of public interest pertaining to his Department.

The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters ending
on the thirtieth of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of which 1,538,614
acres were entered under the homestead law. The remainder was located
with military land warrants, agricultural scrip certified to States for
railroads, and sold for cash. The cash received from sales and location
fees was $1,019,446.

The income from sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1864, was
$678,007.21, against $136,077.95 received during the preceding year. The
aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has been equal to the
quantity disposed of, and there is open to settlement about 133,000,000
acres of surveyed land.

The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by
railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives
assurance of success, notwithstanding the embarrassments arising from the
prevailing high prices of materials and labor. The route of the main line
of the road has been definitely located for one hundred miles westward
from the initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location
of the Pacific Railroad of California has been made from Sacramento
eastward to the great bend of the Truckee River in Nevada.

Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been added
to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the Sierra
Nevada and Rocky mountains and the subordinate ranges now teems with
enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is believed that the
produce of the mines of precious metals in that region has during the year
reached, if not exceeded, $100,000,000 in value.

It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system be
remodeled. Congress at its last session, acting upon the recommendation,
did provide for reorganizing the system in California, and it is believed
that under the present organization the management of the Indians there
will be attended with reasonable success. Much yet remains to be done to
provide for the proper government of the Indians in other parts of the
country, to render it secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for
the welfare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations,
and to them the attention of Congress is invited.

The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to invalid
soldiers and sailors of