proper non-mineral affidavit. If such mineral affidavits shall have been filed, you will proceed with a hearing, as directed by the circular of April 27, 1880. Acknowledge receipt hereof. Very respectfully, J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, To Registers and Receivers, United States District Land Offices: GENTLEMEN: Your attention is directed to the provisions of the following Act of Congress, approved April 26, 1882: An Act to amend section twenty-three hundred and twenty-six of the Revised Statutes, in regard to mineral 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 adverse claim required by section twenty-three hundred and twenty-six of the Revised Statutes may be verified by the oath of any duly authorized agent or attorney in fact of the adverse claimant cognizant of the facts stated; and the adverse claimant, if residing or at the time being beyond the limits of the district wherein the claim is situated, may make oath to the adverse claim before the Clerk of any Court of record of the United States or the State or Territory where the adverse claimant may then be, or before any Notary Public of such State or Territory. SEC. 2. That applicants for mineral patents, if residing beyond the limits of the district wherein the claim is situated, may make any oath or affidavit required for proof of citizenship before the Clerk of any Court of record, or before any Notary Public of any State or Terrritory. 1. It will be observed that the Act is not retroactive, and hence cannot affect proceedings had prior to its approval; where citizenship, however, has not been proven, it may be established as provided by section two of this Act. 2. Where an agent or attorney in fact verifies the adverse claim, he must distinctly swear that he is such agent or attorney, and accompany his affidavit by proof thereof. 3. The agent or attorney in fact must make the affidavit in verification of the adverse claim within the land district where the claim is situated. Very respectfully, N. C. MCFARLAND, Commissioner. H. M. TELLER, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, To Registers and Receivers, and Surveyors-General : GENTLEMEN: The following regulations are promulgated as amendatory of circular of October 31, 1881, entitled "United States Mining Laws and Regulations Thereunder," and have special reference to applications for patents to placer claims. They are to be considered in connection with paragraphs fifty-three to sixty of regulations contained in said circular: 1. The first care in recognizing an application for patent upon a placer claim must be exercised in determining the exact classification of the lands. To this end the clearest evidence of which the case is capable should be presented. If the claim be all placer ground, that fact must be stated in the application, and corroborated by accompanying proofs. If of mixed placers and lodes it should be so set out, with a description of all known lodes situated within the boundaries of the claim. A specific declaration, such as is required by Section 2333, Revised Statutes, must be furnished as to each lode intended to be claimed. All other known lodes are, by the silence of the applicant, excluded by law from all claim by him, of whatsoever nature, possessory or otherwise. 2. Section 2395, Revised Statutes (subdivision 7), requires the Surveyor to "note in his field books, the true situation of all mines, salt licks, salt springs, and mill seats which come to his knowledge;" also, all watercourses over which the lines he runs may pass." It further requires him to "note the quality of the lands." These descriptive notes are required by subdivision 8 to be incorporated in the plat by the Surveyor-General. 3. If these duties have been performed, the surveys will furnish a reasonable guide to the district officers, and to claimants in prosecuting their applications. But experience has shown that great neglect has resulted from inattention to the law in this respect, and the regular plats are of very little value in the matter. It will, therefore, be required in the future that Deputy Surveyors shall, at the expense of the parties, make full examination of all placer claims, and duly note the facts as specified in the law, stating the quality and composition of the soil, the kind and amount of timber and other vegetation, the locus and size of streams, and such other matters as may appear upon the surface of the claims. This examination should include the character and extent of all surface and underground workings, whether placer or lode, for mining purposes. 4. In addition to these data, which the law requires to be shown in all cases, the deputy should report with reference to the proximity of centers of trade or residence; also of well known systems of lode deposit or of individual lodes. He should also report as to the use or adaptability of the claim for placer mining; whether water has been brought upon it in sufficient quantity to mine the same, or whether it can be procured for that purpose; and finally, what works or expenditures have been made by the claimant or his grantors for the development of the claim, and their situation and location with respect to the same as applied for. 5. This examination should be reported by the deputy under oath to the Surveyor-General, and duly corroborated; and a copy of the same should be furnished with the application for patent to the claim, constituting a part thereof, and included in the oath of the applicant. 6. In case of a proposed claim for lands not yet surveyed, the foregoing regulations will govern the application for survey. 7. In controversies hereafter to be determined respecting the mineral value of lands, their value for all purposes, whether agricultural or municipal, or as seats for towns, will be considered, without reference to the decisions heretofore made in particular cases. No decision finally executed, however, will be reconsidered under this modification. 8. No application by an association of persons for patent to a placer claim will be allowed to embrace more than one hundred and sixty acres, nor will any application be entertained that embraces more than one location. 