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based upon the estimated value of the land in said year, to be ascertained in such manner as the Commissioner may by regulation prescribe." The public lands of the United States are not subject to taxation, and consequently no appraisal of such lands was made in the year 1860.

The term "in case no such appraisal can be found" obviously means that the appraisal was actually made but has been lost or destroyed.

Your authority under that section is limited to such tracts within the insurrectionary states as have been confiscated, abandoned or purchased, and which have heretofore been the subject of individual proprietorship.