om the precious metals of gold, silver, with
cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the
source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not
only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
republic.'

Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public
domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
States_, and _all_ the Territories.

Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the
total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands
of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,'
exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or
1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole
Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a
thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England[3] (proper) has 50,922
square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square
miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as
large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than
twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
than 200 millions of people.

As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of
Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver,
coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
agricultural products.

These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships
of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter
sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public
surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south,