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Show 88 REPORT OF THE C0116116ISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. dams, and canals constructed by these Indians. Something would have been attempted for them during the last year, but it was not pos-sible to spare the services of a competent man to make plans and supervise the work. As the Indians are more than willing to furnish the labor, it has been determined to help them at once. All the assist-ance they require is an engineer, some tools, blast powder, flume lum-ber, and supplies. The engineer is at work and the supplies will be furnished without delay. Shoshoni.-On October 18,1905, authority was granted to construct the Big Wind River ditch on the Shoshoni Reservation, in Wyoming, which is to be 34 miles long and cover about 34,000 acres of land and is estimated to cost $250,000. Work on the big ditch and on minor irrigation projects can probably be carried on at the same time. The superintendent of irrigation reported last year that about 2,000,000 feet of lumber would be required for all the irrigation sys-tems on the reservation, and that no suitable lumber could be pro-cured in sufficient quantity on the reservation, while plenty of fine timber was procurable from the Yellowstone Forest Reserve. He requested that authority be obtained to cut 500,000 feet of timber from the forest reserve in sections 2, 10, 11, and 12, township 42 north, range 109 west, at points directly adjacent to the Rig Wind River, and that he be authorized to purchase for $2,000 a portable sawmill of 25 horsepower to be installed on that river at a point con-venient to the irrigation work, as logs could be run down the river to it during high water at small expense. By this means he esti-mated that the 500,000 feet of lumber could be logged, sawed, and delivered at not exceeding $15 per thousand feet, including the cost of the mill, while it could not be obtained otherwise for less than $40 per thousand. Authority was granted to purchase the sawmill and cut the logs from the forest reserve. H. C. Means, superintendent of irrigation, reported on July 14, 1906, that the Shoshone irrigation survey had cut last winter 415,000 feet of logs on the forest reserve, and that the drive of 150 miles down the river to the Survey's sawmill had thus far been conducted satis-factorily, the worst part of the river having been past. Such a drive on the Rig Wind River had never before been attempted, but as it had apparently proved feasible he had applied to the supervisor of the forest reserve for a permit to cut 1;000,000 feet more of logs. This request has been granted. Article IV of the agreement with the Indians of the Shoshoni Reser\-ation, ratified March 3, 1905, provided that from the proceeds of the sales of their lands $150,000 should be expended on irrigation. The Indian appropriation act for the current year (84 Stat. L., 38%) advanced $100!000 for this purpose. Unitah.-The Unitah project in some respect!: is the most impor- |