fifty cents per acre, together with all costs of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, such as is described in section twenty-three hundred and twenty, is known to exist within the boundaries of a placer claim, an application for a patent for such placer claim, which does not include an application for the vein or lode claim, shall be construed as a conclusive declaration that the claimant of the placer claim has no right of possession of the vein or lode claim; but where the existence of a vein or lode in a placer claim is not known, a patent for the placer claim shall convey all valuable mineral and other deposits within the boundaries thereof. (Act of Congress May 10, 1872, Ch. 152, § 11.)

§ 2334. The surveyor-general of the United States may appoint in each land district containing mineral lands as many competent surveyors as shall apply for appointment to survey mining claims. The expenses of the survey of vein or lode claims, and the survey and subdivision of placer claims into smaller quantities than one hundred and sixty acres, together with the cost of publication of notices, shall be paid by the applicants, and they shall be at liberty to obtain the same at the most reasonable rates, and they shall also be at liberty to employ any United States deputy surveyor to make the survey. The commissioner of the general land office shall also have power to establish the maximum charges for surveys and publication of notices under this chapter, and in case of excessive charges for publication, he may designate any newspaper published in a land district where mines are situated, for the publication of mining notices in such district, and fix the rates to be charged by such paper; and to the end that the commissioner may be fully informed on the subject, each applicant shall file with the register a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by such applicant for publication and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the register and the receiver of the land office, which statement shall be transmitted, with the other papers in the case, to the commissioner of the general land office. (Act of Congress May 10, 1872, Ch. 152, § 12.)

$2335. All affidavits required to be made under this er 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. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character of land, the testimony and proofs may be taken as herein provided, on personal notice of at least ten days to the opposing party; or if such party cannot be found, then by publication of 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. (Act of Congress May 10, 1872, Ch. 152, § 13.)

§ 2336. Where two or more veins intersect or cross each other, priority of title shall govern, and such prior location shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but the subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space of intersection, for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine; and, where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take the vein below the point of union, including all the space of intersection. (Act of Congress May 10, Ch. 152, § 14.)

§ 2337. 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 superfices of the lode. The owner of a quartz mill or reduction works not owning a mine in connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill site as provided in this section. (Act of Congress May 10, Ch. 152, § 115.)

§ 2338. As a 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. (Act of Congress July 26, 1866, Ch. 262, § 5.)

§ 2339. 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 herein specified, is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person in the construction of any ditch or canal, injures or damages 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. (Act of Congress July 26, 1866, Ch. 262, § 9.)

§ 2340. 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 preceding section. (Act of Congress July 9, 1870, Ch. 235, § 17.)

§ 2341. Wherever, 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 settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of preemption 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 they may avail themselves of the provisions of chapter five of this title, relating to homesteads. (Act of Congress July 26, 1866, Ch. 262, § 10.)

§ 2342. Upon the survey of the lands described in the preceding section, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands, and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same. (Act of Congress July 26, 1866, Ch. 262, § 11.)

§ 2343. The President is 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 chapter. (Act of Congress July 26, 1866, Ch. 262, § 7.)

§ 2344. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to impair, in any way, rights or interests in mining property acquired under existing laws; nor to affect the provisions of the act entitled An 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-five, eighteen hundred and sixty-six. (Act of Congress July 9, 1870, Ch. 235, § 17; May 10, 1872, Ch. 152, § 16.

§ 2345. The provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter shall not apply to the mineral lands situated in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, which are declared free and open to exploration and purchase, according to legal subdivisions, in like manner as before the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. And any bona fide entries of such lands within the states named since the tenth of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, may be patented without reference to any of the foregoing provisions of this chapter. Such lands shall be offered for public sale in the same manner, at the same minimum price, and under the same rights of pre-emption as other public lands. Congress Feb. 18, 1873, Ch. 159, v. 17, p. 465.

(Act of

§ 2346. No act passed at the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress granting lands to states or corporations, to aid in the construction of roads or for other

purposes, or to extend the time of grants made prior to the thirtieth day of January, eighteen hundred and sixtyfive, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in all cases are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless otherwise specially provided in the act or acts making the grant. (Act of Congress Jan. 30, 1865.)

§ 2347. Every person above the age of twenty-one years, who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become such, or any association of persons severally qualified as above, shall, upon application to the register of the proper land office, have the right to enter, by legal subdivisions, any quantity of vacant coal lands of the United States, not otherwise appropriated or reserved by competent authority, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to such individual person, or three hundred and twenty acres to such association, upon payment to the receiver of not less than ten dollars per acre for such lands, where the same shall be situated more than fifteen miles from any completed railroad, and not less than twenty dollars per acre for such lands as shall be within fifteen miles of such road. (Act of Congress March 3, 1873, Ch. 279, § 1.)

§ 2348. Any person, or association of persons, severerally qualified as above provided, who have opened and improved, or who shall hereafter open and improve, any coal mine or mines upon the public lands, and shall be in actual possession of the same, shall be entitled to a preference-right of entry under the preceding section, of the mines so opened and improved: Provided, That when any association of not less than four persons, severally qualified as above provided, shall have expended not less than five thousand dollars in working and improving any such mine or mines, such association may enter not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, including such mining improvements. (Act of Congress March 3, 1873,

Ch. 279, § 2.)

§ 2349. All claims under the preceding section must be presented to the register of the proper land district, within sixty days after the date of actual possession, and the commencement of improvements on the land, by the filing of a declaratory statement therefor; but when the township plat is not on file at the date of such improve