SEC. 2. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. SEC. 3. This act shall be in effect and force sixty days from and after its passage. LARCENY OF GOLD-DUST AND AMALGAM. An act supplementary to an act entitled "An act concerning crimes and punishments," passed April 16, 1850. [Approved March 20, 1872; 1871-2, 435.] SECTION 1. Every person who shall feloniously steal, take and carry away, or attempt to take, steal, and carry from any mining claim, tunnel, sluice, under-current, riffle, or sulphurate (sulphuret) machine any gold-dust, amalgam, or quickser. the property of another, shall be deemed guilty of grand larceny, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for any term of not less than one year nor more than fourteen years. SEC. 2. This act shall be in force from and after its passage. REGULATION OF HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT. An act regulating the hours of employment in underground mines, underground workings, whether for the purpose of tunneling, making excavations, or to accomplish any other purpose or design, or in smelting and reduction works. [Approved May 30, 1913.] The people of the state of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. That the period of employment for all persons who are employed or engaged in work in underground mines in search of minerals, whether base or precious, or who are engaged in such underground mines for other purposes, or who are employed or engaged in any other underground workings whether for the purpose of tunneling, making excavations or to accomplish any other purpose or design, or who are employed in smelters and other institutions for the reduction or refining of ores or metals, shall not exceed eight hours within any twenty-four hours, and the hours of employment in such employment or work day shall be consecutive, excluding, however, any intermission of time for lunch or meals; provided, that in case of emergency where life or property is in imminent danger, the period may be a longer time during the continuance of the exigency or emergency. SEC. 2. Any person who shall violate any provision of this act, and any person who as foreman, manager, director or officer of a corporation, or as the employer or superior officer of any person, shall command, persuade or allow any person to violate any provision of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than three hundred dollars ($300.00) or by imprisonment of not more than three months. And the court shall have discretion to impose both fine and imprisonment as herein provided. SEC. 3. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. PROVIDING FOR MINE EXITS. An act requiring compensation for causing death by wrongful act, neglect or default. [Approved April 26, 1862.] SECTION 1. It shall not be lawful for any corporation, association, owner or owners of any quartz mining claim within the state of California, where such corporation, association, owner or owners employ twelve men daily, to sink down into such mine or mines any perpendicular shaft or incline beyond a depth from the surface of three hundred feet without providing a second mode of egress from such mine, by shaft or tunnel, to connect with the main shaft at a depth of not less than one hundred feet from the surface. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of each corporation, association, owner or owners of any quartz mine or mines in this state, where it becomes necessary to work such mines beyond the depth of three hundred feet, and where the number of men employed therein daily shall be twelve or more, to proceed to sink another shaft or construct a tunnel so as to connect with the main working shaft of such mine as a mode of escape from underground accident or otherwise. And all corporations, associations, owner or owners of mines, as aforesaid, working at a greater depth than three hundred feet, not having any other mode of egress than from the main shaft, shall proceed as herein provided. SEC. 3. When any corporation, association, owner or owners of any quartz mine in this state shall fail to provide for the proper egress, as herein contemplated, and where any accident shall occur, or any miner working therein shall be hurt or injured, and from injury might have escaped if the second mode of egress had existed, such corporation, association, owner or owners of the mine where the injuries shall have occurred shall be liable to the person injured in all damages that may accrue by reason thereof; and an action at law in a court of competent jurisdiction may be maintained against the owner or owners of such mine, which owners shall be jointly or severally liable for such damages. And where death shall ensue from injuries received from any negligence on the part of the owners thereof, by reason of their failure to comply with any of the provisions of this act, the heirs or relatives surviving the deceased may commence an action for the recovery of such damages. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect and be in force six months from and after its passage. TELEPHONE SYSTEM IN MINES. An act providing for the establishment and maintenance of a telephone system in mines and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof. [Approved June 13, 1913.] The people of the state of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. In all mines operated and worked in this state where a depth of more than five hundred feet underground has been reached a telephone system must be established, equipped and maintained by the owners or lessees thereof with stations at each working level below the depth aforesaid, communicating with a station thereof on the surface of any such mine. SEC. 2. The failure or refusal of any owner or lessee to install or maintain such telephone system shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor and punished accordingly. FENCING ABANDONED SHAFTS. An act to provide for the covering or fencing of abandoned mining shafts, pits or excavations, the penalty, and also the penalty for removing or destroying the covering or fencing from the same. [Approved March 20, 1903.] The people of the state of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. All abandoned mining shafts, pits or abandoned excavations dangerous to passers-by or live stock shall be securely covered or fenced, and kept so, by the owners of the land or persons in charge of the same, on which such shafts, pits or other excavations are located. Any person or persons failing to comply with the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. SEC. 2. All abandoned mining shafts, pits or other excavations situated on unoccupied public lands may be securely covered or fenced by order of the board of supervisors of the county wherein the same is situated, and it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to keep