lots as can be seen in the case of the lots made in sections 9 and 16 of the diagram, by the issuing of patent to the group of mining claims indicated.

Fig. 2. DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING DIVISION INTO SECTIONS AND SUBDIVISIONS, ALSO METHOD OF MARKING CORNERS

Though the Government does not subdivide sections, it issues the following instructions for such procedure: First, determine the boundaries of the section by the established corners, then divide into quarter-sections by running intersecting lines from the opposite quarter-section corners. To still further reduce by dividing the quarter-sections into quarter-quarters (40-acre subdivisions), locate quarter-quarter corners at points midway

between the section and quarter-section corners, likewise between the quarter-section corners and the centre of the section as determined in dividing into quarter sections. Then run intersecting lines from these quarter-quarter corners. In subdividing the quarter-sections on the last half mile of the lines closing on the north or west boundaries of the township, where the errors in measurement are thrown, the inside rows of quarter-quarters are made exact by measuring 20 chains along the section lines from the quarter-section corners, the outside rows of quarterquarters becoming lots of various areas.

The nomenclature of the subdivision of a section is simple. In the diagram (Fig. 2) the tract indicated by G is the southeast quarter of section 23, abbreviated the SE. 4 sec. 23; E is the west half of the southwest quarter, abbreviated the W. 1⁄2 SW. 4 sec. 23; the quarter-quarter D is the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter, abbreviated the NW. 4 NW. 4 sec. 23; F is the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, abbreviated the SE. 4 NE. 4 sec. 23. A 10-acre placer claim conforming to legal subdivisions and situated in the extreme northwest corner of G would be the NW. 4 NW. 4 SE. 4. sec. 23.

After completing the survey, the surveyor will file a copy of his field notes with the surveyor-general, who binds them in a book open for inspection by all upon application. The surveyor also files a map of the township, which is open for inspection and tracing. These maps are made by entering on the plat the topography of the section lines as found in the field notes of the surveyor and connecting these according to the sketches in the surveyor's field book. The fact that the interiors of the sections are only sketched in, and consequently creeks, roads, etc., are often wrongly connected or misplaced in the interior of a section, should be remembered when trying to fit the known topography of a section to the map of the same. The topography of the section lines should be accurate, and generally is.

After the notes and plat have been filed with the surveyorgeneral, the Government sends an examiner who inspects the survey, measuring a number of the lines and endeavoring to determine if the survey has been properly made, marked, and

returned. In case errors are found, the surveyor is required to return and correct his work; this frequently happens. The errors and omissions of the surveyor may consist in initiating his surveys from wrong corners, in putting up poor corners, in failing to mark his line, or in willfully neglecting to run lines or set corners in a difficult part of the country where it is expected that the examiner will not go. Errors in measurement and alignment are sometimes found, though these should not occur, since by the method of surveying there is a constant check on the work. At first, previous to the 'eighties', examinations of surveys were not made, but so many irregularities resulted, willful and otherwise, that all are now inspected. Gross irregularities are often found after a survey has been accepted, such as a corner being a quarter of a mile from its proper point, but after a survey has been accepted the corners hold and cannot be changed.

All lines do not run due north and south or east and west, or the prescribed theoretical distance. Many of them vary in small amounts, and occasionally some vary greatly for a short distance. This is only done when necessary to close surveys, and is fully shown in the notes and plats.

With the passing of time the corners or monuments disappear. Men may intentionally or unintentionally remove them; cattle may tear them down; the elements and the various forces that change the surface of the earth may obliterate them. Anyone who has observed the condition of patented claim-stakes on a steep hillside subject to much snow can understand how these corners disappear. Corners that have disappeared may be restored by running lines from existing corners in the vicinity, or a re-survey of a township or locality may be ordered to be made, starting from known corners and following the notes of the old survey.

CHAPTER III

Where Locations May Be Made

R. S., SECTION 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.

Only public domain is open to mineral location, and there are parts even of it that are not open to location, though it is not necessarily true that only unoccupied unclaimed public land can be located as mining claims. It is the policy of the Government that the public land shall be put to its most useful purpose, and in accordance with this policy, the Land Department will receive a protest, and, under proper conditions and satisfactory representations, will undertake to determine for what purpose the land is most valuable, and will render judgment accordingly, up to the time the land leaves its jurisdiction by the issuing of patent, or until by some specific act of congressional or presidential legislation, the land is removed from its jurisdiction. However, the Land Department will not undertake any determination of the rights of rival claimants under different classes of possession or entry, until patent is asked for the land in question, except in flagrant cases of the land being occupied in bad faith to the detriment of good public policy and the exclusion of bona fide locators and entrymen.

Land to which patent has been obtained, or which has been approved or certified to the applicant by the Government

which is the same as passing title-cannot be entered upon for location, except the patent be broken. The Government will not undertake to break a patent of any kind, except on the clearest and strongest proof of fraud or serious error of law, proceedings to be initiated within six years of issuing patent as prescribed by the Statute of Limitations, "that suits to vacate and annul any patent * * hereafter issued, shall be brought within six years after date of issuing such patent." Innocent purchasers will generally, if not always, be protected, though the Government may institute suit against the original and defrauding owner or claimant for the value of the land.

No location can be made upon an Indian reservation unless allowed by a specific Act of Congress, but a location existing at the time the reservation was created and closed to further locations, has been upheld by the Land Department as being a part of the public domain excluded from the reservation, and, as such, susceptible of being relocated, should the original locator abandon it.

Military reservations and national parks come under the same head as Indian reservations, and the same principles may be said to govern.

Locations can be made within Forest Reserves, or the National Forests, with the same freedom that any public land lawfully can be entered upon for that purpose.

Lands withdrawn for power-sites, reservoirs, etc., were formerly invariably closed to location, especially where locations might interfere with the purposes of the withdrawal. Though the Land Department said that a location made prior to the withdrawal would be upheld, if "a valid one, that is, founded on actual discovery by the locator of a valuable deposit of mineral within the limits of the claim, and maintained in accordance with the mining laws and regulations applicable", it also said that the withdrawal of land for irrigation or reclamation projects did not withdraw it from mineral location. In general, it was considered that the miner making a location on a withdrawn area was entitled to a preferred right to make a valid location upon the removal of the withdrawal, if no greater right. Locations have been made on this principle upon Indian