106 LAWS APPLICABLE TO THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



MISCELLANEOUS OFFENSES AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. 



Act of February 25, 1885 (23 Stat., 321). 

 Unlawful fencing. 



_ Sec. 1. That all inclosures of any public lands in any State or Ter- 

 ritory of the United States, heretofore or to be hereafter made, 

 erected, or constructed by any person, party, association, or corpo- 

 ration, to any of which land included within the inclosure the person, 

 party, association, or corporation making or controlling the inclosure 

 had no claim or color of title made or acquired in good faith, or an 

 asserted right thereto by or under claim, made in good faith with a 

 view to entry thereof at the proper land office under the general laws 

 of the United States at the time any such inclosure was or shall be 

 made, are hereby declared to be unlawful, and the maintenance, erec- 

 tion, construction, or control of any such inclosure is hereby f orbid- 



I den and prohibited ; and the assertion of a right to the exclusive use 

 and occupancy of any part of the public lands of the United States 



! in any State or any of the Territories of the United States, without 

 claim, color of title, or asserted right as above specified as to in- 

 closure, is likewise declared unlawful, and hereby prohibited. 1 



Civil suit; injunction. 



Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the 

 United States for the proper district, on affidavit filed with him by 

 : any citizen of the United States that section one of this act is being 

 violated, showing a description of the land inclosed with reasonable 

 certainty, not necessarily by metes and bounds nor by governmental 

 subdivisions of surveyed lands, but only so that the inclosure may be 

 identified, and the persons guilty of the violation, as nearly as may 

 be, and by description, if the name can not on reasonable inquiry be 

 ascertained, to institute a civil suit in the proper United States dis- 

 trict or circuit court, or Territorial district court, in the name of the 

 United States, and against the parties named or described who shall 

 be in charge of or controlling the inclosure complained of as defend- 

 ants ; and jurisdiction is also hereby conferred on any United States 

 district or circuit court, or Territorial district court, having jurisdic- 

 tion over the locality where the land inclosed, or any part thereof, 

 shall be situated, to hear and determine proceedings in equity, by 

 writ of injunction, to restrain violations of the provisions of this act ; 

 and it shall be sufficient to give the court jurisdiction if service of 

 original process be had in any civil proceeding on any agent or em- 

 ployee having charge or control of the inclosure ; and any suit 

 brought under the provisions of this section shall have precedence for 

 hearing and trial over other cases on the civil docket of the court, 

 and shall be tried and determined at the earliest practicable day. In 



1 It is unlawful under this act for persons who have acquired the right to use railroad 

 odd sections to construct a fence located entirely on the odd sections, but in such a man- 

 ner as to inclose with the odd sections some of the even sections belonging to the Govern- 

 ment. (Camfield v. United States, 167 U. S., 538.) In this case the court relied upon the 

 maxim that one must use his own so as not to injure another ; and as this gave rise to the 

 suggestion that the result would involve the exercise by the United States of police power 

 within a State, the court said, " We do not think the admission of a Territory as a State 

 deprives it (Congress) of the power of legislating for the protection of the public lands, 

 though it may thereby involve the exercise of what is ordinarily known as the police 

 power, so long as such power is directed solely to its own protection. A different rule 

 would place the public domain of the United States completely at the mercy of State 

 legislation." 