9. Applications awaiting entry, whether published or not, must be made to conform to these regulations, both with respect to amount of ground and examination as to the character of the land. Entries already made will be suspended for examination by the Commissioner, and such additional proofs as may be deemed necessary in each case will be demanded. Very respectfully, Department of the Interior, September 23, 1882. Approved: N. C. MCFARLAND, Commissioner. H. M. TELLER, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENEBALL AND OFFCE, } WASHINGTON, D. C., December 9, To Registers and Receivers, and Surveyors-General: GENTLEMEN: By direction, contained in letter dated the seventh instant, from the honorable Secretary of the Interior, paragraph number eight, of the preceding circular of September 22, 1882, relating to placer mining claims, has been amended so as to read as follows: 8. No application by an association of persons for patent to a placer claim will be allowed to embrace more than one hundred and sixty acres; and not less than five hundred dollars' worth of work must be shown to have been expended upon or for the benefit of each separate location embraced in such application. If an individual becomes the purchaser and possessor of several separate claims of twenty acres each or less, he may be permitted to include in his application for patent any number of such claims contiguous to each other, not exceeding in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres; but upon or for the benefit of each original claim or location so embraced, he or his grantors must have expended the sum of five hundred dollars in improvements. You are instructed to observe this modification of my said circular of September 22, 1882. Very respectfully, N. C. MCFARLAND, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, To United States Surveyors-General: } GENTLEMEN: The regulations of this office require that the plats and field notes of surveys of mining claims shall disclose all conflicts between such surveys and prior surveys, giving the areas of conflicts. The rule has not been properly observed in all cases. Your attention is invited to the following particulars which should be observed in the survey of every mining claim: 1. The exterior boundaries of the claim should be represented on the plat of survey and in the field notes. 2. The intersection of the lines of the survey with the lines of conflicting prior surveys should be noted in the field notes and represented upon the plat. 3. Conflicts with unsurveyed claims, where the applicant for survey does not claim the area in conflict, should be shown by actual survey. 4. The total area of the claim embraced by the exterior boundaries should be stated, and also the area in conflict with each intersecting survey, substantially as follows: Total area of claim Area in conflict with Survey No. 302 Area in conflict with Survey No. 918 Area in conflict with Mountain Maid lode mining claim, unsurveyed 10.50 acres. 1.56 acres. 2.33 acres. 1.48 acres. In a number of instances that have come to the attention of this office the total area in conflict has been given, but not the area in conflict with each intersecting claim. The portion of the plat not in conflict has been colored, and the remainder left uncolored. The language of the field notes has been such as to convey the idea that the conflicting areas were excluded from the claim, whereas such was not the intention. It does not follow that because mining surveys are required to exhibit all conflicts with prior surveys the areas of conflict are to be excluded. The field notes and plat are made a part of the application for patent, and care should be taken that the description does not inadvertently exclude portions intended to be retained. It is better that the application for patent should state the portions to be excluded in express terms. A survey executed as in the example given will enable the applicant for patent to exclude such conflicts as may seem desirable. For instance, the conflict with Survey No. 302, and with the Mountain Maid lode claim, might be excluded, and that with Survey No. 948 included. Your attention is also invited to another matter. The practice of coloring portions of surveys, leaving other portions uncolored, is open to the same objections that have been stated concerning the field notes. In the future no coloring will be used. Very respectfully, N. C. MCFARLAND, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, To Registers and Receivers and Surveyors-General: GENTLEMEN: The following additional regulations are promulgated as amendatory of circular of October 31, 1881, entitled "United States Mining Laws and Regulations Thereunder," which, except as herein modified, will remain in full force: 1. No application will be received, or entry allowed, which embraces more than one lode location. 2. A party who is not an applicant for patent under Section 2325, Revised Statutes, or the assignee of such applicant, is not entitled to make entry under said section, and in no case will the name of such party be inserted in the certificate of entry. This regulation has no reference to proceedings under Section 2326. 3. Any party applying to make entry as trustee must disclose fully the nature of the trust, and the name of the cestui que trust; and such trustee, as well as the beneficiaries, must furnish satisfactory proof of citizenship; and the names of beneficiaries, as well as that of the trustee, must be inserted in the final certificate of entry. 4. Where an adverse claim has been filed and suit thereon commenced within the statutory period, and final judgment determining the right of possession rendered in favor of the applicant, it will not be sufficient for him to file with the Register a certificate of the Clerk of the Court setting forth the facts as to such judgment, but he must, before he is allowed to make entry, file a certified copy of the judgment, together with the other evidence required by Section 2326, Revised Statutes. 5. Where such suit has been dismissed, a certificate of the Clerk of the Court to that effect, or a certified copy of the order of dismissal, will be sufficient. 6. In no case will a relinquishment of the ground in controversy, or other proof, filed with the Register or Receiver, be accepted in lieu of the evidence required in paragraphs 4 and 5. 7. Where an adverse claim has been filed, but no suit commenced against the applicant for patent within the statutory period, a certificate to that effect, by the Clerk of the State Court having jurisdiction in the case, and also by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district in which the claim is situated, will be required. 8. Possessory title to a lode claim held and worked 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, may, in the absence any adverse claim, be established in the same manner as now allowed in placer claims, and indicated generally in paragraphs 67, 68, and 69, of the circular hereby amended. of 9. No entry will be allowed until the Register has satisfied himself, by a careful examination, that proper proofs have been filed upon all the points indicated in official regulations in force, and that they show a sufficient bona fide compliance with the laws and such regulations. A strict observance of this regulation will be required. JULY 6, 1883. L. HARRISON, Acting Commissioner. H. M. TELLER, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Register and Receiver, Leadville, Colorado: Where consolidated, application filed prior to receipt by you of circular of July 6, entry may be allowed on filing satisfactory proof of five hundred dollars' improvements on each lode claim, the application being otherwise regular. Approved: L. HARRISON, Acting Commissioner. H. M. TELLER, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, GENTLEMEN: Inclosed find copy of telegraphic order this day approved by the honorable Secretary of the Interior. These instructions are intended to apply to all cases where an application for patent embracing more than one lode location had been filed prior to the receipt of circular "N" of this office, approved July 6, 1883. |