A discovery of gold in a shaft sunk to a depth of 88 feet on a placer mining claim of 160 acres located by eight persons is sufficient to support the location of the entire tract. Hall v. McKinnon, 193 Fed. 572, p. 575. See Union Oil Co., In re, 25 L. D. 351. Kirk v. Meldrum, 28 Colo. 453. McDonald v. Montana Wood Co., 14 Mont. 88. The rule of the department is that while one discovery of mineral is a sufficient basis for an association location of a placer claim, otherwise valid, yet if it is subsequently shown by an adverse claimant or by a protestant that any area of such association location, amounting to a legal subdivision, does not contain mineral, or is not valuable for the mineral contained, then such legal subdivision must be excluded from the application and from entry. Ferrell v. Hoge, 27 L. D. 129, p. 131. American Smelting, etc., Co., In re, 39 L. D. 299, p. 304. Crystal Marble Quarries Co. v. Dantice, 41 L. D. 642, p. 645. Under this section there must be a discovery of mineral upon each 20-acre tract included in a placer location of 160 acres, and a placer location of that amount of land can not be made upon a single discovery; but in such case the claim will be limited to the 20 acres immediately surrounding the place of discovery. Ferrell v. Hoge, 18 L. D. 81, p. 85. Crystal Marble Quarries Co. v. Dantice, 41 L. D. 642, p. 645. While a single discovery is sufficient to authorize the location of a placer claim, and may, in the absence of any contrary showing, be accepted as establishing the mineral character of the land located sufficient to justify entry and patent, yet such single discovery does not conclusively establish the mineral character of the entire tract so as to preclude further inquiry as to the character of the land. Ferrell v. Hoge, 29 L. D. 12, p. 13. Crystal Marble Quarries Co. v. Dantice, 41 L. D. 642, p. 645. Ten-acre tracts, normally in square forms, are the units of investigation and determination as to the character of land embraced in a placer location, and if such a unit of area is found on subsequent investigation or development to be in fact nonmineral, then it should be eliminated. American Smelting, etc., Co., In re, 39 L. D. 299, p. 303. The department does not hold that actual disclosure of mineral must be made on each 10-acre tract; but in a contest the locator can only succeed as to the area shown to be mineral in character, and for this purpose the land may be divided into 10-acre tracts. Crystal Marble Quarries Co. v. Dantice, 41 L. D. 642, p. 646. B. LOCATIONS ON SURVEYED LANDS. 1. PURPOSE OF REQUIREMENT. 2. LOCATIONS CONFORMING TO SURVEY. 3. LOCATIONS CONFORMING TO SURVEY AS NEAR AS PRACTI CABLE-MEANING. 4. LOCATIONS CONFORMING TO SURVEY-MARKING BOUNDARIES. 5. LOCATIONS ON SURVEYED LAND-WHEN PLAT AND SURVEY ARE REQUIRED. 1. PURPOSE OF REQUIREMENT. This section is expressed in terms of wider scope and broader import than sectioms 2329 and 2330, and it requires all placer mining claims to be conformed, as near as practicable, to the system of public land surveys and the rectangular subdivisions thereof, and its evident purpose is to supplement the preceding provisions and to provide for all other cases, not otherwise provided for, and among these are to be included claims upon unsurveyed lands. Wood Placer Min. Co., In re, 32 L. D. 363, p. 364. The act of July 9, 1870 (16 Stat. 217), which expressly required placer locations to conform to the lines of the public surveys, was unreasonable and a hardship, and in contravention of the established custom of the mining regions; and it was therefore modified by the act of May 10, 1872 [17 Stat. 91], so as to provide for exceptional cases where reason and common sense required a different regulation, such as exists in this case where the placer deposit is situated in a canyon and the adjoining land on either side is totally unfit either for mining or agriculture. Rablin, In re, 2 L. D. 764, p. 765. Ferrell v. Hoge, 29 L. D. 12, p. 14. See Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 251. The inference is that this section is intended to make provision for all other placer claims than those provided for in the two preceding sections, and as specific provisions are made for locations upon surveyed lands the necessity for an adequate provision for placer locations not in that situation is apparent; and it is not to be assumed that Congress intended to supply the omission in part only where the terms employed are broad enough to cover all cases, and the language of this section is ample for this purpose; and it is clear that locations upon unsurveyed lands are within the purview of this section. Wood Placer Min. Co., In re, 32 L. D. 363, p. 364. 