I have therefore the honor to submit the following recommendations and to ask your favorable action thereon: 

1.  That the thanks of Congress be voted to Capt.  Francis Tuttle, Revenue-Cutter Service, and the officers and enlisted men composing his command for their able and gallant services.

2.  That the thanks of Congress be extended to the members of the overland expedition; First Lieut.  David H. Jarvis, Revenue-Cutter Service, commanding the overland expedition; to Second Lieut.  Ellsworth P. Bertholf, Revenue-Cutter Service, and to Dr. Samuel J. Call, Surgeon.

3.  That gold medals of honor of appropriate design, to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, be awarded to Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Dr. Call, commemorative of their heroic struggles in aid of suffering fellow-men.

4.  That the sum of $2,500 be appropriated to be disbursed by the Secretary of the Treasury in bestowing rewards upon W.T.  Lopp, Artisarlook, and native herders, who rendered material aid to the relief expedition.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 19, 1899.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a second report on the investigations of the agricultural capabilities of Alaska for the year 1898, in accordance with the acts of Congress making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1898, and June 30, 1899.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 19, 1899.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I herewith return without approval Senate bill No. 708, entitled “An act for the relief of Albert E. Redstone.”

My objections to the bill are: 

First.  It assumes that the beneficiary, Albert E. Redstone, sustained a loss by the incorporation of his preemption claim within the limits of the Sierra Forest Reserve.  This reserve was established by executive proclamation of February 14, 1893 (27 Stats., 1059), issued under section 24 of the act of March 8, 1891 (26 Stats., 1103), and contains the following saving clause for the protection of existing claims under the public land laws: 

* * * Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all lands which may have been, prior to the date hereof, embraced in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly of record in the proper United States Land Office, or upon which any valid settlement has been made pursuant to law, and the statutory period within which to make entry or filing of record has not expired; * * *

Mr. Redstone did not sustain any loss by the creation of this reserve, because his rights, if he had any at that time, were fully recognized and protected by this provision in the proclamation.