will file, with the proper register and receiver, a copy of such plat, and the field-notes of survey of the claim, accompanied by the affidavit of at least two credible witnesses that such plat and notice are posted conspicuously upon the claim, giving the date and place of such posting; a copy of the notice so posted to be attached to, and form a part of, said affidavit.

31. Attached to the field-notes so filed, must be the sworn statement of the claimant that he has the possessory right to the premises therein described, in virtue of a compliance by himself (and by his grantors, if he claims by purchase) with the mining rules, regulations, and customs of the mining district, State, or Territory in which the claim lies, and with the mining laws of congress; such sworn statement to narrate briefly, but as clearly as possible, the facts constituting such compliance, the origin of his possession, and the basis of his claim to a patent.

32. This affidavit should be supported by appropriate evidence, from the mining recorder's office, as to his possessory right, as follows, viz: Where he claims to be a locator, a full, true, and correct copy of such location should be furnished, as the same appears upon the mining records; such copy to be attested by the seal of the recorder, or if he has no seal, then he should make oath to the same being correct, as shown by his records; where the applicant claims as a locator in company with others, who have since conveyed their interests in the lode to him, a copy of the original record of location should be filed, together with an abstract of title from the proper recorder, under seal or oath as aforesaid, tracing the co-locator's possessory rights in the claim to such applicant for patent; where the applicant claims only as a purchaser for valuable consideration, a copy of the location record must be filed, under seal or upon oath as aforesaid, with an abstract of title certified as above by the proper recorder, tracing the right of possession by a continuous chain of conveyances from the original locators to the applicant.

33. In the event of the mining records in any case having been destroyed by fire, or otherwise lost, affidavit of the fact should be made, and secondary evidence of possessory title will be received, which may consist of the affidavit of the claimant, supported by those of any other parties cognizant of the facts relative to his location, occupancy, possession, improvements, &c.; and in such case of lost records, any deeds, certificates of location or purchase, or other evidence which may be in the claimant's possession, and tend to establish his claim, should be filed.

34. Upon the receipt of these papers the register will, at the expense of the claimant, publish a notice of such application for the period of sixty days, in a newspaper published nearest to the claim, and will post a copy of such notice in his office for the same period.

35. The notices so published and posted must be as full and complete as possible, and embrace all the data given in the notice posted upon the claim. 36. Too much care cannot be exercised in the preparation of these notices, inasmuch as upon their accuracy and completeness will depend, in a great measure, the regularity and validity of the whole proceeding.

37. The claimant, either at the time of filing these papers with the register, or at any time during the sixty days' publication, is required to file a certificate of the surveyor-general that not less than five hundred dollars' worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by the applicant or his grantors; that the plat filed by the claimant is correct; that the field notes of the survey, as filed, furnish such an accurate description of the claim as will, if incorporated into a patent, serve to fully identify the premises, and that sueh reference is made therein to natural objects or permanent monuments as will perpetuate and fix the locus thereof.

38. It will be the more convenient way to have this certificate indorsed by the surveyor-general, both upon the plat and field notes of survey filed by the claimant, as aforesaid.

39. After the sixty days' period of newspaper publication has expired, the claimant will file his affidavit, showing that the plat and notice aforesaid remained conspicuously posted upon the claim sought to be patented during said sixty days' publication.

40. Upon the filing of this affidavit, the register will, if no adverse claim was filed in his office during the period of publication, permit the claimant to pay for the land according to the area given in the plat and field notes of survey aforesaid, at the rate of five dollars for each acre, and five dollars for each fractional part of an acre, the receiver issuing the usual duplicate receipt therefor; after which the whole matter will be forwarded to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and a patent issued thereon, if found regular.

41. In sending up the papers in the case, the register must not omit certifying to the fact that the notice was posted in his office for the full period of sixty days, such certificate to state distinctly when such posting was done and how long continued.

42.

The consecutive series of numbers of mineral entries must be continued, whether the same are of lode or placer claims.

