shall exceed two hundred feet in length along the vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any depth with all its dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for the convenient working of the same, as fixed by local rules; And provided further, That no person may make more than one location on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any association of persons. [Repealed.]

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further condition of sale, in the absence of necessary legislation by congress, the local legislature of any state or territory may provide rules for working mines involving easements, drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse claimants to any mine, located and claimed as aforesaid, shall appear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until final settlement and adjudication, in the courts of competent jurisdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases. [Repealed.]

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to establish additional land districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this act.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid, is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of congress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulation applicable to the same. Approved, July 26, 1866.

(B)

AN ACT TO AMEND "AN ACT GRANTING THE RIGHT OF WAY TO DITCH AND CANAL OWNERS OVER THE PUBLIC LANDS, ANd for other Purposes."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes, approved July twenty-six, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following additional sections, numbered twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, respectively, which shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the aforesaid act:

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 sub-divisions 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 sub-divisions of forty acres may be sub-divided 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 preemption 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. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all ex parte affidavits required to be made under this act, or the act of which it is amendatory, may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That registers and receivers shall receive the same fees for services under this act as are provided by law for like services under other acts of congress; and that effect shall be given to the fore

going act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, entitled "an act to provide for the survey of the public lands in California, the granting of pre-emption rights, and for other purposes," as provides that none other than township lines shall be surveyed where the lands are mineral, is hereby repealed. And the public surveys are hereby extended over all such lands; Provided, That all sub-dividing of surveyed lands into lots less than one hundred and sixty acres may be done by county and local surveyors at the expense of the claimants; And prorided further, That nothing herein contained shall require the survey of waste or useless lands.

SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That none of the rights conferred by sections five, eight, and nine of the act to which this act is amendatory, shall be abrogated by this act, and the same are hereby extended to all public lands affected by this act; and all patents granted, or pre-emption or homesteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may have been acquired under, or recognized, by the ninth section of the act of which this act is amendatory. But nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal, impair, or in any way affect the provisions of the "act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada," approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six. Approved, July 9, 1870.

COAL LANDS.

AN ACT FOR THE DISPOSAL OF COAL LANDS AND OF TOWN PROPERTY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That where any tracts embracing coal-beds or coal-fields, constituting portions of the public domain, and which, as "mines," are excluded from the pre-emption act of eighteen hundred and forty-one, and which under past legislation are not liable to ordinary private entry, it shall and may be lawful for the President to cause such tracts, in suitable legal sub-divisions, to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, after public notice of not less than three months, at a minimum price of twenty dollars per acre; and any lands not thus disposed of shall thereafter be liable to private entry at said minimum.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in any case in which parties have already founded, or may hereafter desire to found, a city or town on the public lands, it shall and may be lawful for them to cause to be filed with the recorder for the county in which the same is situated, a plat thereof, for not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, describing its exterior boundaries according to the lines of the public surveys, where such surveys have been executed; also giving the name of such city or town, and exhibiting the streets, squares, blocks, lots, and alleys, the size of the same, with measurements and area of each municipal sub-division, the lots in which shall each not exceed four thousand two hundred square feet, with a statement of the extent and general character of the improvements; the said map and statement to be verified under oath by the party acting for, and in behalf, of the persons proposing to establish such city or town; and within one month after such filing there shall be transmitted to the General Land Office a verified transcript of such map and statement, accompanied by the testimony of two witnesses that such city or town has been established in good faith, and when the premises are within the limits of an organized land district, a similar map and statement shall be filed with the register and receiver, and at any time after the filing of such map, statement, and testimony in the General Land Office, it shall and may be lawful for the President to cause the lots embraced within the limits of such city or town to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, subject to a minimum of ten dollars for each lot; and such lots as may not be disposed of at public sale, shall thereafter be liable to private entry at said minimum, or at such reasonable increase or diminution thereafter as the Secretary of the Interior may order from time to time, after at least three months' notice, in view of the increase or decrease in the value of the municipal property; Provided, That any actual

settler upon any one lot, as aforesaid, and upon any additional lot in which he may have substantial improvements, shall be entitled to prove up and purchase the same as a pre-emption, at said minimum, at any time before the day fixed for the public sale.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That when such cities or towns are established upon unsurveyed lands, it shall and may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the extension limits of the premises according to those lines, where it can be done without interference with rights which may be vested by sale; and patents for all lots so disposed of at public or private sale shall issue as in ordinary cases.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That if, within twelve months from the establishment of a city or town, as aforesaid, in the public domain, the parties interested shall refuse or fail to file in the General Land Office transcript map with the statement and testimony called for by the provisions of the second section of this act, it shall and may be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to cause a survey and plat to be made of such city or town, and thereafter the lots in the same shall be disposed of as required by said provisions, with this exception, that they shall each be at an increase of fifty per centum on the aforesaid minimum of ten dollars per lot.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That effect shall be given to the foregoing act, according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. The act entitled "An act for the relief of the citizens of towns upon the lands of the United States, under certain circumstances," approved May twenty-three, anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty-four, and all other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

Approved, July 1, 1864.

AN ACT SUPPLEMENTAL TO THE ACT APPROVED FIRST JULY, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR, "FOR THE DISPOSAL OF COAL LANDS AND OF TOWN PROPERTY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That in the case of any citizen of the United States who, at the passage of this act, may be in the business of bona fide actual coal mining on the public lands, except on lands reserved by the President of the United States for public uses, for purposes of commerce, such citizen, upon making proof satisfactory to the register and receiver to that effect, shall have the right to enter, according to legal sub-divisions, a quantity of land not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, to embrace his improvements and mining premises, at the minimum price of twenty dollars per acre, fixed in the coal and town property act of first July, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; Provided, That where the mining improvements and premises are on land surveyed at the passage of this act, a sworn declaratory statement descriptive of the tract and premises, showing also the extent and character of the improvements, shall be filed within six months from the date of this act; and proof and payment shall be made within one year from the date of such filing; but where such mining premises may be on lands hereafter to be surveyed, such declaratory statement shall be filed within three months from the return to the district land office of the official township plat; and proof and payment shall be made within one year from the date of such filing.