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Show Drilling for oil is progressing at several points on the Shoshone Reservation and oil and asphalt in large quantitie~ and of great value have been found. One coal mine has been developed near the southern boundary of the keservation, and the royalties from coal produced from this mine during the year amounted to $13,216.81, a gain of about 80 per cent over last year. - There is now leased and in process of being leased over 50,000 acres of land on this reservation for the development of coal, oil, gas, asphalt, and gypsum, and it is believed that the coming fiscal year will show the reservation to be an oil field of great extent and that within a comparatively short t h e large returns will come to the Indians in royalties on oil, coal, and asphalt. GENERAL. The lands of the Kaibab and Paiute Indians, established under executive order of May 28, 1909, are thought to contain valuable minerals and there has been increasing demand for permission to prospect on these lands. It has heen.known for a long time that lignite existed in large quantities on the Tongue River Reservation in Montana, and during the year a well, which was dug at the agency, passed through two veins of lignite, 12 feet each in depth, and a third one of 7 feet. There is very little market for this clasd of fuel in that neighbor-hood because of the lack of transportation facilities, but it is expected that a railroad will be built through the reservation in thehear future and that this will furnish the means of easy transportation of t h i valuable mineral to market. . LOGGING ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS. During the year logging operations were conducted on Indian res-ervations as follows: Flathead Reservation.-On the Flathead Reservation in Montana 4,550,730 feet of dead and down timber was logged by Donlan & Russell under their approved contract dated January 2, 1907, for which $6,713.13 was paid. There is still due from this firm $157.20 for 393 acres of wood at 40 cents per cord. The John O'Brien Lum-ber Company paid in $336.67 for 336,670 feet of dead and down timber cut during the fiscal year 1908. La Pointe Agency.-Allottees on Indian reservations in Wisconsin under the La Pointe Indian Agency are permitted to dispose of their timber under the treaty of September 30, 1854 (10 Stat. L., 1109) Allottees in Minnesota under thii same agency may sell their timber under the act of April 21, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 209). |