one thousand acres; and he may still purchase as much more as he desires at public sales and private entries.

Purchase at Public Sale. -This may be done where lands are offered at public auction to the highest bidder, either pursuant to proclamation by the president or public notice given in accordance with directions from the general land office.

By Private Entry, or Location.-The lands liable to disposal in this manner are those which have been offered at public sale, which were not then sold, and which have not since been reserved or otherwise withdrawn from market. In this class of offered and unreserved lands, the following steps may be taken to acquire title: The applicant will first present a written application to the register for the district in which the land is situated, describing the tract he wishes to purchase, and giving its area. Thereupon the register, if the tract is vacant, will so certify to the receiver, stating the price, and the applicant must then pay the amount of the purchase money.

The receiver will then issue his receipt for the money paid in duplicate, giving to the purchaser a duplicate receipt. The register will issue his certificate of purchase. At the close of the month the register and receiver will make returns of the sale to the general land office, from which, when the proceedings are found regular, a patent or complete title will be issued, and on surrender of the duplicate receipt such patent will be delivered at the option of the patentee, either by the commissioner at Washington or by the register at the district land. office.

§ 35. The Louisiana Purchase.-The act of March 3, 1811 (2 Stat., sec. 4, p. 663), authorizes and directs patents to be issued for lands sold by the United States at public sale and private cash entry in the Louisiana purchase now constituting the public land states and territories of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas except a fraction, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, parts of Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming, in the same manner and on the same terms as is or may be provided by law for lands sold in the state of Ohio; and the provision of law at that time with reference to Ohio was, that on presentation of the proper certificate of purchase, "the President of the United States is hereby authorized to grant a patent for lands thus sold to the purchaser, his heirs. or assigns."

1 Stat., sec. 7, p. 469; 2 Id., sec. 7, p. 76.

Although not embraced in the revised statutes, these provisions have never been repealed or modified.

Vide Repeal Provisions, sec. 5596, R. S.

§ 36. In California.—The act of March 3, 1853, sec. 6 (10 U. S. Stat., p. 346), provides that surveyed lands shall be offered for sale under the land rules and regulations now governing such sales, or such as may be hereafter prescribed, and that all of said lands that shall remain unsold after having been proclaimed and offered shall be subject to entry at private sale as other public lands.

For the state of Nevada and the territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and such portions of Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming as embrace territory ceded by Mexico, the authority for the issue of patents for lands sold at public or private entry is derived from the general provisions of the statutes extending the land system and laws of the United States and territories.

§ 37. Beds of Navigable Lakes.-In the case of the claims of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, state of Illinois, county of Cook, and others, for lands in Illinois known as the bed of Wolf lake, it was decided that neither the railroad company, nor the state, nor the claims of riparian owners, nor the scrip locators, nor the city of Chicago, was entitled to the land; but that it belonged to the government, and it was awarded to such pre-emption and homestead claimants as showed priority of right.

The testimony showed that the bed of the lake was covered with water at the date of the grant to the railroad company, September 20, 1850. The department holds that the land was not in existence at the date of the grant, and that the grant being a grant in præsenti, under the decision in the case of Leavenworth, L. & G. R. R. v. United States, 2 Otto, 741, there was nothing in the bed of the lake to which it could attach at that time, and that the grant indicates no purpose to give in future. The state made a swamp-land claim, which embraced all the lands in controversy.

It was rejected on the ground that the swamp-land grant was a grant in præsenti, and there was a failure to establish the swampy character of the land in 1850, the date of the grant.

Copp's L. L., 1882, p. 311.

The rule, however, would have been otherwise if the land had been covered by the waters of a lake not navigable.

See chapter on General Grants to States.

Lands which are marked on the books of the local office as covered by claims which are finally determined to be absolutely void from their inception, are withdrawn from market, and can not be again subject to private entry until duly offered at public sale.

Copp's L. L., 1882, p. 305.

