414 FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 299. 1898. by depositions or otherwise, under commission from the register and receiver of the land office, which may have been or may hereafter be taken and sworn to anywhere in the United States, belbrc any court, judge, or other officer authorized by law to administer an oath, shall ` be admitted in evidence as if taken before the register and receiver of 1{r¤<=q1¤r¤ ¤¤ appli the proper local land office. And thereafter such proof, together with °““°“ m p"°"f a certified copy of the field notes and plat of the survey of the claim, shall be filed in the office of the surveyor-general of the District of Alaska, and if such survey and plat shall be approved by him, certified copies thereof, together with the claimant’s application to purchase, shall be filed in the United States land office in the land district in which the claim is situated, whereupon, at the expense of the claimant, the register of such land office shall cause notice of such application to be published for at least sixty days in a newspaper of general circulation published nearest the claim within the District of Alaska, and the applicant shall at the time of liling such field notes, plat, and application to purchase in the land office, as aforesaid, cause a copy of such plat, together with the application to purchase, to be posted upon the claim, and such plat and application shall be kept posted in a conspic- Adverse summa. nous place on such claim continuously for at least sixty days, and during such period of posting and publication or within thirty days thereafter any person, corporation, or association, having or asserting any adverse interest in, or claim to, the tract of land or any part thereof sought to be purchased, may file in the land office where such application is pending, under oath, an adverse claim setting forth the nature and extent thereof, and such adverse claimant shall, within sixty days alter the filing of such adverse claim, begin action to quiet title in a court of competent jurisdiction within the District of Alaska, and thereafter no patent shall issue for such claim until the final adjudication of the rights of the parties, and such patent shall then be _ issued in conformity with the final decree of the court. Timb¤r.¤¤!¤¤£ Sec. 11. That the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, may cause to be appraised the timber or any part thereof upon public lands in the District of Alaska, and may from time to time sell so much thereof as he may deem proper for not less than the appraised value thereof, in such quantities to each purchaser as he shall prescribe, to be used in the District of Ala ka, -u¤n. but not for export therefrom. And such sales shall at all times be limited to actual necessities for consumption in the District from year to year, and payments for such timber shall be made to the receiver of public moneys of the local land office of the land district in which said timber may be sold, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, and the moneys arising therefrom shall be accounted for by the receiver of such land office to the Commissioner of the General Land Office in a separate account, and shall be covered -u»e or. into the Treasury. The Secretary of the Interior may permit, under regulations to be prescribed by him, the use of timber found upon the public lands in said District of Alaska by actual settlers, residents, individual miners, and prospectors for minerals, for firewood, fencing, buildings, mining, prospecting, and for domestic purposes, as may actually be needed by such persons for such purposes. r,,i.u.mm. Sue. 12. That the President is authorized and empowered, in his discretion, by Executive order from time to time to establish or discontinue land districts in the District of Alaska, and to define, modify, or change the boundaries thereof, and designate or change the location j=··¤¤m and ¤=· of any land office therein; and he is also authorized and empowered to '“‘"‘ appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a register tor each land district he may establish and a receiver of public moneys therefor; and the register and receiver appointed for such district shall. during their respective terms of office, reside at the place desig- —-mms. uated for the land office. That the registers and receivers of public moneys in the land districts of Alaska shall each receive an annual
alary of one thousand five hundred dollars and the fees provided by
