lations in force in the respective districts at the date of the location; it being held that such mining regulations are in no way enlarged by the statutes, but remain intact and in full force with regard to to the size of locations, in so far as they do not permit locations in excess of the limits fixed by Congress; but that where such regulations permit locations in excess of the maximums fixed by Congress, as aforesaid, they are restricted accordingly.

64. The regulations herein before given as to the manner of marking locations on the ground, and placing the same on record, must be observed in the case of placer locations, so far as the same are applicable; the law requiring, however, that where placer claims are upon surveyed public lands the locations must hereafter be made to conform to legal subdivisions thereof as near as practicable.

65. With regard to the proofs necessary to establish the possessory right to a placer claim, section 2332 provides that "where such person or association, they and their grantors, have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter in the absence of any adverse claim."

66. This provision of law will greatly lessen the burden of proof, more especially in the case of old claims located many years since, the records of which, in many cases, have been destroyed by fire, or lost in other ways during the lapse of time, but concerning the possessory right to which all controversy or litigation has long been settled.

67. When an applicant desires to make his proof of possessory right in accordance with this provision of law, you will not require him to produce evidence of location, copies of conveyances, or abstracts of title, as in other cases, but will require him to furnish a daly certified copy of the statute of limitations of mining claims for the State or Territory, together with his sworn statement giving a clear and succinct narration of the facts as to the origin of his title, and likewise as to the continuation of his possession of the mining ground covered by his application; the area thereof; the nature and extent of the mining that has been done thereon; whether there has been opposition to his possession or litigation with regard to his claim, and, if so, when the same ceased; whether such cessation was caused by compromise or by judicial decree; and any additional facts within the claimant's knowledge having a direct bearing upon his possession and bona fides which he may desire to submit in support of his claim.

68. There should likewise be filed a certificate, under seal of the court having jurisdiction of mining ceases within the judicial district embracing the claim, that no suit or action of any character whatever involving the right of possession to any portion of the claim applied for is pending, and that here has been no litigation before said court affecting the title to said claim or any part thereof for a period equal to the time fixed by the statute of limitatious for mining claims in the State or Territory, as aforesaid, other than that which has been finally decided in favor of the claimant.

69. The claimant should support his narrative of facts relative to his possession, occupancy, and improvements by corroborative testimony of any disinterested person or persons of credibility who may be cognizant of the facts in the case and are capable of testifying understandingly in the premises.

70. It will be to the advantage of claimants to make their proofs as full and complete as practicable.

MILL SITES.
.

71. Section 2337 provides that, "where non-mineral land not contiguous to the vein or lode is used or occupied by the proprietor of such vein or lode for mining or milling purposes, such non-adjacent surface ground may be embraced and included in an application for a patent for such vein or lode, and the same may be patented therewith, subject to the same preliminary requirements as to survey and notice as are applicable to veins or lodes; but no location hereafter made of such non-adjacent land shall exceed five acres, and payment for the same must be made at the same rate as fixed by this chapter for the superficies of the lode. The owner of a quartz mill or reduction works, not owing a mine in connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill site, as provided in this section."

72. To avail themselves of this provision of law, parties holding the possessory right to a vein or lode, and to a piece of non-mineral land not contiguous thereto, for mining or milling purposes, not exceeding the quantity allowed for such purpose by the local rules, regulations, or customs, the proprietors of such vein or lode may file in the proper land office their application for a patent, under oath, in manner already set forth herein, which application, together with the plat and field notes, may include, embrace, and describe, in addition to the vein or lode, such non-contiguous mill site, and after due proceedings as to notice, &c., a patent will be issued conveying the same as one claim. 73. In making the survey in a case of this kind, the lode claim should be described in the plat and field notes as "Lot No. 37, A," and the mill site as "Lot No. 37, B," or

whatever may be its appropriate numerical designation; the course and distance from a corner of the mill site to a corner of the lode claim to be invaribly given in such plat and field notes, and a copy of the plat and notice of application for patent must be conspicuously posted upon the mill site as well as upon the vein or lode for the statutory period of sixty days. In making the entry no separate receipt or certificate need be issued for the mill site, but the whole area of both lode and mill site will be embraced in one entry, the price being five dollars for each acre and fractional part of an acre embraced by such lode and mill site claim.

74. In case the owner of a quartz mill or reduction works is not the owner or claimant of a vein or lode, the law permits him to make application therefor in the same manner prescribed herein for mining claims, and after due notice and proceedings, in the absence of a valid adverse filing, to enter and receive a patent for his mill site at said price per acre.

