its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores, over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the Territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad, whenever it passes through any State, and whenever, on the line thereof the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from preëmption, or other claims or rights, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the Commissioner of the General Land Office; and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections, or parts of sections, shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occupied by homestead settlers, or preëmpted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in alternate sections and designated by odd numbers, not more than ten miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections: Provided, That if said route shall be found upon the line of any other railroad route, to aid in the construction of which lands have been heretofore granted by the United States, as far as the routes are upon the same general line, the amount of land heretofore granted shall be deducted from the amount granted by this Act: Provided, further, That the railroad company receiving the previous grant of land may assign their interest to said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," or may consolidate, confederate, and associate with said company upon the terms named in the first section of this Act: Provided, further, That all mineral lands be, and the

same are hereby, excluded from the operations of this Act, and in lieu thereof a like quantity of unoccupied and unappropriated agricultural lands in odd numbered sections nearest to the line of said road, and within fifty miles thereof, may be selected as above provided: and Provided, further, That the word "mineral," where it occurs in this Act, shall not be held to include iron and coal: and Provided, further, That no money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the United States to aid in the construction of the said "Northern Pacific Railroad."

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company" shall have twenty-five consecutive miles of any portion of said railroad and telegraph · line ready for the service contemplated, the President of the United States shall appoint three commissioners to examine the same, and if it shall appear that twenty-five consecutive miles of said road and telegraph line have been completed in a good, substantial, and workmanlike manner, as in all other respects required by this Act, the commissioners shall so report to the President of the United States, and patents of lands, as aforesaid, shall be issued to said company, confirming to said company the right and title to said lands situated opposite to and conterminous with said completed section of said road; and, from time to time, whenever twenty-five additional consecutive miles shall have been constructed, completed, and in readiness as aforesaid, and verified by said commissioners to the President of the United States, then patents shall be issued to said company conveying the additional sections of land as aforesaid, and so on as fast as every twenty-five miles of said road is completed as aforesaid: Provided, That no more than ten sections of land per mile, as said road shall be completed, shall be conveyed to said company, for all that part of said railroad lying east of the western boundary of the State of Minnesota, until the whole of said railroad shall be finished

and in good running order, as a first-class railroad, from the place of beginning on Lake Superior to the western boundary of Minnesota: Provided, also, That lands shall not be granted under the provisions of this Act on account of any railroad, or part thereof, constructed at the date of the passage of this Act.

SECT. 5. And be it further enacted, That said Northern Pacific Railroad shall be constructed in a substantial and workmanlike manner, with all the necessary draws, culverts, bridges, viaducts, crossings, turnouts, stations, and watering places, and all other appurtenances, including furniture and .rolling stock, equal in all respects to railroads of the first class when prepared for business, with rails of the best quality, manufactured from American iron. And a uniform gauge shall be established throughout the entire length of the road. And there shall be constructed a telegraph line of the most substantial and approved description, to be operated along the entire line: Provided, That said company shall not charge the government higher rates than they do individuals for like transportation and telegraphic service. And it shall be the duty of the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company" to permit any other railroad, which shall be authorized to be built by the United States or by the legislature of any Territory or State in which the same may be situated, to form running connections with it on fair and equitable terms.

SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall cause the lands to be surveyed for forty miles in width on both sides of the entire line of said road, after the general route shall be fixed, and as fast as may be required by the construction of said railroad; and the odd sections of land hereby granted shall not be liable to sale, or entry, or preëmption, before or after they are surveyed, except by said company, as provided in this Act; but the provisions

of the Act of September, eighteen hundred and forty-one, granting preëmption rights, and the acts amendatory thereof, and of the Act entitled "An Act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended to all other lands on the line of said road when surveyed, excepting those hereby granted to said company; and the reserved alternate sections shall not be sold by the Government at a price less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, when offered for sale.

SECT. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company" be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to enter upon, purchase, take, and hold any lands or premises that may be necessary and proper for the construction and working of said road, not exceeding in width two hundred feet on each side of the line of its railroad unless a greater width be required for the purpose of excavation, or embankments; and also any lands or premises that may be necessary and proper for turnouts, standing places for cars, depots, station houses, or any other structures required in the construction and working of said road. And the said company shall have the right to cut and remove trees and other material that might, by falling, encumber its road-bed, though standing, or being more than two hundred feet from the line of said road. And in case the owner of such lands or premises and the said company cannot agree as to the value of the premises taken, or to be taken, for the use of said road, the value thereof shall be determined by the appraisal of three disinterested commissioners, who may be appointed upon application by either party, to any court of record in any of the Territories in which the lands or premises to be taken lie; and said commissioners, in their assessment of damages, shall appraise such premises at what would have

been the value thereof if the road had not been built. And upon return into court of such appraisement, and upon the payment into the same of the estimated value of the premises taken for the use and benefit of the owner thereof, said premises shall be deemed to be taken by said company, which shall thereby acquire full title to the same for the purposes aforesaid. And either party feeling aggrieved at said ap' praisement may, within thirty days after the same has been returned into court, file an appeal therefrom, and demand a jury of twelve men to estimate the damage sustained; but such appeal shall not interfere with the rights of said company to enter upon the premises taken, or to do any act necessary and proper in the construction of its road. And said party appealing shall give bonds, with sufficient surety or sureties, for the payment of any cost that may arise upon such appeal; and in case the party appealing does not obtain a verdict, increasing or diminishing, as the case may be, the award of the commissioners, such party shall pay the whole cost incurred by the appellee, as well as his own, and the payment into court for the use of the owner of said premises taken, of a sum equal to that finally awarded, shall be held to vest in said company the title of said land, and of the right to use and occupy the same for the construction, maintenance and operation of said road. And in case any of the lands to be taken, as aforesaid, shall be held by any infant, feme covert, non compos, insane person or persons residing without the territory within which the lands to be taken lie, or persons subjected to any legal disability, the court may appoint a guardian for any party under any disqualification, to appear in proper person, who shall give bonds with sufficient surety or sureties, for the proper and faithful execution of his trust, and who may represent in court the person disqualified, as aforesaid, from appearing, when the