The mountain portion of that country is filled up with burrowing animals of all kinds. and it is too much to hope or expect that these dams will not at times be invaded by these animals. and when the water has once begun to percolate through one of them it is not merely the end of the dam. but the end of the reservoir at that point. and if the water has nothing to do but to run down 10 or 20 miles to another reservoir and be reenforced by the amount in that. the cities would be wiped out in an instant. the farms inundated. and the country given over to the existence of savage life as completely and as perfectly as it was before the Geological Survey was ever thought of. Now I want to inquireof these honorable gentlemenif ever before they voted for a law. if ever before it was recommended that a law be passed. whereby. scattered over a wide area. it was proposed to withdraw from settlement and occupancy tracts of land that could not be ascertained by any process whatever so far as settlers are concerned. so far as the land officers are concerned. and that are waiting the slow progress of the Geological Survey to have their vicinity at least determined. That is the precise situation in which this legislation leaves us. and I stand amazed that it is proposed by anybody to treat these public lands as if they were other than the property of the United States to subserve the interests and purposes of the United States. or to treat the forthcoming and ongoing immigrants who go out there to occupy and possess them as if they were public enemies. Now. I wish to inquire of the gentlemen who recommend that we confirm these matters how I. who desire to settle in the county of Jefferson. or in the county of Choteau. or in any of the other counties in which this vague description of reservoir sites and partly irrigable lands selected for segregation existhow I am going to make secure the fact that I can pick out a piece of ground there on which I may live without being legislated by this sundry civil appropriation bill out of my home.
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immigrants