Filcher

(after stating the facts as above). The Act of February 26, 1895 ( 28 Stat. 683 ), created a special tribunal to examine and classify as mineral or nonmineral the odd-numbered sections of the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in Montana and Idaho, the surveyed lands to be described by legal subdivisions, the unsurveyed lands to be designated by “such natural or artificial boundaries to identify them, as the commissioners may determine’,’ (section 3) and further provided that no patent should issue to the railroad company until after such examination and classification. Under that act the land herein involved was in the year 1901 classified as mineral, but the classification was not approved by the Secretary. The Act of June 25, 1910 ( 36 Stat. 739 ), transferred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office the authority to examine and classify the lands subject to the approval of the Secretary. In 1913 section 9 was again examined and was classified as nonmineral. Notice of the classification was published in compliance with the statute, and no protest was made thereto. The act provided that, in the absence of protest upon approval of the classification by the…