ch bids should be at once opened simultaneously, and
the land awarded to the highest bidder above the minimum. To prevent
fraud, no bid should be received unless accompanied by a deposit of one
per cent. of the amount of the bid, to be forfeited to the Government
only if the bid is successful and the amount should not be paid in full.
Such tracts as are not sold at or above the appraised value should be
disposed if by _entry_ at the minimum price, in the same manner as under
our former land system, subject at proper intervals to new appraisements
and advertisements.

We have seen that our present Commissioner of the General Land Office
estimates our mineral public lands as of greater value than all the
mineral lands of the world, and that, up to the 16th of April last, they
had yielded, in gold alone, nine hundred millions of dollars. This is
exclusive of our valuable mines silver, quicksilver, tin, copper, lead,
coal, and iron. The lands yielding this $900,000,000 are estimated at
five hundred thousand acres--making their value exceed one billion of
dollars; and, at the same rate, the remaining twenty millions of acres
would be worth forty billions of dollars, or $2,000 per acre. This would
be a most extravagant estimate; but at the average price of twenty-five
dollars per acre they would bring, as we have seen, five hundred
millions of dollars, being a sum larger than our public debt on the 1st
of July last. That this sum at least can be realized to the Government
by a proper system from our public mineral lands, is my sincere
conviction.

On this subject, the Commissioner says:

'As the development of the mineral wealth of the country advances
not only of the gold and silver of California, but of Oregon,
Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico, and the vast mines of
useful metals scattered there and elsewhere, with exhaustless
supplies of coal to fashion and mould these for the various
purposes of life, the yield in a few years may reasonably be
estimated at $100,000,000; and when the Pacific railroad shall have
spanned the interior, it may be augmented to one hundred and fifty
millions of dollars' worth of mineral product.'

This annual product, as estimated by the Commissioner, would make the
total value of these lands exceed one billion of dollars.

There may be differences of opinion

as to this estimate of the Commissioner: some may think it too large,
and