Arizona citizen., 1877-10-27

able to them.
 In order to comply with its provis
 ions, some applicants have taken theil
 land in zigzag shape, thereby confinine
 it to the lands on or near level with
 the streams. In one instance, I am as
 sured claim is so taken as to embrace torly-tour coTnersl The law require,
 claims on unsurveyed lands to be de scribed as nearly as possible without 6 survey. No connection is required to
 be made with the public surveys, but evidently the public surveys must event
 ually be connected with the lines oi such claims, and to do SO will involve a vast deal of extra labor in many cas es, and perhaps in some an imposslbil- ity. Think of a eputy surveyor clos
 ing on one claim with forty-four cor. ners. This mere statement suggests the necessity of an amendment to the law. The Surveyor Generals office will, in many cases, have imperfect de scriptions of such claims, SO that it will
 be unable 10 provide deputies with such data as they should have for the cor rect performance Oi their duty. All lands taken or reserved on unsurYeyed lands, should be surveyed with the ex- actness of military or Indian or other reservation or of mining claim, and the Surveyor Generals office be suppli- ed with a transcript of the notes of such survey.
 TIMBER LAND.
 Timber (valuable for commercial pur poses) in Arizona grows on the noun
 tain lands. South of the Gila valley, nearly all of il k found near the tops of mountains or in craggy and Lrecip- itous canons; and is inaccessible for wagons without first building expen- sive roads; and, in some instances. tn, mountains are so steep and rough that passable wagon reads cannot be made to the timber. Some of the lumber used in Tucson is taken from a mouu- tain some thirty miles distant, and the logs are cut anl slid down long dis tance because of the impOSsibility of building a practicable road 10 where the trees are found North of the GIla valley much of the valuable timber is found Tn like inaccessible places and none of it worth mentioning on land that eyer will be occupied uuter the homestead or pre-emptiOn acts. The timber is difficult of access and 50 cost ly to procure that it Is only cut for the actual needs of settlers. Much of the land on which it grows would be most difficult To survey, and well informed deputies would hardly contract to sur vev much of it at the rates allowed by law Near Prescott and eastward there from, there is considerable timber land that might be surveyed at the legal rates. Owing to the limited appropri- atIons gwen this district for pubic sur veys, and the fact that settlers would not occupy timber lands, have induced me to make no effort to survey the lands valuable for timber, or perhaps timber and minerals. If surveyed, such lands might be applied for by men with a veiw 10 abandonment after taking from them the most valuable timber.
 Settlers must have timber. The ne cessity for it IS almost as imperative as for the water of the streams and the grasses of the mesas and mountains Necessit alone makes them take it at great co f labor and money. Tech nically steal the timber, but II would Jt be comfortable for man to call his neighbor theft because he is engaged in numbering in Arlzpna Perhaps if the timber alone ere offer ed to him, at a fair price, y proper officer he would readily purchase it, for very few hard-working and reputable men, as lumbermen gen orally are, care to deliberately subjeci themselves to criminal prosecutions. So fur as I can learn. they would glad ly pay S1.25 per acre for the timber without the land. Laws that would be justly applicable to the timber lands of portions of California, Oregon, Wash ington Territory and Wisconsin, Min nesOta and other northwestern States, would hardly be just as to those in Ar izona, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho. The only practicable way to economize the timber of our mountains Is tO, in the speediest possible way, sell it to in dividuals with or without tue land. If Congress is unwilling to acceptreports of local officers regarding this impor- tant subject as basis of proper legislr- tion, then it should send members of its own body to ascertain and report the facts. AS matters now stand, the timber is being used without that re- gard to economy which the best inter est Of our people ought to demand; gov ernmenl is getting nothing for the tim Der; and when the valuable timber IS cut off hardly any body would receive