By virtue of Section 441, U. S. Revised Statutes, the care and custody of the public lands is vested in the Secretary of the Interior, and Section 453 declares that the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall perform under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior all executive duties in anywise respecting such lands. There can be no question that this statute lays upon the Department of the Interior and the General Land Office the obligation to protect the archæological remains that are upon the public lands as definitely as it does the timber and other values. In the exercise of the power thus conferred a policy has grown up in the Department of the Interior that should be more widely understood. This policy mobilizes, so to speak, the entire force of forest supervisors, rangers, special agents, Indian school superintendents and teachers, Indian agents, farmers and police, and even the Indians themselves, in the protection of these ruins as one of their regular duties, for the avowed purpose of preserving them for scientific investigation. It establishes the liberal policy that any competent scientist who desires to place the material secured in a public museum will be authorized by the Department of the Interior to examine ruins, but that no person will be permitted to excavate them for the purpose of acquiring specimens for traffic or private gain, and that wilful destruction of historic and prehistoric landmarks must cease. The most zealous archæologist must admit that this leaves little to be desired. The main thing, a system of governmental protection for archæological remains, is an accomplished fact. All the available forces of the Department are being wisely utilized. The scientific branch of the Government is lending its aid by furnishing as called upon the needed information concerning sites that are of value to science. Especially noteworthy is the emphasis habitually laid by the Commissioner of the General Land Office on “_the importance of furthering in every way possible researches with a view to increasing the knowledge of such objects and aiding in the general advancement of archæological science_.” This is administrative policy that every scientific man can uphold with most cordial enthusiasm.