Opinion of the Court. each side of the track, together with such public lands adjacent thereto as may be needed for depots, shops, and other buildings for railway purposes, and for yard room and side tracks, not exceeding twenty acres at any one station, and not more than one station in every ten miles [of the road] and the right to take from the public lands adjacent thereto stone, timber, earth, water, and other material required for the construction and repair of its railway and telegraphic line," was granted and confirmed unto the defendant in error, its successors, and assigns. Attached to this grant was a proviso "that said company shall complete its railway to a point on the Rio Grande as far south as Santa Fé within five years of the passage of this act, and shall complete fifty miles additional south of said point in each year thereafter, and in default thereof the rights and privileges herein granted shall be rendered null and void so far as respects the unfinished portion of said road." By the general act of 1875 it was enacted: "SEC. 1. That the right of way through the public lands of the United States is hereby granted to any railroad company duly organized under the laws of any State or Territory, except the District of Columbia, or by the Congress of the United States, which shall have filed with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under the same, to the extent of one hundred feet on each side of the central line of said road; also the right to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road material, earth, stone, and timber necessary for the construction of said railroad; also ground adjacent to such right of way for station buildings, depots, machine shops, side tracks, turnouts, and water stations, not to exceed in amount twenty acres for each station, to the extent of one station for each ten miles of its road." By the fourth section of this act it was declared: "SEC. 4. That any railroad company desiring to secure the benefits of this act, shall within twelve months after the location of any section of twenty miles of its road, if the same be upon surveyed lands, and if upon unsurveyed lands, within Opinion of the Court. twelve months after the survey thereof by the United States, file with the register of the land office for the district where such land is located a profile of its road; and upon approval thereof by the Secretary of the Interior the same shall be noted upon the plats in said office; and thereafter all such lands over which such right of way shall pass shall be disposed of subject to such right of way: Provided, That if any section of said road shall not be completed within five years after the location of said section, the rights herein granted shall be forfeited as to any such uncompleted section of said road." As shown by the agreed statement of facts, the railway company on June 8, 1882, had completed its line westward only as far as Cebolla, Colorado, and has never completed it to Santa Fé. The right of the railway company, under the special act of 1872, to take timber west of Cebolla for the construction of its line accordingly terminated on June 8, 1882. The timber in controversy was taken after that date from the vicinity of Montrose, Montrose County, Colorado, some fortyfive miles west of Cebolla, and is justifiable, on the part of the defendant, only under the act of March 3, 1875 if it is entitled to the benefits of that act. It is urged on behalf of the plaintiffs in error that the defendant, having accepted the special grant of a right of way, and the right to take timber, made to it by the act of June 8, 1872, and this being a subsisting grant at the time of the passage of the act of March 3, 1875, it cannot rightfully claim the benefits of the latter act. It is said that the two grants could not properly coexist, and that the later act should not be construed as including the defendant railway company, because the special act of 1872 was more beneficial, in the fact that it conferred upon the railway company, and its successors, the right to take timber both for construction and repairs, and that the defendant, having elected to take the benefits of that grant, cannot escape the conditions attached to it, nor claim the benefits of the act of 1875, passed while the defendant was enjoying the special benefits conferred upon it by the act of 1872. We cannot accede to the correctness of this proposition. Opinion of the Court. The general and special acts are in no way inconsistent with each other. The general nature and purpose of the act of 1875 were manifestly to promote the building of railroads through the immense public domain remaining unsettled and undeveloped at the time of its passage. It was not a mere bounty for the benefit of the railroads that might accept its provisions, but was legislation intended to promote the interests of the government in opening to settlement, and in enhancing the value of those public lands through or near which such railroads might be constructed. To induce the investment of capital in the construction of railroads through the public domain, Congress had previously granted special rights, such as were conferred upon the defendant by the act of 1872; but, by this act of 1875, a general offer was made to any and all railroad companies of so much of the public domain as might be necessary for right of way, and ground adjacent thereto, for station buildings, depots, machine shops, side tracks, turnouts, and water stations, with the right to take timber from the public lands adjacent to such road for the construction of the railway, provided such railway company should comply with the provisions of