period were in the dry belt immediately south of the United States. In Lower California 9,800,000 hectares were sold; in Chihuahua, 9,000,000; in Coahuila, 7,000,000; in Sonora, 3,600,000; in Durango, 1,300,000, and in Sinaloa, 1,100,000. Up to the middle '80s practically all the lands distributed went to Mexicans. In 1883 the American Minister declared that no American in his senses would try to locate and claim any land because of the disputes for ownership that would be sure to follow. In the years that followed, however, the survey of terrenos baldios went on very rapidly by companies, native and foreign. They obtained shares of the land surveyed in payment for their work. The contracts were undertaken under the law of December 15, 1883, regarding survey and colonization of public lands and under a series of laws passed between 1889 and 1894 known as the Leyes de Deslindes. These measures have been criticized severely for failure to protect the public interests. Up to 1889 there had been surveys authorized for 38,249,373 hectares, of which 12,693,610 belonged to the surveying companies, 14,618,980 were segregated for various reasons, and 10,936,783 hectares, or some 26 per cent, remained at the disposal of the government. From that time to April, 1892, 3,011,440 acres were surveyed. Statistics for later years do not appear to have been published.
That there were abuses in carrying out the disposal of lands is beyond doubt. The "squatters" were frequently dispossessed of holdings of which they had long been in actual possession. The surveying companies which took contracts from the government often did
