right angles to the course of the lode, and thus he could cov he found interlopers might want to claim. The purpose wa him room for working, as to secure his title and protect him troublesome neighbors. Under every set of regulations, cus and under every code of mining law, the owner of the main location owns all the spurs; but he may not be able to prov a spur. This was the case in several important suits in Virg spur was not traced to its union with the main vein until 1 down five hundred feet, and they did not reach that dep working. There may be, and no doubt are, cases in whi independent lodes are found within two hundred feet of eacl instances it would perhaps be injurious to the mining int claimant have both lodes, but such cases would be very ra fact there is no complaint among miners of any evil caused a fixed area of surface, whereas there is great complaint taking claims on spurs within a few feet of the main lode. common; the former is almost unknown; the general sentime favors the recognition of a surface claim at least two hund the lode.

5.-WORK REQUIRED TO HOLD CLAIM

One of the greatest evils that besets lode mining at p number of claims are held without being worked, and with on the part of the claimants of working them. Most claims as a matter of speculation, and not for the purpose of minin claimants are persons who have never done any regular wo When a rich vein is found, a multitude of persons rush to one gets a claim, if possible, in every vein in the district. names of enough associates to make up a claim a thousand long, and thus all the lodes of the district are soon appropria of the associates may be present with him or perhaps not o been near the place. He has taken his claims and he now develop the district and prove that they are valuable. If b adjacent mines, his claims are proved to be rich, he sells profit; if not, he has lost little. Then if a miner goes in mining districts and wishes to prospect a vein thoroughly, h of these lodes which he would prefer to work are held substantial work has been done in them. He cannot afford might have to buy dozens before finding one that would y being examined; and he cannot afford to prospect before discovery that he might make would enhance the price, an the claimant. The system that recognizes the validity of great check to mining industry and to the development of n individuals who profit by it are usually of a class who thri the industrious and enterprising. The miner desiring to intention of working it has everything to lose and nothing tem. It is true that the local regulations require the clai tain amount of work every year to secure his title, but t most districts a mere form, and it is evaded by shamt

*The San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press, a recognized a says in its issue of the 14th of July, 1866:

"With regard to the performance of labor to perfect a title, ever rule, as at present established, is a mere farce."

+Governor McCormick of Arizona, in his message delivered to the the 8th of October, 1866, says:

ment is a nullity because no provision is made for ascertaining whether the work has been done, and the title is held to be good until, when some adverse claim is made, the first claim is pronounced invalid by a court, after a trial in which the result does not necessarily go with justice. The presumption is always with the first claimant in such cases. A considerable portion of the community being interested in similar sham claims, it is difficult to get a jury to give a verdict against them, even if the testimony were against them; but the law is so framed that usually if one witness swears that a certain amount of work has been done to hold a claim, the adverse party cannot disprove it. Now let us see what amount of work is necessary to hold a lode claim in various districts.

In the course of the year 1866, eighty miles of quartz claims were taken up in Nevada county, and most of these claims are held to-day by a good title under the mining regulations, though not five miles of the eighty to-day are worked, and the owners of the remaining seventy-five have no intention of working their claims soon.

The Nevada Transcript, (Nevada county, California,) in a number published in October, 1866, said:

"It is safe to estimate the mining locations of the past two years in this county, including water privileges, gravel and quartz claims, at about 373 miles. The locations of the present year amount to over 177 miles. Of these fully one-half are quartz claims. This estimate will suffice to show the great importance to which quartz mining has grown within a very short period. Very few of the many ledges located have yet become yielding mines, and a large number are now unworked, the owners, having done work enough to hold them, are waiting for more enterprising men to develop the neighboring claims."

Under the statute of Nevada a claim may be held for one year by the excava tion of fifty cubic feet of rock for each two hundred feet, or by the payment of two cents per foot.

Under the statute of Oregon a claim may be held for a year by work to the amount of fifty dollars for each three hundred feet, or for the share of each original locator.

In Idaho, under the territorial statute, work to the amount of one hundred dollars for the claim of each original locator gives a perpetual title.