the same securely fenced or covered whenever it appears to them, by proof submitted, that the same is dangerous or unsafe to man or beast. The cost of said covering or fencing to be a county charge. SEC. 3. Any person or persons maliciously removing or destroying any covering or fencing placed around or over any shaft, pit or other excavation, as hereinbefore provided, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect six months from the day of passage. CALIFORNIA MINE BELL SIGNALS. An act to establish a uniform system of mine bell signals, to be used in all the mines operated in the state of California, and for the protection of miners. [Approved March 8, 1893.] SECTION 1. Every person, company, corporation, or individual, operating any mine within the state of California-gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, or any other metal or substance-where it is necessary to use signals by means of bell or otherwise, for shafts, inclines, drifts, crosscuts, tunnels, and underground workings, shall, after the passage of this bill, adopt, use, and put in force the following system or code of mine bell signals, as follows: 1 bell, to hoist. (See Rule 2.) 1 bell, to stop if in motion. 2 bells, to lower. (See Rule 2.) 3 bells, man to be hoisted; run slow. (See Rule 2.) 4 bells, start pump if not running, or stop pump if running. 1-3 bells, start or stop air compressor. 5 bells, send down tools. (See Rule 4.) 6 bells, send down timbers. (See Rule 4.) 7 bells, accident; move bucket or cage by verbal orders only. 1-4 bells, foreman wanted. 2-1-1 bells, done hoisting until called. 2-1-2 bells, done hoisting for the day. 2-2-2 bells, change buckets from ore to water, or vice versa. 3-2-1 bells, ready to shoot in the shaft. (See Rule 3.) Engineer's signal, that he is ready to hoist, is to raise the bucket or cage two feet and lower it again. (See Rule 3.) Levels shall be designated and inserted in notice hereinafter mentioned. Rule 5.) (See SEC. 2. For the purpose of enforcing and properly understanding the above code of signals, the following rules are hereby established: Rule 1-In giving signals make strokes on bell at regular intervals. The bar (—) must take the same time as for one stroke of the bell, and no more. If timber, tools, the foreman, bucket or cage are wanted to stop at any level in the mine, signal by number of strokes on the bell, number of the level first before giving the signal for timber, tools, etc. Time between signals to be double bars (--). Example: 6-5 would mean stop at sixth level with tools. 4 2 -1—1—1——1, would mean to stop at fourth level, man on, hoist. Rule 2-No person must get off or on the bucket or cage, while the same is in motion. When men are to be hoisted give the signal for men. Men must then get on bucket or cage, then give the signal to hoist. Bell cord must be in reach of man on the bucket or cage at stations. Rule 3-After signal "Ready to shoot in shaft," engineer must give his signal when he is ready to hoist. Miners must then give the signal of "Men to be hoisted," then "spit fuse," get into the bucket, and give the signal to hoist. Rule 4-All timbers, tools, etc., "longer than the depth of the bucket," to be hoisted or lowered, must be securely lashed at the upper end to the cable. Miners must know they will ride up or down the shaft without catching on rocks or timbers and be thrown out. Rule 5-The foreman will see that one printed sheet of these signals and rules for each level and one for the engine-room are attached to a board not less than twelve inches wide by thirty-six inches long, and securely fasten the board up where signals can be easily read at the places above stated. Rule 6-The above signals and rules must be obeyed. Any violation will be sufficient grounds for discharging the party or parties so doing. No person, company, corporation, or individual operating any mine within the state of California, shall be responsible for accidents that may happen to men disobeying the above rules and signals. Said notice and rules shall be signed by the person or superintendent having charge of the mine, who shall designate the name of the corporation or the owner of the mine. SEC. 3. Any person or company failing to carry out any of the provisions of this act shall be responsible for all damages arising to or incurred by any person working in said mine during the time of such failure. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect immediately. FEDERAL STATUTES. Title XXXII, Chapter 6, Revised Statutes. SEC. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States. both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such, under regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States. Lode Claims. SEC. 2320. Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, heretofore located, shall be governed as to length along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force at the date of their location. A mining claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, whether located by one or more persons, may equal, but shall not exceed, one thousand five hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall extend more than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to less than twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, render such limitation necessary. The end lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other. Citizenship. SEC. 2321. Proof of citizenship, under this chapter, may consist in the case of an individual, of his own affidavit thereof; in the case of an association of persons unincorporated, of the affidavit of their authorized agent, made on his own knowledge, or upon information and belief; and in the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any state or territory thereof, by the filing of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation. This is supplemented by an act of April 26, 1882, which provides: "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 territory." (22 Stats. at Large, p. 49, chap. 106.) Extra-lateral Rights. SEC. 2322. The locators of all mining locations heretofore made or which shall hereafter be made, on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge, situated on the public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no adverse claims exist on the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and with state, territorial and local regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States governing their possessory title, shall have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes and ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies inside of such surface lines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of such surface locations. But their right of possession to such outside parts of such veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as above |