2. LOCATIONS CONFORMING TO SURVEY. Placer mining claims located after the 10th day of May, 1872, must conform as nearly as practicable with the system of public surveys and the subdivisions thereof, and an application will not be considered where the land described is totally at variance with such system which affords no warrant for cutting the public lands into lengthy strips and narrow widths. Wood Placer Min. Co., In re, 32 L. D. 198. Hogan & Idaho Placer Min. Claims, In re, 34 L. D. 42. Rialto No. 2 Placer Min. Claim, In re, 34 L. D. 44. See Miller Placer Claim, In re, 30 L. D. 225, p. 227. Placer claims, whether upon surveyed or unsurveyed lands, are required to conform as nearly as practicable to the United States system of public land surveys. Southern Pac. R. Co. v. Griffin, 20 L. D. 485, p. 487. Hogan & Idaho Placer Min. Claims, In re, 34 L. D. 42. Rialto No. 2 Placer Min. Claim, In re, 34 L. D. 44. Laughing Water Placer, In re, 34 L. Ú. 56. Placer claims upon surveyed lands shall be described by legal subdivisions. Rialto No. 2 Placer Min. Claim, In re, 34 L. D. 44. Golden Chief "A" Placer Claim, In re, 35 L. D. 557, p. 558. ations can not be practicably ground that it does not coneys, where it appears that the able stream, winding through le banks, but such entry will this section to provide for cases rmity of location with subdivi on either side 50, p. 251. tored may be embraced in a placer es not make such conformity im harmony with the conformity promant, particularly in Alaska, to coney, and the rectangular subdivisions I him to place his lines on other prior d by prior locations, and this whether D. 250, p. 258. Placer Min. Claim, In re, 34 L. D. 44; ... D. 557. SURVEY-MARKING BOUNDARIES. us to conform to the legal subdivisions of the at with the provision requiring the claim to be laries can be readily traced, and this section nt. D. 224. 200. quiring placer claims on surveyed lands to conform y further survey or plat has no reference to the markon the ground, and the statute of Colorado calling for a placer claim does not conflict with this section. 53, p. 275. lacer claims to conform to legal subdivisions does not claimant of the boundaries of his claim upon the ground, he plat and survey which are to be filed with the applica 593, p. 595. conform to legal subdivisions no other survey or plat is reeem to be the intention of the statute that the location of placer ivisions renders the markings of the boundaries on the surface 22 L. D. 409, p. 411. Whether or not a placer claim conforms sufficiently to the public survey is a question of fact to be determined by the Land Department, and a case must be decided upon its own facts; but it is the policy of the Government to have all such entries in compact form and not permit the public domain to be cut into long and narrow strips. Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 257. The division of 40-acre tracts into 10-acre lots is authorized for the purpose of enabling placer locators to conform to the public surveys. Placer Min. Claims, In re, 10 C. L. O. 3. The mere location of a mining claim does not have the effect to separate the lands into noncontiguous tracts within the meaning of the term "noncontiguous," as used in connection with the administration of the public land laws, and the fact that a placer location conforming to legal subdivisions of public surveys would embrace a portion of land covered by a prior location is not sufficient reason for failure to conform such placer location to the legal subdivisions as required by the section. Rialto No. 2 Placer Min. Claim, In re, 34 L. D. 44, p. 46. See Laughing Water Placer, In re, 34 L. D. 56, p. 58. Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 254. 3. LOCATIONS CONFORMING TO SURVEY AS NEAR AS PRACTICABLEMEANING. Locators of placer claims are required to conform to the lines of the public survey only where it is reasonably practicable, and otherwise it is sufficient if they conform as near as is reasonably practicable. Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 257. Mitchell v. Hutchinson, 142 Cal. 404, p. 407. See Rablin, In re, 2 L. D. 764. Pearsall, In re, 6 L. D. 227. By the phrase "shall conform as near as practicable" Congress has vested the Land Department with the power to provide that hereafter a claim located by one or two persons which can be entirely included within a square 40-acre tract, a claim located by three or four persons which can be entirely included in two square 40-acre tracts placed end to end, a claim located by five or six persons which can be entirely included in three square 40-acre tracts, and a claim located by seven or eight persons which can be entirely included in four square 40-acre tracts should be approved, but the 40-acre tracts need not necessarily have north-and-south and east-and-west boundary lines. Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 258. The requirement that a placer claim upon surveyed land must conform to the legal subdivisions thereof means that the claim must conform only as near as reasonably practicable, as the mining laws permit persons to take a certain quantity of land fit for mining, but does not compel them to take a quantity irrespective of its fitness for mining, and the act of July 9, 1870 (16 Stat. 217) was modified by the act of May 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 91). Snow Flake Fraction Placer, In re, 37 L. D. 250, p. 252. See Pearsall, In re, 6 L. D. 227, p. 231. Miller Placer Claim, In re, 30 L. D. 225. The word "practicable" in this section means reasonably practicable, and it may be unreasonable under certain circumstances to require an applicant to conform his location to legal subdivision. Rablin, In re, 2 L. D. 764. Esperance Min. Co., In re, 10 C. L. O. 338. There are instances of gulch placer claims upon surveyed lands which are laid upon and along the bed of streams whose banks are inclosed or surmounted by precipitous crevices barren of mineral, and the boundaries of the location embracing and follow |