43. The surveyor-general must continue to designate all surveyed mineral claims as heretofore by a progressive series of numbers, beginning with lot No. 37 in each township: the claim to be so designated at date of filing the plat, field-notes, &c., in addition to the local designation of the claim; it being required in all cases that the plat and field-notes of the survey of a claim must, in addition to the reference to permanent objects in the neighborhood, describe the locus of the claim with reference to the lines of public surveys by a line connecting a corner of the claim with the nearest public corner of the United States surveys, unless such claim be on unsurveyed lands at a remote distance from such public corner; in which latter case the reference by course and distance to permanent objects in the neighborhood will be a sufficient designation by which to fix the locus until the public surveys shall have been closed upon its boundaries.

ADVERSE CLAIMS.

44. The seventh section of the act provides for adverse claims; fixes the time within which they shall be filed to have legal effect, and prescribes the manner of their adjustment.

45. Said section requires that the adverse claim shall be filed during the period of publication of notice; that it must be on the oath of the adverse claimant; and that it must show the "nature," the "boundaries," and the "extent" of the adverse claim.

46. In order that this section of law may be properly carried into effect, the following is communicated for the information of all concerned:

47. An adverse mining claim must be filed with the register of the same land office with whom the application for patent was filed, or, in his absence, with the receiver, and within the sixty days' period of newspaper publication of notice.

48. The adverse notice must be duly sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district, or before the register or receiver; it will fully set forth the nature and extent of the interference or conflict: whether the adverse party claims as a purchaser for valuable consideration

or as a locator; if the former, the original conveyance, or a duly certified copy thereof, should be furnished, or. if the transaction was a mere verbal one, he will narrate the circumstances attending the purchase, the date thereof, and the amount paid, which facts should be supported by the affidavit of one or more witnesses, if any were present at the time, and if he claims as a locator he must file a duly certified copy of the location from the office of the proper recorder.

49. In order that the "boundaries" and "extent" of the claim may be shown, it will be incumbent upon the adverse claimant to file a plat showing his claim and its relative situation or position with the one against which he claims, so that the extent of the conflict may be the better understood. This plat must be made from an actual survey by a United States deputy surveyor, who will officially certify thereon to its correctness; and, in addition, there must be attached to such plat of survey a certificate or sworn statement by the surveyor as to the approximate value of the labor performed or improvements made upon the claim of the adverse party, and the plat must indicate the position of any shafts, tunnels, or other improvements, if any such exist upon the claim of the party opposing the application.

50. Upon the foregoing being filed within the sixty days as aforesaid, the register, or, in his absence, the receiver, will give notice in writing to both par ties to the contest that such adverse claim has been filed, informing them that the party who filed the adverse claim will be required within thirty days from the date of such filing to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, to determine the question of right of possession, and to prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment, and that should such adverse claimant fail to do so, his adverse claim will be considered waived, and the application for patent be allowed to proceed upon its merits.

51. When an adverse claim is filed as aforesaid, the register or receiver will indorse upon the same the precise date of filing, and preserve a record of the date of notifications issued thereon; and thereafter all proceedings on the application for patent will be suspended, with the exception of the completion of the publication and posting of notices and plat, and the filing of the necessary proof thereof, until the controversy shall have been adjudicated in court, or the adverse claim waived or withdrawn.

52. The proceedings after rendition of judgment by the court in such case are so clearly defined by the act itself as to render it unnecessary to enlarge thereon in this place.

PLACER CLAIMS.

53. The tenth section of the act under consideration provides "that the act entitled 'an act to amend an act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes,' approved July 9, 1870, shall be and remain in full force, except as to the proceedings to obtain a patent, which shall be similar to the proceedings prescribed by sections six and seven of this act for obtaining patents for vein or lode claims, but where said placer claims shall be upon surveyed lands and conform to legal sub-divisions, no further survey or plat shall be required, and all placer mining claims hereafter located shall conform, as nearly as practicable, with the United States system of public land surveys and the rectangular subdivisions of such surveys, and no such locations shall include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant; but where placer claims cannot

be conformed to legal sub-divisions, survey and plat shall be made as on unsurveyed lands," &c.

