In the case of Eli Annis.

This applicant was the purchaser of a certain 40 acre lot of school land, in the year 1841; and he, or his assignee represents that the description of it as contained in the certificate of purchase issued by the Superintendent of Public Instruction is erroneous, and is not the same intended to have been entered by the original purchaser. He claims to have the amount paid, being $25 40 refunded or applied to another purchase. The following resolution was adopted and expresses the opinion of the Board, as formed from the facts in the case:

Resolved, That Eli Annis and his assignees, in the purchase de. scribed in certificate No. 938 in the south-west quarter of north-west quarter, section 16, township I south range 4 east, having failed to pay either principal or interest due for two years, and by reason of such non-payment suffered the sarne to become forfeited, and having made no application during that time for the correction of the error in the said description, is evidence in the opinion of this Board, of their intention to forfeit the purchase, even though the land had been correctly described. The purchase must, therefore, be considered as forfeited without remedy, and the claim is disallowed."

In the cases of Benjamin Lapham and George Allen. These were applications from purchasers of school lands for a further reduction in the price of the lands held by them, after having received the benefit of the 40 per cent. reduction, provided by the act No 27, of 1842.

In these cases, the board "Resolved, That the said applicants hav ing availed themselves of the benefits of the laws reducing the price of the school lands, this board, in its opinion, has no power to grant their applications for a further reduction of the price of the lands purchased by them."

In the case of Isaiah J. Hudson.

The applicant in this case purchased in 1837 four 80 acre lots of school land, at $8 per acre, and paid the first ten per cent of the purchase money. He afterwards suffered the purchase to become forfeited, and in 1842 and 1843 he re-purchased three of said lots at $5 per acre, and without additional charge for the value of the improvements upon them. He now claims to be allowed the amount paid on the original purchase, and its application to the credit of the subse quent one. Mr. Hudson, it seems, did not choose to avail himself of

either of the modes of relief provided by the said act of 1842, but preferred to forfeit and re-purchase at a less price. The board believed there was no equity in the claim, and that its allowance under any circumstances, would induce the resuscitation of hundreds of similarly de funct cases of forfeiture. The board therefore "Resolved, that the application of Isaiah J. Hudson, who originally purchased certain school lands, and afterwards forfeited the same, involves no equitable claim for present relief, he having already been allowed to re-purchase at a less price and without charge for the value of the improvements thereon. The board cannot allow said claim without inflicting injury upon the school fund, and establishing a precedent dangerous to its interests. The said claim is therefore disallowed."

In the case of Stephen J. Morse.

This claim was especially referred to the board by act No. 104, of 1845. From the papers presented, the nature of it is briefly stated as follows:

In 1838, Mr. Morse settled on a tract of land belonging to the Uni ted States, on the "Macon Reserve," in Monroe County, "with the intention of securing a pre-emption right thereto," whenever by the laws of Congress he should be enabled so to do. Under the act of June 28, 1838, he failed to establish his right, his settlement, as to time, not being in accordance with the requirements of the law. No other pre-emption law was passed until June 1840, previous to which time, in December 1839, the state selected the said land with other public lands on the said "reserve" for school purposes, under the provision of the acts of Congress of May 20, 1826, and June 23, 1836.

He avers that he would have been enabled to purchase the land upon which his settlement is made, under the pre-emption law of 1840, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, had not the state selected it at the time and for the purposes above stated, and claims now to be allowed to purchase the same at the said price of $1 25 per acre.

The board, after a careful consideration of this claim, were constrained to disallow it, for the reasons, first: That they doubted their power to authorize the sale of any of the public lands, at a price be low the respective minimum fixed by the laws regulating their dispos al, and which provide that "no such land shall be sold for less than the prices so established.

Secondly, If they had such power, the necessity for its exercise in the allowance of the claim, was not clearly perceived, as the facts show that the applicant had no legal pre-emption right to the land at the time of its selection by the state, and that he has been in the uninterrupted possession of the same, and in the enjoyment of its proceeds for over seven years, without having invested any capital in its purchase, and without having paid either rent, taxes or interest during his occupancy. The following resolution was therefore adopted:

Resolved, That upon consideration of the claim of Stephen J. Morse, as submitted, pursuant to the provisions of the act No. 104, of 1845, the Loard is of opinion that he is not equitably entitled to enter the land he applies for, at a less price than the minimum established by law for the unimproved school lands; the said claim is therefore disallowed."