75. In every case there must be satisfactory proof that the land claimed as a mill site is not mineral in character, which proof may, where the matter is unquestioned, consist of the sworn statement of the claimant, supported by that of one or more disinterested persons capable from acquaintance with the land to testify understandingly. 76. The law expressly limits mill site locations made from and after its passage to five acres, but whether so much as that can be located depends upon the local customs, rules, or regulations.

77. The registers and receivers will preserve an unbroken consecutive series of numbers for all mineral entries.

PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP OF MINING CLAIMANTS.

78. The proof necessary to establish the citizenship of applicants for mining patents must be made in the following manner: In case of an incorporated company, a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorportion must be filed. In case of an association of persons unincorporated, the affidavit of their duly authorized agent, made upon his own knowledge, or upon information and belief, setting forth the residence of each person forming such association, must be submitted. This affidavit must be accompanied by a power of attorney from the parties forming such association, authorizing the person who makes the affidavit of citizenship to act for them in the matter of their application for patent.

79. In case of an individual or an association of individuals who do not appear by their duly authorized agent, you will require the affidavit of each applicant, showing whether he is a native or naturalized citizen when and where born, and his residence. 80. In case an applicant has declared his intention to become a citizen, or has been naturalized, his affidavit must show the date, place, and the court before which he declared his intention, or from which his certificate of citizenship issued, and present residence.

81. The affidavit of citizenship may be taken before the register and receiver, or any other officer authorized to administer oaths within the district.

APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTY SURVEYORS OF MINING CLAIMS-CHARGES FOR SURVEYS AND PUBLICATIONS-FEES OF REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS, ETC.

82. Section 2334 provides for the appointment of surveyors of mineral claims, authorizes the Commissioner of the General Land Office to establish the rates to be charged for surveys and for newspaper publications, prescribes the fees allowed to the local officers for receiving and acting upon applications for mining patents and for adverse claims thereto, &c.

83. The surveyors general of the several districts will, in pursuance of said law, appoint in each land district as many competent deputies for the survey of mining claims as may seek such appointment; it being distinctly understood that all expenses of these notices and surveys are to be borne by the mining claimants and not by the United States; the system of making deposits for mineral surveys, as required by previous instructions, being hereby revoked as regards field work; the claimant having the option of employing any deputy surveyor within such district to do his work in the field.

84. With regard to the platting of the claim and other office work in the surveyor general's office, that officer will make an estimate of the cost thereof, which amount the claimant will deposit with any assistant United States treasurer, or designated depository, in favor of the United States Treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created by "individual depositors for surveys of the public lands," and file with the surveyor general duplicate certificates of such deposit in the usual manner.

85. The surveyors general will endeavor to appoint mineral deputy surveyors so that one or more may be located in each mining district for the greater convenience of miners.

86. The usual oaths will be required of these deputies and their assistants as to the correctness of each survey executed by them.

87. The law requires that each applicant shall file with the register and receiver a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by him for publication of notice and for survey, together with all fees and money paid the register and receiver, which sworn statement is required to be transmitted to this office, for the information of the Commissioner.

88. Should it appear that excessive or exorbitant charges have been made by any surveyor or any publisher, prompt action will be taken with the view of correcting the abuse.

89. The fees payable to the register and receiver for filing and acting upon applications for mineral land patents are five dollars to each officer, to be paid by the applicant for patent at the time of filing, and the like sum of five dollars is payable to each officer by an adverse claimant at the time of filing his adverse claim.

90. All fees or charges under this law may be paid in United States currency. 91. The register and receiver will, at the close of each month, forward to this office an abstract of mining applications filed, and a register of receipts, accompanied with an abstract of mineral lands sold, and an abstract of adverse claims filed.

92. The fees and purchase money received by registers and receivers must be placed to the credit of the United States in the receiver's monthly and quarterly account, charging up in the disbursing account the sums to which the register and receiver inay be respectively entitled as fees and commissions, with limitations in regard to the legal maximum.

HEARINGS TO ESTABLISH THE CHARACTER OF LANDS.

93. Section 2335 provides that all affidavits required under this chapter may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated, and all testimony and proofs may be taken before any such officer, and when duly certified by the officer taking the same, shall have the same force and effect as if taken before the register and receiver of the land office.

94. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character of land, the testimony and proofs may be taken, as herein before provided, on personal notice of at least ten days to the opposing party, or, if such party cannot be found, then by publication of notice for at least once a week for thirty days in a newspaper to be designated by the register of the land office as published nearest to the location of such land, and the register shall require proof that such notice has been given.

95. Testimony for the purpose of disproving the mineral character of lands may be taken before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land districts, and that where the residence of the parties who claim the land to be mineral is known, such evidence may be taken without publication ten days after the mineral claimants or affiants shall have been personally notified of the time and place of such hearing; but in cases where such affiants or claimants cannot be served with personal notice, or where the land applied for is returned as mineral upon the township plat, or where the same is now or may hereafter be suspended for non-mineral proof, by order of this office, then the party who claims the right to enter the land as agricultural will be required, at his own expense, to publish a notice once each week for five consecutive weeks in the newspaper of largest circulation published in the county within which said land is situated, or, if no newspaper is published within such county, then in a newspaper published in an adjoining county, the newspaper in either case to be designated by the register; which notice must be clear and specific, giving the name and address of the claimant, the designation of the subdivision embraced by his filing, the names of any miners or mining companies whose claims or improvements are upon the land or in the immediate vicinity thereof, the names of the parties who filed the affidavits that the land is mineral, and finally the notice should name a day, which shall not be less than thirty days from the date of the first insertion of said notice in such newspaper, upon which testimony will be taken to determine the facts as to the mineral or non-mineral character of the land. The notice must also state before what officer such hearing will be held and the place of such hearing. A copy of this notice must be posted in a conspicuous place upou each forty-acre subdivision claimed, during the publication of the notice, proof of which must be made under oath by at least two persons, who will state when the notice was posted and where posted.

96. At the hearing there must be filed the affidavit of the publisher of the paper that the said notice was published for the required time, stating when and for how long such publication was made, a printed copy thereof to be attached and made a part of the affidavit. In every case where practicable, in addition to the foregoing, personal notice must be served upon the mineral affiants, and upon any parties who may be mining upon or claiming the land.

97. At the hearing the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined with regard to the character of the land; whether the same has been thoroughly pros

pected; whether or not there exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, or copper, or other valuable deposit, which has ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under what designation, and in which subdivision of the land it lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the land; if so, what is the character thereof-whether of the shallow-surface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead, or gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when water can be obtained, and what the facilities are for obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particular ten-acre subdivisions mining has been done; and at what time the land was abandoned for mining purposes, if abandoned at all.

98. The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land; what kind of crops are raised thereon, and the value thereof; the number of acres actually cultivated for crops of cereals or vegetables, and within which particular ten-acre subdivisions such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace his improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of his improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, &c.

99. It is thought that bona fide settlers upon lands really agricultural will be able to show, by a clear, logical, and succinct chain of evidence, that their claims are founded upon law and justice; while parties who have made little or no permanent agricultural improvements, and who only seek title for speculative purposes, on account of the mineral deposits known to themselves to be contained in the land, will be defeated in their intentions.

100. The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and, in addition to the leading points indicated above, everything of importance bearing upon the question of the character of the land should be elicited at the hearing.

101. Where the testimony is taken before an officer who does not use a seal, other than the register and receiver, the official character of such officer must be attested by a clerk of a court of record, and the testimony transmitted to the register and receiver, who will thereupon examine and forward the same to this office, with their joint opinion as to the character of the land as shown by the testimony.

102. When the case comes before this office such an award of the land will be made as the law and the facts may justify; and in cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land in any forty-acre tract, the necessary instructions will be issued to enable the agricultural claimant, at his own expense, to have the work done, at his option, either by United States deputy, county, or other local surveyor; the survey in such case may be executed in such manner as will segregate the portion of land actually containing the mine, and used as surface-ground for the convenient working thereof, from the remainder of the tract, which remainder will be patented to the agriculturist to whom the same may have been awarded, subject, however, to the condition that the land may be entered upon by the proprietor of any vein or lode for which a patent has been issued by the United States for the purpose of extracting and removing the ore from the same, where found to penetrate ornte rsect the land so patented as agricultural, as stipulated by the mining act.

103. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, officer of a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the deponent's character and credibility to be properly certified to by the officer administering the oath.

104. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such survey, duly sworn to as aforesaid, you will transmit the same to the surveyor general for his verification and approval; who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will properly mark out the same upon the original township plat in his office, and furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, to be affixed to the duplicate and triplicate township plats respectively.

