tion for a patent for a certain tract of mineral land in township 22, south of range 3 east, in Doña Aña County, New Mexico, the said tract being claimed by these applicants, under the name of the "San Augustin Mine. The examination has, among other things, disclosed the fact, that a survey of this claim was executed in the month of July, 1870, and that said survey was approved by the Surveyor-general of New Mexico, on the twenty-third of that month, but that prior to the latter date, viz: on the eighteenth day of July, 1870, S. B. Elkins, attorney for the "Stephenson Silver Mining Company," filed an adverse claim to the premises. You will see by the sixth section of the mining act of July, 26, 1866, that where an adverse claimant appears before the approval of the survey, etc., "all proceedings shall be stayed until final settlement and adjudication in the courts of competent jurisdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue, as in other cases." The action of the Register and Receiver, therefore, in permitting the entry of the claim to be made, as they did on the thirtieth July, 1870, was both premature and irregular, and you are hereby directed to notify all the parties in interest, that the present application for patent is suspended, and that thirty days from the date of your notice to them will be allowed the opposing claimants, viz: the Stephenson Silver Mining Company, in which to institute proceedings in the proper local district court, to effect an adjustment of their rights in the premises. But even if there had been no opposition to the claim, it is not perceived how a patent could issue to the company for the number of feet applied for, to wit: 3000 feet along. the course of the lode, for the following reasons, viz: On the 18th of January, 1855, the legislature of the Territory of New Mexico passed "an act concerning mining claims," which, among other things, provides as follows: "That every discoverer of a lode, ledge or vein of goldbearing quartz, or of a lode, crevice or deposit of silver, cinnabar, copper, lead, coal, or any other ore, or the same mixed with other metals or ores; shall have the privilege of locating and holding as against all persons and powers, except the United States, six hundred feet of the length of such lode, ledge, vein, deposit or crevice," etc. The act provides also, that other persons may each locate three hundred feet of the length of such lode, ledge, vein, deposit, or crevice, etc., and after specifying the manner in which such locations are to be perfected and recorded, prescribes the policy to be observed with regard to abandoned mines, or those "upon which mining has not been prosecuted regularly for a period of ten years or more." 3 Such mines are declared by the seventh section of the act, "vacant and abandoned," and liable to the operation of this act, as fully in all respects, as if they had never been occupied or denounced, and he, or they, who shall re-occupy such vacant and abandoned mines, shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of original discoverers, as provided in this act. Companies of two, or more persons, incorporated, or otherwise, shall have the same rights and privileges under this act, as single or natural persons, and locate and hold, in manner aforesaid, one mining claim of three hundred feet for each member of the company, and one discovery claim; provided, no company shall locate more than four claims, including one discovery claim, or one thousand five hundred feet in all, upon any one vein or mine. Provided further; a company may acquire by purchase but four mining claims, and this under the same conditions that bound the vendors." From this it will be seen, that while the territorial law. regulating mining claims in New Mexico fixes the maximum of a company location at 1500 feet, being only half the maximum prescribed by the Congressional enactment, it fixes the extent of individual locations at 300 feet, or 100 feet in excess of the Congressional limit. In dealing therefore with claims in New Mexico, located between the dates of January 18th, 1865, and July 26, 1866, the said territorial law will be recognized in all respects, but with regard to locations made subsequent to July 26, 1866, it is ruled: 1st. That no individual location can exceed 200 linear feet along the course of the vein or lode, except in the case of the discoverer who is entitled to an additional claim of 200 feet. 2nd. That no company location can exceed 1500 linear feet along the course of the vein or lode, and such location cannot in any case be made at a rate exceeding 200 feet to each member of the company, (except one of them is the discoverer, to whom 200 feet additional are allowed) and to allow a company to locate (since the passage of said act of Congress) such quantity as would exceed 200 feet to each member, other than the discoverer, would be illegal and void. This restriction to 1500 feet is applicable only to company locations, and is not held to affect their right to purchase the possessory titles to as many adjoining claims upon the same lode, as may be authorized by said territorial law, which limits such right to purchase to four claims, and as a "claim," since the date of the passage of said act of Congress, cannot exceed 200 linear feet of a vein or loo e, a company having made an original location of 1500 feet, as above specified cannot by purchase obtain a right to more than 800 additional feet on the same lode, or 2300 feet in the aggregate, being 1500 feet by virtue of location and discovery, and 800 feet by purchase of adjoining locators. In regard to locations made prior to the passage of the territorial law aforesaid, the land officers will require proof that the claim is in accordance with the local customs or regulations of the miners of the district in which such claim is situated. In the case under consideration, a copy of the laws and regulations, adopted October 10th, 1869, by the miners of "Organ Mountain Mining District" is introduced as a part of the evidence, but as they are not shown to have had any authority to enact regulations, not in accordance with the existing law of the territory, they can receive no consideration by this office. In acting upon claims hereafter, you will be governed by this decision and by the circular instructions herewith, dated August 8, 1870. The papers in the case of the San Augustin Mining Company's application will be returned, if desired by the claimants. You will notify all the parties in interest of this decision, and acknowledge the receipt of this letter, referring to the same as N by its date. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant. Jos. S. WILSON, Commissioner. Several Non-contiguous Tracts may be embraced in One DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, November 19, 1870. Hon. A. A. SARGENT, House of Representatives, Washington: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, inclosing one herewith returned from S. B. McFarland, Esq., dated at Sacramento, Cal., the eleventh instant, and with reference to the subject of inquiry, I have to state that where several placer claims have been surveyed by the United States for an individual or company holding the possessory right thereto, under the local laws, there is nothing to prevent the patenting of the several tracts or parcels of mineral ground thus surveyed as a single entry, and the local land officers will be instructed accordingly. With regard to the matter of newspaper publication in such cases, one notice may include a description of all the tracts or parcels desired to be entered by an individual or company holding the same, as aforesaid. But such notice must give a sufficiently accurate description of each parcel or tract applied for, as will enable other parties in the neighborhood to tell readily what mineral grounds are sought to be patented. In these cases, it is not deemed proper to make any departure from our regulations, requiring diagram and notice to be posted on the claim for ninety days, as required by law, it being considered essential that a diagram of each parcel, together with a copy of the notice of intention to apply for a patent therefor, should be posted thereon for ninety days. The notice, to be posted for a like period in the Register's office, may consist of a copy of that published in the newspaper, as aforesaid. The foregoing, it is not intended, should be understood as authorizing the joint entry of parcels or claims situated at wide distances from each other in different land or mining districts, but simply to enable individuals or companies holding several placer claims in the same neighborhood, though not contiguous, to effect their entries, and have their rights adjudicated with as little expense as possible. Very respectfully, Jos. S. WILSON, Commissioner. Public Lands containing Minerals cannot be Leased. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, December 8, 1870. E. J. MAPES, Esq., Marquette, Mich.: SIR: In response to the subject of your inquiry, in letter of the twenty-ninth ult., I have to state that there is no authority of law under which public lands may be leased by. the government for mining purposes. Very respectfully, etc., Jos. S. WILSON, Commissioner. Application of Reed and Sanders. Adverse Claim Rejected because not Filed before the Surveyor-general's Approval of Survey. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1871. SIR: I have received your letter (N) of the ninth day of December last, transmitting the papers in the case of the application of Clinton Reed and Stephen Sanders for a patent, under the mining statute of July 26, 1866, for one hundred (100) linear feet, being claim No. 6 in the Seaton lode, in Idaho Mining District, Clear Creek County, Colorado Territory. It appears that said Reed and Sanders fully complied with all the terms and conditions prescribed by the second and third sections of that act, and that the Register of the Land Office published a notice of their intention to apply for a patent, in a newspaper published nearest the location of said claim, and also posted said notice in his office for a period of ninety days. At the expiration of that period no adverse claim had been filed, and the Surveyor-general, upon their application, surveyed the premises and made a plat, and indorsed it with his approval on the tenth day of September last, designating the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed. Payment to the proper officer of five dollars ($5) per acre having been made, together with the cost of survey, plat and notice, and satisfactory evidence having been given that the diagram and notice had been posted on the claim during the said period of ninety days, and no adverse claimant appearing before the approval of the survey, the Register transmitted to your office the plat, survey and description. The parties having strictly complied with the requirements of the law, it became the duty of the General Land Office, if no exceptional circumstances occurred, to issue a patent for the claim. It appears, however, that the papers were received from the local office on the twentyeighth day of September, but that the issue of the patent was suspended by reason of a telegram received on the thirteenth of October from one Amasa A. Potter, requesting you to retain the patent and stating that letters of administration and the adverse claim of a deceased soldier would be sent by mail. The affidavit, received on the twenty-sixth of October, states that said Potter is the administrator of Prescott Russell, who was killed in April, 1864, while fighting bushwhackers in Missouri, in the second regiment of Colorado cavalry; that on the second day of the following September, Ambrose, only brother and next in kin of said Prescott, gave affiant power of attorney to sell the property of said Prescott; that in the year 1865 said Ambrose died intestate, leaving no heirs at law other than Daniel W. Moses, B. and Judah Russell, residing in Marion, Wayne county, New York; that he is familiar with the mining claim known as No. 6, east of the Seaton lode, for which said Reed and Sanders commenced an application for a patent on the ninth of May, 1870; that at the time the application was made he had been duly appointed administrator of the estate of said Prescott, and that he had left Colorado to visit said heirs to consult with them in relation 1 |