THE SOLICITOR. 789 



received special attention during the year. These cases involve very 

 extensive and long-continuetl trespasses by the Carbon Timber Co., 

 in Wyoming, and John C. TeUer and the Union Pacific Railroad Co., 

 in Colorado. Suit in the former case was instituted during the year, 

 and the latter had been pending for two years. As a result of negotia- 

 tions with the defendants, very satisfactory compromises were effected 

 by the departments interested. The Carbon Timber Co. trespass 

 was closed by an agreement wherein the company bound itself, under 

 adequate bond, to pay the Government $23,572.24, and to expend 

 $20,000 in the construction of a fire line around the cut-over area, 

 this line to be in every respect satisfactory to this department. The 

 Teller trespass involved the cutting of large quantities of railroad 

 ties, which were sold to the Union Pacific Railroad Co., and was settled 

 by payment to the Government of $27,440. 



There were 9 cases reported to the Attorney General for criminal 

 prosecut'on during the year, 5 of which resulted in convictions, and 

 only 1 in acquittal. Defendants were sentenced to terms in jail in 3 

 of the cases. In 27 of the cases reported to the Attorney General for 

 institution of civil suits settlements and judgments were secured in 

 13, resulting in the collection of $44,427.83. In the 4 cases settled by 

 this department the Government secured $20,388.87, the value of the 

 timber appropriated. Injunctions were asked in 4 cases and secured 

 in 1, and the other 3 cases were pending at the close of the year. 



Interesting questions have arisen in connection with some of these 

 trespasses, such, for example, as the claim of the Bonner's Ferry 

 Lumber Co. that it was not liable to the United States for timber cut 

 upon unsurvej^ed sections of land lying in National Forests and 

 embraced within what is known as school sections, being sections 16 

 and 36 in each township, which were granted by Congress to certain 

 States for support of public schools. The Government's demurrer 

 to the defendant's plea setting up the above defense was sustained by 

 Judge Dietrich, of the district of Idaho, in December of the fiscal 

 year. In the opinion rendered (United States v. Bonner's Ferry 

 Lumber Co., 184 Fed., 187) it was held: 



Idaho admission act July 3, 1890, c. 656, § 4, 26 Stat., 215, reserved to the State 

 sections 16 and 36 of every township, or other contiguous land in lieu thereof, for 

 Bchool purposes; and section 5 declared that all such lands should be disposed of at 

 public sale, etc., should constitute a part of the permanent school fund, and otherwise 

 regulated its disposition. Held, thai prior to an official survey, the title to land 

 which, when surveyed, would constitute school sections in the several townships, 

 remained in the United States; and hence, prior to such survey, the State could 

 not grant any authority to remove timber therefrom, nor prevent the United States 

 from recovering the value of timber so removed. 



In another case, which is still pending in the district of Idaho, the 

 Milwaukee Lumber Co. was enjoined during the year from cutting 

 fire-killed timber standing on unclassified lands within the primary 

 limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. and within 

 the Coeur d'Alene National Forest. The department assented to a 

 suspension of the temporary injunction pending final determination 

 of the issues involved, upon the company's filing a sufficient bond to 

 pay the vahie of the timber in the event the Government should 

 prevail in the suit. 



In July of the fiscal year the department reported to the Attorney 

 General facts disclosing a civil timber trespass by G. D. Gorus on the 

 Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, and in the letter reporting 



