such as to enable one to say with positiveness where the apex should be on the surface, the location should be laid out úpon the surface with the location stake equidistant from the side lines and upon the presumed apex over the discovery below. The intersection of the vein and tunnel must be within the claim. No surface work or surface discovery is required. The claimant can now proceed to patent upon the work done in the tunnel. If the claim cannot be laid out upon the surface, due to the vague whereabouts of the apex, the vein should be located by placing a location notice describing it, at the mouth of the tunnel, and recording the same. If the claim is not laid out on the surface, it is of course impossible to patent the vein. Annual labor will be required in both cases, unless patented, and may be done through the tunnel. It is sometimes possible in the case of a long tunnel run for the development of a distant group of claims, to locate the tunnel as a tunnel site, and apply the work therein as annual labor and patent work upon any blind lodes cut and the located claims ahead. R. S., Sec. 2325: A patent for any land claimed and located for valuable deposits, may be obtained in the following manner: any person, association, or corporation authorized to locate a claim under this chapter, having claimed and located a piece of land for such purposes, who has, or have, complied with the terms of this chapter, may file in the proper land office an application for a patent, under oath, showing such compliance, together with a plat and field notes of the claim or claims in common, made by or under the direction of the United States surveyor-general, showing accurately the boundaries of the claim or claims, which shall be distinctly marked by monuments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, together with a notice of such application for a patent, in a conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat previous to the filing of the application for a patent, and shall file an affidavit of at least two persons that such notice has been duly posted, and shall file a copy of the notice in such land office, and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent for the land, in the manner following: the register of the land office, upon the filing of such application, plat, field notes, notices, and affidavits, shall publish a notice that such application has been made, for the period of sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him designated as published nearest to such claim; and he shall also post such notice in his office for the same period. The claimant at the time of filing this application, or at any time thereafter, within the sixty days of publication, shall file with the register a certificate of the United States surveyor-general that $500 worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by himself or grantors; that the plat is correct, with such further description by such reference to natural objects or permanent monuments as shall identify the claim, and furnish an accurate description to be incorporated in the patent. At the expiration of the sixty days of publication the claimant shall file his affidavit, show ing that the plat and notice have been posted in a con- The steps by which the miner develops or constructs his title or ownership to a lode or placer claim, are by initiating a possessory right by making a discovery, completing it by the acts of location and record, maintaining it from year to year by annual labor; and perfecting it to the fee-simple or absolute title after placing $500 worth of improvements upon it, by obtaining patent for it from the General Land Office at Washington, through entry and purchase at the local land office. Much has been said and written about the strength and dignity of the possessory right acquired by location. The exaltation accorded the possessory right comes from its being the first guardian of mining rights, the swaddling clothes of a great industry, rather than from any inwrought strength to protect the miner's acquisition. It was a wise provision of the law that made location of a claim easy. Had the miner or prospector been required to go forth fully panoplied as a surveyor and attorney, perhaps as a mineralogist and geologist also, with forms and legal details and red tape to comply with, the result would have been a woeful decrease in the locations made, the holes dug, and the mines found. But what comes easily, too often goes easily. Likewise, the possessory right acquired so easily, is lost too easily. The lode that looks good and arouses interest sufficiently to acquire it by possessory right today, will perhaps develop tomorrow into something considered worthy of holding permanently. The locator should then change his easily obtained, easily lost title to the strong and secure one of patent. It has passed into an axiom that to de velop a mine on unpatented ground is to develop a lawsuit. Parties engaged in acquiring and developing mineral ground seldom examine unpatented claims, unless they contain an extraordinary showing. The statement is often made that the possessory right should be made safer and more conclusive by changes in the law and location methods, but no feasible methods have been suggested. One of the suggested methods is to require that the location be entered in the local land office and platted in the tract books, no other entry to be allowed upon the land until the existing one is canceled through failure to file proof of annual labor. This would require a careful survey, and would defeat the idea of making location easy, with its attendant good results. The possessory right of location is good and cannot be dispensed with, but there is a point where its advisability is passed, and the wise miner who has ground which he values, will patent it at the earliest convenient and possible opportunity. Between the two extremes of possessory right and patent, both so necessary, there appears no practical intermediate. The best method to follow, if conditions or means do not warrant doing more than the annual labor each year, is to perform the work in a common improvement or system of improvement, and as soon as $500 worth of work has been done, patent the most valuable claim of the group, and as each additional $500 expenditure is made, patent an additional claim. Such proceedings are now permitted under most conditions. The miner may take steps toward securing patent as soon as he has made a valid location according to the Federal Statutes. He may apply for an official patent survey on the same day the location is made, and proceed as speedily toward patent as under any other conditions, since the $500 worth of improvements may be made at any time before the expiration of the sixty-day period of publication of notice of application for patent. Again, the miner may delay applying for patent as long as he wishes, or need never ask for it, but continue to hold his claim by location or possessory right. The obtaining of patent to a mining claim requires careful compliance with many details and is a somewhat lengthy procedure. To the layman, the various details and the extent to which it is insisted that they be complied with, seem uncalledfor technicalities and red tape. But the man in contact with them, in office and field, sees their wisdom and necessity. Were it not for the painstaking work of the surveyors-general and the Land Office, there would be, from the conditions prevailing in mining, loopholes for endless litigation, and to a still greater extent would the rights of miners and the general good be trespassed upon in a way that could hardly be reached through litigation. Proceedings to obtain patent may be divided into three stages: (1) The official patent survey; (2) making application for patent and informing the world thereof, that they may take steps to protect any asserted rights; (3) entering the land, paying the purchase price, and receiving patent, after the Land Office has determined applicant's right to purchase the land. Essentially, obtaining patent to a mining claim is simply obtaining title to the land from the United States, just as title to a piece of agricultural or timber land would be obtained. A claim held by possessory right requires annual labor each year. It is exposed to being located over in whole or part at any time, and during a long absence of the claimant is liable to be patented by others, unless he is continually on the outlook. Even the lines of his location may be changed by confining his ground to 300 ft. on each side of the exposed lode. If the showing of mineral be poor, it may be contested and perhaps defeated by an agricultural or other entry. It must be on the guard against patent application of conflicting locations, and adverse them. A claim held by patent belongs to the owner without any conditions, except those attached by the law of extralateral right, known lodes in placers, or tunnel-site locations. All questions of adverse ownership of the ground or of defects in the location or possessory right, are estopped by the issuing of patent and cannot thereafter be raised. Except the patented claim be sold for unpaid taxes or seized for debt, the owner cannot be divested of it, however much he may neglect it, unless he has acquired it by fraud or error in the law. If acquired by fraud which can be clearly and convincingly shown, the patent may be broken or cancelled by suit brought for the |