According to the territorial statute of Arizona the claimant or claimants must sink a shaft thirty feet deep, or cut a tunnel fifty feet long, within the first ten days, to establish a claim, which may then be held for two years without further work by filing an annual affidavit of intention to work the claim; and after two years the claim, no matter how many feet it contains, may be held by thirty days' work annually.

Under the local regulations of the Virginia district, three days' labor would secure the title to two hundred feet for one month, or work to the amount of forty dollars for six months.

The local regulations for Reese River district do not provide for any forfeiture for lack of work.

The local regulations of Nevada county, California, require twenty days' work or labor to the amount of one hundred dollars to secure a claim for one year.

"It is also important that, excepting in districts where active hostility on the part of the Indians absolutely prevents, the actual occupation and improvement of claims shall be made requisite to their possession, unless pre-empted under the congressional law. The lack of such a requirement hitherto has seriously retarded the development of our mineral resources and the general prosperity of the Territory, and proved discouraging to new comers, especially in the counties on the Colorado river, where hundreds of lodes, taken up in years past by parties now absent from the Territory, are unworked; and yet, under the existing law, no one has a right to lay claim to them, be he ever so able or anxious to open them."

6.-PROPOSED CHANGE AS TO WORK REQU There is no uniformity here, nor is the same amount of lal two codes. Diversity implies injustice to individuals and i If it were wise to give a perpetual title in Idaho, after labor hundred dollars had been done, it cannot be wise to requir dollars annually in Oregon, or one hundred dollars in Nevada All the statutes and regulations require some work, except th which enables the claimant by paying two cents per lineal fo his claim forever. The two cents are to go into the State tre mutation, if maintained, will have a very prejudicial effect on It will enable men to hold claims without working them, and 1 result which the laws should prevent. One of the evils wit has now to contend is that the miners who are willing and an lying idle on public land cannot get possession of them. strict against those who hold claims without working them. should be against titles that are not founded on continued oc The statutes should be so framed that the miner who desires does work in good faith, shall have every advantage over th claims and tries to hold them until their great value is pr that he can sell them out, after having incurred little expens

In Mexico it is expected that the miner will keep at least continually at his mine, and if he omits to have so many as four months, except in time of war, famine, or pestilence, h The constant labor of one, two, or three men, or the empl during the year, is not enough. The Mexican law, howey this point for the present wants of the American mining di so high that many companies, which really intend to open th work in good faith with one or two men, would abandon than undertake to pay four men continuously. Neverthele can law is on individuals, it is admirably fitted to develop The Spanish maxim is that the man who does the most has the most right to it.

7.-LAW NEEDED FOR CENTURIES OF MI

It is evident to all who have made themselves familiar mining in other countries, and who have examined the min Pacific States, that our gold and silver mining industry wi and will grow to be far more important and to employ many at present. It is evident, too, after the consideration of the local regulations that some further legislation is necessary t the development of this great industry. If further legis wisdom suggests that action should not be postponed for a industry is too important to the interests of individuals and growth of the State to be neglected. It is now, while the b infancy, that the proper principles should be laid down, so a in the safe enjoyment of the treasures which he brings to which the mining industry is based belongs to the Union, the exclusive jurisdiction over the tenure of claims until become private property.

The act of the last session is an excellent foundation on which to build up gradually a code suited to our wants, and the local mining regulations suggest many important provisions. The interests involved, both public and private, are so great that much caution is necessary; and yet the necessity of some uniform and comprehensive system is undeniable. It is better to legislate too little than too much, and the first statutes should be confined to a few general and fundamental principles, to which additions can be made as experience is gained and the wants of the miners are better understood. The main purpose of legislation, in mining, should be to protect the working miner, and encourage him in the development of the mineral resources of the country. His interest in this matter is intimately associated with the prosperity of the nation.

8.-CONGRESS ALONE CAN ESTABLISH UNIFORMITY.

