of the preceding session of Congress. At the close of
the last fiscal year there were on the pension rolls 234,821 persons, of
whom 210,363 were army pensioners, 105,478 being invalids and 104,885
widows and dependent relatives; 3,420 were navy pensioners, of whom
1,636 were invalids and 1,784 widows and dependent relatives; 21,038
were pensioners of the War of 1812, 15,875 of whom were survivors and
5,163 were widows.

It is estimated that $29,535,000 will be required for the payment of
pensions for the next fiscal year, an amount $965,000 less than the
estimate for the present year.

The geological explorations have been prosecuted with energy during the
year, covering an area of about 40,000 square miles in the Territories
of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, developing the agricultural and
mineral resources and furnishing interesting scientific and
topographical details of that region.

The method for the treatment of the Indians adopted at the beginning
of my first term has been steadily pursued, and with satisfactory and
encouraging results. It has been productive of evident improvement in
the condition of that race, and will be continued, with only such
modifications as further experience may indicate to be necessary.

The board heretofore appointed to take charge of the articles and
materials pertaining to the War, the Navy, the Treasury, the Interior,
and the Post-Office Departments, and the Department of Agriculture,
the Smithsonian Institution, and the Commission of Food Fishes, to be
contributed, under the legislation of last session, to the international
exhibition to be held at Philadelphia during the centennial year 1876,
has been diligent in the discharge of the duties which have devolved
upon it; and the preparations so far made with the means at command
give assurance that the governmental contribution will be made one of
the marked characteristics of the exhibition. The board has observed
commendable economy in the matter of the erection of a building for
the governmental exhibit, the expense of which it is estimated will not
exceed, say, $80,000. This amount has been withdrawn, under the law,
from the appropriations of five of the principal Departments, which
leaves some of those Departments without sufficient means to render
their respective practical exhibits complete and satisfactory. The
exhibition being an international one, and the Government being a
voluntary contributor, it is my opinion th