section four of the act. This general offer was not limited or restricted as to the time within which the offer should be accepted, nor in respect to the company or companies who should be entitled to the benefits thereof upon complying with the provisions of the act. Its terms are sufficiently broad and general to include the defendant, who, by the agreed statement of facts, asserted and claimed the benefits thereof as to all that portion of its line of railway constructed after June 8, 1882, when its rights under the act of June 8, 1872, terminated so far as respected its unfinished line west of Cebolla. No railway company could claim the benefits of the act of 1875 until it had accepted its provisions and complied with the conditions required by the fourth section thereof. Upon such compliance, and not before, the benefits intended to be conferred by the act would attach. It does not appear from the record or from the agreed statement of facts at what date the defendant accepted the provisions of the act of 1875, and complied with the conditions upon which it was entitled Opinion of the Court. to the benefits thereof. But whether such compliance on the part of the railway company was before or after June 8, 1882, it sufficiently appears that it only claimed and asserted the benefits under that act after its rights under the act of 1872 had terminated, so far as concerns the unfinished portion of its line; for by the eighth paragraph of the agreed statement of facts it is admitted "that as to all of its railway constructed after June 8, 1882, that said company strictly complied with all the requirements of the act of Congress, approved March 3, 1875, entitled 'An act granting railroads the right of way through the public lands of the United States."" Now, the act of 1875 remaining in force as a general law and as a general offer to any railway company, the defendant clearly had a right after June 8, 1882, if it did not have before, to claim the benefits of that act. That act was not merely a legislative offer of benefits, but operated as a law of the government and remained in full force and effect, not only while the defendant was enjoying the benefits of the act of 1872, but subsequently, after its rights under that special act had expired. Under these circumstances it cannot be properly said that the railway company is either claiming or asserting rights conferred by, or coexisting under, both the special grant and the general law; for the benefits of the latter, whether accepted before or after the rights conferred by the special act of 1872 had ceased or terminated, were not actually asserted or put in practical use until after June 8, 1882, and then only in respect to unfinished portions of the line not covered by the act of 1872. No reason is perceived why the defendant, after its rights under the special act had terminated, should not be permitted to take the benefits of the general law of 1875, so far as it related to the construction of its line west of Cebolla, and built after June 8, 1882, when its right to take material for construction ceased under the act of 1872. Upon what principle does the enjoyment by the defendant of the rights and benefits conferred by the earlier special act preclude or estop it from accepting the benefits offered by the later general act after the special rights and privileges had Opinion of the Court. terminated? We know of no such principle. There is nothing in the case of Railway Co. v. Alling, 99 U. S. 463, cited on behalf of plaintiffs in error, inconsistent with this view of the subject. In that case the Denver Company (the defendant in error here) had in 1871 and 1872 merely made a preliminary survey of its line through the Grand Cañon of the Arkansas, but had postponed the actual location and final appropriation of its roadway through that defile until April, 1878, at which date it was subject to the provisions of the act of 1875, (the second section of which conferred upon other roads the right, upon certain terms and conditions, to use its track or roadway through such defiles,) for the reason that after the passage of that act the Denver Company had accepted the benefit of the act of March 3, 1877, extending the time for the completion of its road to Santa Fé, which extension the court assumed would hardly have been given by Congress except subject to the conditions contained in the act of 1875. Being subject to the provisions of the law, as contained in the second section of the act of 1875, while in the exercise of its rights under the act of 1872, as amended by the act of 1877, in no way prevented the railway company from complying with its conditions and securing the benefits conferred by the first section of the act of 1875. We are, therefore, of opinion that the defendant in error was clearly entitled, after June 8, 1882, if not before, to the benefits of the act of 1875, upon complying, as it did, with the conditions of that act. But it is urged that, even if the defendant is entitled to the benefits of the act of 1875, it is not permitted to take timber from the public domain and ship it for use in the construction of its railroad at points distant from the place at which the timber was taken, but is limited to the taking and use of timber in the vicinity, or adjacent to the place, where the work of construction is going on; and that it is not entitled to take timber for the erection of depots, section houses, bunk houses, stock yards, water tanks, &c. This presents the question as to where, or at what place, and for what purposes the railway company may rightfully use timber, or other material, taken from the public lands adjacent to the line of |