After lands have been offered at public sale and then withdrawn, they may be restored to homestead and pre-emption entry. Until they have been again offered at public sale, they are not subject to private entry.

Copp's L. L., 1882, p. 307.

Assignments of duplicate cash receipts must be witnessed, and in case of married men the dower right must be assigned by their wives.

Copp's L. L., 1882, p. 310.

§ 42.

Lands Raised to $2.50 per Acre Prior to January, 1861, Reduced to $1.25 per Acre.

§ 43. Public Lands may be Offered for Sale in Such Proportions as the

§ 45. Several Certificates Issued to Two or More Purchasers of Same Section.

§ 49. Minimum Price, how Fixed when Reservations are Sold.

Lands in California Subject to Private Entry and Withdrawn, how to be Opened to Entry.

§ 52. Mistakes in Entry of Lands, Provisions for.

§ 50.

§ 51.

What Coins Receivable in Payment for Public Lands.

§ 55.

Error in Entry by Mistake of Numbers, Proceedings upon. § 56. Agreement and Acts Intended to Prevent Bids; Penalty. § 57. Agreement to Pay Premiums to Purchasers at Public Sales. § 58. Recovery of Premiums Paid to Purchasers at Public Sales. § 59. Discovery of Agreements to Pay Premium, by Bill in Equity. § 60. Limitation of Entries by Agricultural College Scrip. § 61. Sale of Saline Lands.

§ 38. Public Sale of Lands in Half Quarter-sections.—All the public lands, the sale of which is authorized by law, shall, when offered at public sale to the highest bidder, be offered in half quarter-sections.

3 Stat. 566; R. S. 2353.

§ 39. Advertisement of Sales.-The public lands which are exposed to public sale by order of the president shall be advertised in one newspaper published in the state or territory where the lands are situated, to be designated by the secretary of the interior, for a period of not less than three nor more

than six months prior to the day of sale, unless otherwise specially provided.

4 Stat. 702; 19 Id. 221, 377; R. S. 2359.

§ 40. Price of Lands, $1.25 per Acre.-The price at which the public lands are offered for sale shall be $1.25 an acre; and at every public sale, the highest bidder, who makes payment as provided in the preceding section, shall be the purchaser; but no land shall be sold, either at public or private sale, for a less price than $1.25 an acre; and all the public lands which are hereafter offered at public sale, according to law, and remain unsold at the close of such public sales, shall be subject to be sold at private sale, by entry at the land office, at $1.25 an acre, to be paid at the time of making such entry; provided, that the price to be paid for alternate reserved lands, along the line of railroads within the limits granted by any act of congress, shall be $2.50 per acre.

3 Stat. 566; 19 Id. 377; R. S. 2357.

§ 41. No Credit on Sales of Public Lands.-Credit shall not be allowed for the purchase money on the sale of any of the public lands, but every purchaser of land sold at public sale shall, on the day of purchase, make complete payment therefor; and the purchaser at private sale shall produce to the register of the land office a receipt from the treasurer of the United States, or from the receiver of pnblic moneys of the district, for the amount of the purchase money on any tract, before he enters the same at the land office; and if any person, being the highest bidder at public sale for a tract of land, fails to make payment therefor on the day on which the same was purchased, the tract shall be again offered at public sale on the next day of sale, and such person shall not be capable of becoming the purchaser of that or any other tract offered at such public sales.

3 Stat. 566; R. S. 2356.

§ 42. Lands Raised to $2.50 per Acre Prior to January, 1861, Reduced to $1.25 per Acre.-The price of lands now subject to entry which were raised to $2.50 per acre, and put in market prior to January, 1861, by reason of the grant of alternate sections for railroad purposes, is hereby reduced to $1.25 per acre.

Act of June 15, 1880; Cir. G. L. O., July 17, 1860.

$43. Public Lands may be Offered for Sale in such Proportions as the President Chooses.-Whenever the president is authorized to cause the public lands in any land district to be