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Show r XXVIU REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 'This is sometimes absolutely necessary, and it is a hardship to the agent to compel him to bear a loss that he cannot in some instances avoid. I again have the gratification,,in reporting on the work of a past year, of being able to point to thefaot that,notwithstanding the amount of money handled in making these payments, and the number of agents through whose hands it passed, every eeut has been filitltfully accounted for. RAILROAD OPERATIONS IN OONNECTION WITH ETDIAN RXSERVA'I'IONS. Under this heading the following operations during the past year may be noted : Bad Ricer Reserve, Wiscolzsk (Milwauk~e, Lake Ekore and Western Railwa~~).-Under date of June 26 last authority was granted by the Department for a preliminary survey up011 the Bad River Reserve, auxiliary to an extension of their railway from a point on the Montreal River between the States of Wisconsin and Michigau to Ashland, Wis. The survey was eomn~enced and the line partially located through the reserve, but owing to the peculiar character of the country, which pre-sents many engineering difficulties, the survey has not yet been com-pleted. . In the mean time the railway company, being desirous of tak-ing advantage of the season in order to a speedy constnlction of the road to the Montreal River, applied toothe Department for permission to proceed with the work of construction upon the reservation, offering to indemnify theIndians in respeetof the compensation to be ultimately determined upon for right of way and damages to private property. On the 25th August last the necessary authority was granted by the Department, sul?jeet to the consent of the Indians and to the filing of a bond 11y the company in the sum of $20,000, conditioned to meet the requirements of the ease. The treaty with the Chippewa IncIians (the LaPointe band of which oeeupies the Bad River Reserve) of November 30, 1854 (10 Stat. at Large, 1109) provid- for a right of way to rail-roads through the reserve upon payment of compensation to the In-dians, who, it may be added, are desirous to have the road built. The requisite bond has since been given, aud the agent has been directed to allow the work to proceed if the Indians do not ol>ject. Devil's Loke Reserve, Dakota (Jarnestown and Northern Railroad, N. P. R. R).-After an iuvestigation by the General Land Office, as alluded to in my last annual report, the Department decided not to disturb the western boundary line of this reservation. On the 6th of August, 1883, the agent at Devil's Lake Agency transmitted the result of the proceedings of a conncil of the Indians, thereto-fore authorized to be convened for the purpose of considering the questiou of compensation to be paid to them by the railway company for right of way, &e. The proposition of the Indians mas that tlie eolilpany should pa1 ten dollars per acre for the land required, and also |