THE USE BOOK. 271 



FOREST RESERVATIONS STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION GRAZING 

 TRESPASS is A CRIME. 



(22 Op. Atty. Gen., 266.) 



Congress has the right to place the control of the occupancy 

 and use of forest reservations in the hands of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior for their preservation. 



A criminal prosecution will lie to punish a person who grazes 

 sheep in a forest reservation in violation of the regulations 

 promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to 

 law. 



Congress can not delegate its legislative power so as to author- 

 ize an administrative officer, by the adoption of regulations, 

 to create an offense and prescribe its punishment. 



DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 

 \Y<ixli\n<i1on, D. 0., November /?', /M.S. 

 The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 



SIR : Section r:jss of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the 

 act of June 4, 18S8 (25 Stat., 166), provides as follows: 



Every person who unlawfully cuts, or aids or is employed 

 in unlawfully cutting, or wantonly destroys or procures to 

 be wantonly destroyed, any timber standing upon the land 

 of the United States which, in pursuance of law, may be 

 reserved or purchased for military or other purposes, or 

 upon any Indian reservation, or tands belonging to or 

 occupied by any tribe of Indians under authority of the 

 United States, shall pay a fine of not more than five hun- 

 dred dollars or be imprisoned not more than twelve months, 

 or both, in the discretion of the court. 



The act of June 4, 1897, entitled "An act making appropria- 

 tions for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1898, and for other purposes," provides 

 *(28 Stat., 35) : 



The Secretary of the Interior shall make provisions for 

 the protection against destruction by fire and depredations 

 upon the public forests and forest reservations which may 

 have been set aside or which may be hereafter set aside 

 under the said act of March 3, 1891, and which may be 

 continued: and he may make such rules and regulations 

 and establish such service as will insure the objects of such 

 reservn tions, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use 

 and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction; and 