54. The proceedings for obtaining patents for veins or lodes having already been fully given, it will not be necessary to repeat them here; it being thought that careful attention thereto by applicants and the local officers will enable them to act understandingly in the matter and make such slight modifications in the notice, or otherwise, as may be necessary in view of the different nature of the two classes of claims, placer claims being fixed, however, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, or fractional part of an acre. 55. The twelfth and thirteenth sections of said act of July 9, 1870, read as follows:

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That claims, usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under this act, under like circumstances and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims; Provided, That where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further survey or plat in such case being required, and the lands may be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre; Provided further, That legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into ten acre tracts; and that two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof; And provided further, That no location of a placer claim, hereafter made, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys: and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide pre-emption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to any purchaser.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That where said person or association, they and their grantors, shall have held and worked their said 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 act, in the absence of any adverse claim; Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent.

56. It will be observed that that portion of the first proviso to said twelfth section which requires placer claims upon surveyed lands to conform to legal subdivisions, is repealed by the present statute with regard to claims heretofore located, but that where such claims are located previous to survey and do not conform to legal subdivisions, survey, plat, and entry thereof may be made according to the boundaries fixed by local rules, but that where such claims do conform to legal subdivisions, the entry may be effected according to such legal subdivisions without the necessity of further survey or plat.

57. In the second proviso to said twelfth section authority is given for the subdivision of forty acre legal subdivisions into ten acre lots, which is intended for the greater convenience of miners in segregating their claims both from one another and from intervening agricultural land.

58. It is held, therefore, that under a proper construction of the law these ten acre lots in mining districts should be considered and dealt with, to all intents and purposes, as legal subdivisions, and that an applicant having a

legal claim which conforms to one or more of these ten acre lots, either adjoining or cornering, may make entry thereof, after the usual proceedings, without further survey or plat.

59. In cases of this kind, however, the notice given of the application must be very specific and accurate in description, and as the forty-acre tracts may be sub-divided into ten-acre lots, either in the form of squares of ten by ten chains, or of parallelograms five by twenty chains, so long as the lines are parallel and at right angles with the lines of the public surveys, it will be necessary that the notice and application state specifically what ten acre lots are sought to be patented, in addition to the other data required in

the notice.

60. Where the ten acre sub-division is in the form of a square, it may be described, for instance, as the "S. E. of the S. W. † of N. W. 1," or, if in the form of a parallelogram as aforesaid, it may be described as the "W. of the W. of the S. W. of the N. W. (or the N. of the S. of the N. E. of the 14 S. E. 1) of section ," as the case may be; but, in addition to this description of the land, the notice must give all the other data that is required in a mineral application, by which parties may be put on inquiry as to the premises sought to be patented.

township

range

61. The proceedings necessary for the adjustment of rights where a known vein or lode is embraced by a placer-claim, are so clearly defined in the eleventh section of the act as to render any particular iustructions upon that point at this time unnecessary.

62. When an adverse claim is filed to a placer application, the proceedings are the same as in the case of vein or lode claims, already described.

QUANTITY OF PLACER GROUND SUBJECT TO LOCATION.

63. By the twelfth section of the said amendatory act of July 9, 1870, (third proviso), it is declared "that no location of a placer-claim hereafter made shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys,'

&c.

64. The tenth section of the act of May 10, 1872, provides that "all placer-mining claims hereafter located shall conform as near as practicable with the United States system of public land surveys, and the rectangular sub-divisions of such surveys, and no such locations shall include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant."

65. The foregoing provisions of law are construed to mean that after tne 9th day of July, 1870, no location of a placer-claim can be made to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, whatever may be the number of locators associated together, or whatever the local regulations of the district may allow; and that from and after the passage of said act of May 10, 1872, no location made by an individual can exceed twenty acres, and no location made by an association of individuals can exceed one hundred and sixty acres, which location of one hundred and sixty acres cannot be made by a 'less number than eight bona fide locators, but that whether as much as twenty acres can be located by an individual, or one hundred and sixty acres by an association, depends entirely upon the mining regulations 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 said acts of congress, but remain intact and in full force with regard 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

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