CASES ON MINING CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS. Section 1.-Lodes or Veins and their Apexes. FEDERAL 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. 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. * * * 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 claim exists 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 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 described, through the end lines of their locations, so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins or ledges. And nothing in this section shall authorize the locator or possessor of a vein or lode which extends in its downward course beyond the vertical lines of his claim to enter upon the surface of a claim owned or possessed by another. Rev. St. U. S. §§ 2319, 2320, 2322. 1-MINING LAW I EUREKA CONSOL. MIN. CO v. RICHMOND MIN. CO. 1877. CIRCUIT COURT, D. NEVADA. 4 Sawy. (U. S.) 302, 9 Morr. Min. Rep. 578. THE accompanying diagram represents the surface location of the Champion, At Last, Margaret or Lupita, Nugget, Savage, Buckeye, Mammoth, Sentinel and Elliptic mining claims of the Eureka Company, plaintiff, and of the Richmond, Lookout and Tip-top claims of the Richmond Company, defendant; the Lawton or Eureka shaft, and the ninth level therefrom connecting with ore body D E; the Richmond shaft and levels therefrom, and the Potts chamber from which ore has been taken through the Richmond fifth level; the line R W X, described in the agreement, and this line extended to C. The dotted line represents the surface line of contact between the quartzite and limestone. South of this line is a belt of quartzite, and north of it a belt of metamorphosed limestone, and north of this limestone is a belt of shale. The ore bodies are found in the metamorphosed limestone between the quartzite and shale. This belt of limestone bounded by the quartzite and shale extends nearly east and west over one mile, and varies in width from five to eight hundred feet on the surface to from two to four hundred feet at the greatest depth of working, which is about nine hundred feet. The Potts chamber is about five hundred feet below the surface. The quartzite and limestone dip to the northward at an angle of about 45° from the horizon. In 1873, the Eureka Company, owned the Lookout claim, and the Richmond Company found on the surface in the Richmond claim, and followed down on its dip to the northward under the Lookout surface a large body of ore. The Eureka Company claiming the ore under the Lookout surface, thereupon sued the Richmond Company to determine the title thereto, and in settlement of that litigation an agreement in writing was made on the sixteenth day of June, A. D. 1873, between the plaintiff, the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company, of the first part, and the defendant, the Richmond Mining Company of Nevada, party of the second part, which provided: "Whereas, differences have arisen, and now exist, between the parties hereto in respect to the ownership and right of possession of certain mining ground, known as the Lookout ground or claim. * ** and of the ores, metals and deposits found in and under said ground; and whereas an action is, or certain actions are, now pending in the courts of the state of Nevada, wherein the party hereto of the first part is plaintiff, and the party hereto of the second part and others are defendants, for the recovery * * * of the possession of the ground and of the ores therein contained, etc.; and whereas, the said parties have agreed to settle all the differences between them, and put an end to the litigation now pending as aforesaid; "Now, therefore, this agreement witnesseth, that the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of $85,000 * * and the further covenants, agreements, and conditions hereinafter contained * * * has agreed, and does hereby agree, to convey to the said party of the second part, its successors and assigns, with warranty against its own acts, all that certain lot, piece or parcel of land or mining ground known as the Lookout ground or claim; and also all the mining ground and claim lying on the north-westerly side of a certain line, commencing at the north * * * |