RAILROADS. 



675 



In addition to the above, extensive grants 

 of land have been made by the General Gov- 

 ernment in aid of what are termed Pacific 

 Railroad Companies, which have been made 

 directly to the companies having the several 

 enterprises in hand, viz. : To the Union and 

 Central Pacific Railroad Companies, with the 

 branches provided for in the original act 35,- 

 000,000 acres, being twenty sections, or 12,800 

 acres to the mile. Of this grant only 544,759.15 

 acres have yet been certified. The grant to 

 the Northern Pacific Railway calls for 58,000,- 

 000, or 25,800 acres to the mile. No portion of 

 this grant has been certified to the company. 

 The grant to the Atlantic and Pacific calls for 

 42,000,000, or 25,600 acres to the mile. No por- 

 tion of this grant has been certified. The grants 

 to the three Pacific railroads call for 135,000,- 

 000 acres, or about 200,000 square miles. 



The Government has also at former periods 

 granted lands to the extent of 4,405,986 acres 

 to aid in the construction of canals, and more 

 recently 3,857,213.27 acres to aid in the con- 

 struction of wagon roads, making the total num- 

 ber of acres granted to aid works of internal im- 

 provements 198,165,794.67, or about 300,000 

 square miles. 



The following statement has been made by 

 the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, 

 of the number of acres certified to railroad com- 

 panies from June 30, 1870 (the date to which 

 the above table was compiled), to June 1, 1871 : 



In addition to the above, lands have been 

 given, by act of March 3, 1871, to the Texas 



* The lands here mentioned were certified to the com- 

 pany previous to June 30, 1870 ; but were omitted from 

 the column of certified lands above. 



