                 TITLE 18--CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
 
                             PART I--CRIMES
 
                        CHAPTER 91--PUBLIC LANDS
 
Sec. 1855. Timber set afire

    Whoever, willfully and without authority, sets on fire any timber, 
underbrush, or grass or other inflammable material upon the public 
domain or upon any lands owned or leased by or under the partial, 
concurrent, or exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or under 
contract for purchase or for the acquisition of which condemnation 
proceedings have been instituted, or upon any Indian reservation or 
lands belonging to or occupied by any tribe or group of Indians under 
authority of the United States, or upon any Indian allotment while the 
title to the same shall be held in trust by the Government, or while the 
same shall remain inalienable by the allottee without the consent of the 
United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more 
than five years, or both.
    This section shall not apply in the case of a fire set by an 
allottee in the reasonable exercise of his proprietary rights in the 
allotment.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 788; Pub. L. 100-690, title VI, 
Sec. 6254(j), Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4368.)


                      Historical and Revision Notes

    Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Sec. 106 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 
321, Sec. 52, 35 Stat. 1098; Nov. 15, 1941, ch. 472, Sec. 1, 55 Stat. 
763).
    Surplus verbiage and unnecessary enumerations were omitted.
    Words ``without authority'' were inserted near beginning of section 
so as to remove any doubt as to scope or meaning of section.
    Reference to persons causing or procuring was omitted as unnecessary 
in view of definition of ``principal'' in section 2 of this title.
    Minor verbal changes were made.


                               Amendments

    1988--Pub. L. 100-690 substituted ``under this title'' for ``not 
more than $5,000'' in first par.
