40 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



meet a blank stare at the land office. The official 

 doesn't know. Where, precisely, is this parcel? 



The man locates and describes it. Perhaps the 

 two get into a car and run out to examine it. Per- 

 haps that particular parcel will have to be searched 

 back through a century of records in half a dozen 

 offices. Eventually it is identified and the title 

 proved to be federal. Then, after survey, it is trans- 

 ferred by one of several methods, usually settlement 

 or sale, to its would-be possessor. By this means the 

 Land Office is constantly locating possessions which 

 often it supposed it owned and wasn't sure about, 

 but often hadn't the least idea was even government 

 property. Examining and surveying on application 

 occasional tracts of a few acres each within say 

 half a state, many of which are sold for cash as 

 a result of the searches, is quite a different matter 

 from searching the half a state to discover once for 

 all where a few government tracts may hide, most of 

 which, if indeed there are any, may not come into de- 

 mand for a quarter century. For economy's sake, 

 therefore, Uncle Sam is content not to know exactly 

 where a few of his remaining scattered lands are lo- 

 cated till some one applies for a patent. 



During the recent land boom in Florida, every 

 stretch of barren sandy beach or outlying islet well 

 above tide became potentially a shore resort, a specu- 

 lative town lot site, or a rich man's estate. Prospec- 

 tive prices jumped to extraordinary figures. Every 

 few weeks tracts or islands scarcely known to exist a 



