METALLIFEROUS MINERAL LANDS. 143 



Perhaps the most important case yet considered is that relating to 

 the Northern Pacific land grant. Every alternate section in a strip 

 extending 40 miles on each side of the right of way was granted to 

 the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. to assist it in constructing a trans- 

 continental line, but the act provided that the railroad company 

 should not receive any lands that were valuable by reason of their 

 content of mineral deposits other than coal and iron. It therefore 

 became necessary to classify the entire grant with respect to its 

 value for such deposits, and in practice the chief problem of this 

 classification has been to determine the presence or absence of valu- 

 able metalliferous deposits. A great part of this classification was 

 accomplished by specially appointed commissioners, and the Geo- 

 logical Survey had no part in the work until 1905. In that year a 

 Survey geologist, accompanied by a field agent of the Land Office, 

 examined a large portion of the grant lying in Idaho and Montana 

 in order to obtain information supplementary to that on which the 

 special commissioners had recommended a mineral classification of 

 the greater part of this tract. The Survey, however, took no further 

 action regarding that particular examination. The greater part of 

 the tract was classified as mineral land as the result of a hearing 

 before the register and receiver at Cceur d'Alene, Idaho, but this 

 classification was set aside by the Commissioner of the General Land 

 Office on petition of the Northern Pacific Railway, on the ground 

 that it was based on insufficient field work. In 1910, therefore, an 

 appropriation was made by Congress (act of June 25, 1910; 36 Stat., 

 703, 789) for a new and much more thorough examination, for malt- 

 ing which the Commissioner of the General Land Office requested the 

 services of members of the Geological Survey. Four parties, each 

 comprising a geologist, a geologic assistant, and the necessary 

 camp hands, devoted the field season of 1910 to the work, which was 

 completed in the season of 1911 by three similar parties. The result- 

 ing classification, however, was not sufficient to decide the status of 

 all the lands in controversy. The railway company had the right to 

 contest classifications adverse to its interests and exercised this right 

 as to many of the lands which, because they were classified as min- 

 eral, would be excluded from the railroad grant. Hearings on the 

 contested classifications are held before the registers and receivers of 

 the appropriate land districts. An appeal can be taken from the 

 decision of these officers to the Commissioner, and from him to the 

 Secretary. No final decision has yet (February 28, 1913) been ren- 

 dered concerning any of the classifications of the Survey that are 

 under contest. 



The Survey has also been required to classify several Indian 

 reservations, in whole or in part, either before or after the reserva- 

 tions were opened to settlement, the question in the one case being 