In the consideration of the several claims presented, the board have endeavored to dispense "just and equitable relief, having in view the interests of the different appropriate funds," as enjoined upon them by the act under which their proceedings were had.

In their determination on the cases disallowed, they may nevertheless have erred in judgment, and if so, failed to administer the relief intended to be afforded by law, but as their action is not conclusive, and as the corrective power lies with the legislature, it is a matter of satisfaction to know, that by their proceedings the rights and privileges of the claimants feeling aggrieved thereby, are in no wise abridged, but that they may still seek from the legislature what they claim as equitable relief, but which the board have been constrained to deny them as such.

The consideration of the claims of Job Brookfield, Ebenezer Da. vis and E. G. Fuller, was necessarily postponed to the next session of the board in February ensuing. All of which is respectfully submitted. D. V. BELL,

Commissioner State Land Office.

HENRY N. WALKER,

Attorney General.

GEORGE REDFIELD,

State Treasurer.

Detroit, Dec. 1, 1845.

Report from Geological Department. OFFICE OF STATE GEOLOGIST, TOPOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT, Detroit, 7th January, 1846.

To the Hon., the Senate and House of Representatives:

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I have the honor to report the completion of the catalogues and maps of the school lands contemplated by the act approved March 1st, 1845, which is as follows:

"SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That the State Geologist be and he hereby is authorized and directed to ascertain the quantity of land the State of Michigan is authorized to select in addition to, or in lieu of the sixteenth section under the act of Congress entitled "an act to appropri ate land for the support of schools in certain townships and fractional townships not provided for, approved May 20, 1826, and the act of June 23, 1836, admitting this state into the Union, and report to the next session of the Legislature."

It will be seen by the report of M. E. Van Buren, Esq., to whom this work was given in charge, that the quantity of land the state is entitled to in lieu of fractional section sixteen, and for townships deficient in section 16, of the lower peninsula, is twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine acres. And to this amount must be added such deficiency as may be found in sixty-nine unserveyed townships which remain.

In the statement under the head of "available school lands," and following remarks, the total of school lands of the lower peninsula, amount to seven hundred and fifty-nine thousand five hundred and eighteen acres.

If to this we add the school lands of the upper peninsula, which will amount to nearly half a million acres, we have a truly noble fund.

As in consequence of the lamented death of Dr. HOUGHTON, late state geologist, some legislative action will be called for in relation

to the future disposition of the state survey, and in the absence of the annual report from the head of that department, I have deemed it proper to accompany this report with some observations which may be important under present circumstances. With this view I applied to Bela Hubbard, Esq., late assistant to Dr. Houghton, in the department of geology proper, and have received from him such information as was deemed of most importance. Mr. Hubbard had undertaken in part the preparation of the final report on the geology of Michigan, under the direction of Dr. Houghton, for which purpose all the field notes and other information collected during the progress of the state surveys, were placed in his hands, and he is now engaged, at the request of the administrators, in the supervision of the geological portion of the returns of the late surveys made by Dr. Houghton, under contract of the U. S. government.

It is doubtless well known to your honorable body, that the period originally contemplated by the act for accomplishing a geological survey of this state expired in 1843; since which time the state geologist, under a greatly reduced appropriation, has been actively engaged in carrying forward the work to its completion, more particularly in that portion of the state denominated the upper peninsula, in the prosecution of which work he has fallen a martyr to his zeal, perishing at his post, and when almost in full view of the attainment of objects so anxiously sought, and so dear to the interests of Michigan. The immense amount of labor required to be performed in the progress of this survey, and its great importance to the people of the state, as also the important results it was developing in the region on lake Superior, necessarily retarded the completion of the work beyond the period first contemplated. This delay, however, so far from prejudicing the work, has only tended to perfect the information already obtained, as well as to add to its amount.

The annual reports from the geological department, have from time to time given information of the progress of the survey, together with some of the practical results; though necessarily in a very partial and imperfect manner, it being intended to combine, in a condensed form, the whole amount of information collected into the final report, at the close of the whole work.

So far as regards the lower peninsula, all the field work has been