2. The selected tracts must be connected with specific bases of exactly the same quantity. Respecting the method of so balancing the selections you are referred to the circular letter of this office of July 29, 1887, page 124 of the annual report of this office for 1887, which was sanctioned by the Department in the case of Melvin et al. vs. California (6 L. D., page 702), and now is applicable to your districts.

3. In presenting selections of indemnity lands based on sections 16 and 36, or portions thereof, found upon survey to be in the occupancy and covered by the improvements of an actual pre emption or homestead settler, the Territory may proceed in one of two ways to have its rights defined:

(a.) By proceeding to prove such occupation at date of survey and up to the time of selection by the testimony of at least two respectable disinterested witnesses. In such instances the qualifications of the alleged pre-emptor or homesteader must be shown, and also the occu pancy and improvement as to each subdivision used as the basis of se lection. Publication must be resorted to by the selecting agent for a period of six weeks of notice of intention to prove such occupancy, in order to select indemnity, and the time and place of hearing must be stated therein. Hearings may be held before you or the judge or clerk of any court in the Territory having common law or probate jurisdiction and using a seal, and where the testimony is taken before such of ficers of courts the papers must be made up with the seal of the court affixed under the rules governing the affixing of jurats to the proofs of settlers made before such officers. It is not regarded as mandatory upon the Territory to select indemnity on bases of this kind, as the act is worded. It is a right which may be exercised, but it is a privilege which might be abused, and consequently the above regulations as to proofs are necessary for the ascertainment of the facts.

(b.) By relying on the proofs of pre-emption and homestead settlers claiming by virtue of settlement prior to survey after entry by them. The validity of such bases of selection would depend upon the establishment of the fact of such settlement before this Department.

4. In making selections founded on the deficiencies in the school sections, or tracts in such sections in reservations for public purposes, the bases should be carefully described in the lists of selections by section, township, and range, or by fractional townships where the school sections are entirely wanting.

The manner of using the bases so that they shall be satisfied in quantities exactly equal to those of the selected tracts is explained in the circular of July 29, 1887, referred to in paragraph 2 hereof.

5. The language of the law is plain and explicit as to the quantities of indemnity lands that may be selected in lieu of mineral lands upon a determination of their mineral character, and respecting such determination the following regulations are issued:

(a.) A determination by the Secretary of the Interior, or a decision by this office or the local officers, which becomes final under the Rules of Practice, that a portion of the smallest legal subdivision in a section numbered 16 or 36 in Wyoming is mineral land, will place the entire subdivision in the class of bases that may be used in selections of land as indemnity.

(b.) All the lands in said sections 16 and 36 returned as non-mineral must be presumed to be school lands for the purposes of this act until the presumption is overcome in the manner hereinafter indicated. The bare return of lands as mineral by the surveyor-general will not be regarded as conclusively classifying them as mineral, the returns of dep

uty surveyors as to the character of the land surveyed having been found in many cases to be indefinite or erroneous.

(c.) In the absence of a decision by this Department that land in a school section is either mineral or non-mineral in character, the Territory may proceed as follows:

First. By applying to the Secretary of the Interior, through the proper district office, where the land has been returned as non-mineral, for his certificate that the land was rightly so classed. Such certificate will determine whether the reservation for schools took effect upon the lands in place beyond attack by mineral claimants. Notice of such proceeding must be given by publication and posting in the manner prescribed by the Rules of Practice.

Second. By proceeding to prove land which has been returned as mineral to be in fact non-mineral in the manner prescribed in circulars "N" of September 23, 1880, and October 31, 1881.

Third. By relying upon the record for indemnity where lands have been entered as mineral; where the Territorial authorities have information that the mineral character of tracts in sections 16 and 36 is shown by evidence in this office, a list of them may be sent here through the proper district office, to determine whether they may be used as bases for selection. If the decision should be in the negative, the character of such tracts may be determined under the procedure indicated in the first and second subdivisions of this paragraph.

6. The act of July 1, 1864 (seventh subdivision of section 2238, U. S. R. S.), requiring fees to be paid in selections of lands by States and corporations, is not construed by this office as requiring fees of Wyoming Territory on making selections under said sixth section. S. M. STOCKSLAGER,

Approved:
WM. F. VILAS,
Secretary.

Commissioner.