105. In cases where a portion of a forty-acre tract is awarded to an agricutural claimant, and he causes the segregation thereof from the mineral portion as aforesaid, such agricultural portion will not be given a numerical designation as in the case of surveyed mineral claims, but will simply be described as the "Fractional ter of the quarter of section of range dian, containing acres, the same being exclusive of the land adjudged to be mineral in said forty-acre tract."

in township

quarmeri

106. The surveyor must correctly compute the area of such agricultural portion, which computation will be verified by the surveyor general.

107. After the authenticated plat and field notes of the survey have been received from the surveyor general, this office will issue the necessary order for the entry of the land, and in issuing the receiver's receipt and register's patent certificate you will invariably be governed by the description of the land given in the order from this office.

108. The fees for taking testimony and reducing the same to writing in these cases 'will have to be defrayed by the parties in interest. Where such testimony is taken

before any other officer than the register and receiver, the register and receiver will be entitled to no fees.

109. If, upon the review of the testimony at this office, a ten-acre tract should be found to be properly mineral in character, that fact will be no bar to the execution of the settler's legal right to the remaining non-mineral portion of his claim, if contignous.

110. No fear need be entertained that miners will be permitted to make entries of tracts ostensibly as mining claims which are not mineral, simply for the purpose of obtaining possession and defrauding settlers out of their valuable agricultural improvements; it being almost an impossibility for such a fraud to be consummated under the laws and regulations applicable to obtaining patents for mining claims.

111. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to be mineral in character is by no means equivalent to an award of the land to a miner. A miner is compelled by law to give sixty days' publication of notice, and posting of diagrams and notices, as a preliminary step; and then, before he can enter the land, he must show that the land yields mineral; that he is entitled to the possessory right thereto in virtue of compliance with local customs or rules of miners, or by virtue of the statute of limitations; that he or his grantors have expended, in actual labor and improvements, an amount of not less than five hundred dollars thereon, and that the claim is one in regard to which there is no controversy or opposing claim. After all these proofs are met, he is entitled to have a survey made at his own cost, where a survey is required, after which he can enter and pay for the land embraced by his claim. J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner.

DECISIONS AFFECTING MINING RIGHTS.

Where formal adverse claims are filed within the time prescribed by the statutes, the merits of the case must be determined in the courts. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C., December 26, 1876.

SIR: On the 15th day of Angust, 173, W. H. Pitts et al. filed an application with the local officers at Salt Lake City for a patent of a certain mining claim known as the King of the West Lode, situated in Little Cottonwood mining district, Utah Territory. During the publication of the order made thereon, R. C. Chambers, claiming to be the purchaser for a valuable consideration of the mining claim known as the City Rock Lode, situated in the same mining district, filed an adverse claim for a portion of the tract embraced in said application, alleging prior discovery and improvement.

On the 23d of April, 1-75, my predecessor reversed your ecision of December 14th, 1874, and rejected the application of Pitts et al., on the ground that the proof of the posting of the notice and diagram on the claim during the period of publication as required by law was defective.

He also rejected the adverse claim of Chambers on the ground that he was the secret trustee of the City Rock Mining Company, of London, England, a foreign corporation. On the 29th of the same month a motion was made for a rehearing, and on the 24th of August, 1876, I decided that my predecessor's decision should be so modified as to allow the applicants to make an entry of the tract described in their application upon their showing compliance with law.

On the 28th ultimo the matter again came before me for a hearing by stipulation of the parties in interest upon the proofs heretofore filed in the case, subject to any legal objection thereto.

From the application of Pitts et al. and the accompanying papers, it appears that on the 12th day of September, 1870, J. Pitts et al. discovered the lode or vein known as the King of the West Lode, planted a stake theron, to which they attached a notice giving the names of claimants, number of feet claimed, and the general course and direction thereof.

Subsequently they filed in the office of the recorder of said mining district a notice of their location; the proof showing that the notice and diagram required by law to be posted on the claim during the publication of the order made upon filing the application has been supplied since my decision of the 24th of August last, from which it appears that said notice and diagram were posted on the claim and remained so posted during the time of such publication.

Objection was made on the hearing that the application does not show in terms the particular manner in which the applicants had complied with all the rules and regulations of said mining district.

In those particulars in which it is considered material that an application should show such compliance, viz, the amount of work done each year and the possession and