all the territory now occupied by the states n. of Georgia and e. of the Mississippi. The purchase of Florida from Spain, and of Louisiana from France, in 1800, confirmed a disputed title to all the region between the Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains, and even to the country now occupied by the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. The dis coveries of rapt. Robert Gray at the mouth of the Columbia river, and the explorations of capts. Lewis and Clarke under the direction of president Jefferson in 1804-5, gave the United States a claim on all the valley of the Columbia river, subsequently strengthened by a cession from Spain of her claims to the same region, and finally con firmed by a treaty with England, 1846, fixing the boundary on the Pacific slope at lat. 49'. Texas achieved independence from Mexico, and was annexed to the United States in 1845, by which a territory of 274,356 sq. m. was added to the area, most of which became public domain. The war with _Mexico, which followed, resulted, in 1846. in the acquisition of California, and a considerable area of country now embraced in New Mexico and Arizona. The last acquisition, exceeded in area only by the cession of French Louisiana, is Alaska. Much the larger part of this national domain has been surveyed for sale, and marked in sections and quarter sections. The uusurveyed por tions are mostly on the great plains between the Rocky mountains and the states border ing the Missouri, among the great mountain ranges, in the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and the regions between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific. Even in these territories, wherever the land has invited settlement by its fertility, surveys have been ordered, and are constantly in progress.
The system of sales adopted by the government has varied considerably by the passage of successive acts to encourage actual settlers and give them preference over speculators. Formerly public lands could be located and bought to any extent anywhere at $1.25 per acre wherever surveys had been completed. Legislation laws known as pre-emption acts now restrict sales to actual settlers, and not exceeding 160 acres to each. All public builds to which the Indian title has been extinguished are subject to pre-emption, except those reserved by proclamation of the president for some public use; Spanish or French grants; lands occupied by, or selected for, the site of a town; land occupied for pur poses of trade or business, and mineral lands. Any person who makes a settlement in
person, by erecting a dwelling on any unoccupied land, and lives in it, is authorized to enter with the register of the land-oflice of the district his claim to such land at the minimum rate of payment required: provided, that he does not own as much as 320 acres of land elsewhere in the United States; that he does not abandon the laud claimed to reside on other public land in the same state or territory; nor make more than one such pre-emptive claim; and that he has never before had the benefit of such a claim. Military bounty land-warrants, and agricultural college scrip are receivable for pre emption payments. Lands pre-empted for homesteads are relieved from liability for former debts. Sections 16 and 36 are reserved to the state for school purposes, and if pre-empted before they are surveyed and numbered, other sections instead are assured to the state. Mineral lands (except in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) are reserved from pre-emption and sale, except under special laws. Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, may be made 1500 ft. in length on such vein, and not exceeding 300 ft. on each side of the vein, or less, as may be limited by miners' law, authorized by congress, and of record in the local district. "Placer claims" for mineral not in rock -in-place, are made in conformity to land surveys in squares not exceeding 160 acres; but if many locators claim within that limit, the tract is divisible into 10-acre squares, and no one locator is entitled to more than 20 acres, and no association of persons to more than 160 acres by right of location. All patents granted, or pre-emption, or homesteads allowed, are subject to any vested and accrued seater-rights or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water-rights and to rights of way for public highways. Grants of public lands to states or corporations reserve all mineral claims for location under special laws. Coal-mine lands or unsold public domains may be pre jempted, 160 acres by one individual, or 320 acres by an association, at $10 per acre if not within 15 m. of a completed railroad, and at $20 per acre if within that limit. All lands offered at public sale are sold in half-quarter sections, or 80-acre lots, to the highest bidder. Private sales are made for cash only at $1.25 per acre, unless within the lines hounding railway grants of alternate sections, which are $2,50 per acre. The president is authorized to reserve from the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, town sites on the shores of harbors, or any natural prospective centers of population. Section 2331-2394 of the revised statutes contain the provisions governing such lands. There are 39 land districts with established offices for the sale of government lands, each under the charge of a "register of the land-office" appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate; and 17 land survey districts, each with a public office under the charge of a similarly appointed. For public domain reserved for park see YELLOW STONE PARK, etc.