Congress alone can establish uniform rules, applicable equally to all the mining districts. Experience has shown that if the matter be left to the several States and Territories in which the mineral deposits are found, each will have its own system. Local, personal, and immediate interests have far more influence in local legislatures than in Congress; which last, from the manner in which it is constituted, must pay more regard to general, permanent, and public interests. It is therefore in every respect to be desired that Congress should exercise its power and fix by a comprehensive act the terms upon which claims to mines on the public land may be held. A wise and generous basis for such legislation was laid by the act of last session. The equity of the miner's title was acknowledged; the courts were directed to protect him in his possession; and the validity of the local rules was for the time recognized. The subject was too extensive to dispose of it all at once. It is better to do the work slowly than to do it ill. Step by step we shall advance to have a superior law, worthy of the superior energy, intelligence, and industry of our miners, and the superior richness and extent of our mineral deposits.

The following are the miners' regulations in some of the principal mining districts:

9.-MINERS' REGULATIONS.-QUARTZ REGULATIONS OF NEVADA COUNTY,

CALIFORNIA.

ARTICLE 1. The jurisdiction of the following laws shall extend over all quartz mines and quartz mining property within the county of Nevada.

ART. 2. Each prospector of a quartz claim shall hereafter be entitled to one hundred feet on a quartz ledge or vein, and the discoverer shall be allowed one hundred feet additional. Each claim shall include all the dips, angles, and va riations of the vein.

ART. 3. On the discovery of a vein of quartz, three days shall be allowed to mark and stake off the same in such manner, by name of the owner and number of the claim, or otherwise, as shall properly and fully identify such claims. Parties having claims may cause a map or plan to be made and a copy filed with the recorder, if deemed requisite to more particularly fix the locality.

ART. 4. Work to the extent of one hundred dollars in value, or twenty days' faithful labor, shall be performed by each company holding claims, within thirty days of the date of recording the same, as provided for in article sixth of these laws; and the duly authorized representative of a company making oath that such money has been expended, or that such labor has been performed, shall be entitled to a certificate from a county recorder or deputy, guaranteeing undisputed possession of said claim for the term of one year; and a like sum of money or amount of labor expended or performed within twenty days of each succeeding year, duly acknowledged as herein named, shall entitle the claimant

or company, from year to year, to further certificates of undi and possession; and a company having a mill contracted the amount of five thousand dollars, for the working of its proper representatives of the company making oath of the s to receive from said county recorder a title-deed to said cla teeing to the claimant or company, their successors and assi session and proprietorship forever under these laws; pr in this article shall at any time be inconsistent with the laws ART. 5. Whenever the requisite amount of money or lal pended within thirty days from the adoption of these laws thus neglected shall be considered abandoned and subject any other party or parties.

ART. 6. Any person a citizen of the United States, or any the necessary steps to become a citizen of the United State hold one quartz claim as provided for in article first, and as be purchased in good faith for a valuable consideration, for proprietorship shall be issued by the county recorder.

ART. 7. The regularly elected county recorder of Nevad as recorder of this county in quartz claims, authenticating h seal. He shall appoint as his deputy such person for Gras elected by the district of Grass valley, and he shall pas

ART. 8. The fees of the recorder and deputy shall be the fees for recording per folio.

ART. 9. No title to a claim hereafter taken up or purch unless recorded in the books of the aforesaid county record ten days of its location or purchase.

Adopted December 20, 1852, and still in force.

10.-QUARTZ REGULATIONS OF SIERRA COUNTY, ARTICLE 1. A claim on any quartz ledge in this count of two hundred feet along the same, and a width of two h at right angles with the ledge, on each side of the same, found within the above-mentioned limits.

ART. 2. Any person discovering a gold-bearing ledge, no shall be entitled to two claims, being one claim for discover ART. 3. No person but a discoverer shall be entitled to claim by location, in a company.

ART. 4. No one but an American citizen, or a foreigner his foreign miner's tax receipt, shall be allowed to hold a any quartz ledge in this county.

ART. 5. It shall be necessary for claimants to post a not ous place on the claims located, setting forth the number from what point, upon which the real names of the locator Said notice shall hold good for ten days, at the expiration of said notice shall be placed upon the records of this cou record as above shall hold said claims, without further im after the first day of November until the first day of May after said first day of November. But upon all claims loc day of May and the first day of November following, la eight dollars per claim shall be expended toward the pros the same in each thirty days after such location.

ART. 6 To hold quartz claims for the first twelve mo shall be required of each claimant to expend at least one each claim of two hundred feet in such improvements as n development of the same.