Lode-What Constitutes.

Tilted beds of sedimentary strata containing ore would by the geologist be called beds and not lodes; but the intent of the United States mining statutes is not to make distinctions based upon genetic principles. What the geologist might call beds of ore the courts may find to be lodes within the meaning of the United States mining statutes authorizing the location of mining claims upon the public domain. (Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 865.)

APEX OF VEIN.

Terminal Edge of Vein.

An apex is the top or terminal edge of a vein on the surface, or the nearest point to the surface, and must be the top of the vein proper, rather than of a spur, and must be a point from which the vein has a dip as well as a strike.

(Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 865.)

DISCOVERY.

No Rights Acquired Without Discovery.

A person who enters upon the public domain and locates land for its mineral contents, as oil lands, though he may erect appropriate monuments and post and properly file location notices, if he makes no discovery of minerals or oil, he acquires no right of any nature against the Government or any private individual, save the right to proceed with diligence to effect an actual discovery of minerals, gas or oil. (United States vs. McCutcheon, 238 Fed., 575, p. 579.)

Status in Absence of Discovery.

The status of a locator of a mining claim in the absence of a discovery is in the nature of a tenant at sufferance.

(United States vs. McCutcheon, 238 Fed. 575, p. 580.)

MARKING BOUNDARIES.

Compliance with Statute.

As against a subsequent locator who has actual knowledge of the existence of a mining claim and who had assisted in performing the assessment work for the year previous to his attempted relocation, it is sufficient that the original location was distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries could be readily traced. (Gold Creek Antimony Mines & Smelter Co. vs. Perry (Washington), 162 Pacific, 996, p. 999.)

Marking Boundaries Upon the Ground.

The United States mining statutes (R. S. 2324) require a location to be distinctly marked upon the ground, with the name of the locator, the date of location and such references to natural objects or permanent monuments as will identify the claim. These provisions are supplemented by the statute of Washington (Remington Code, Sec. 7379). The purpose of the United States statute and of the State statute is to give notice to prospectors who are looking for mineral locations of what has been already appropriated in order that they may govern themselves accordingly. It is also the purpose to prevent fraud by swinging or floating. In accomplishing these purposes, courts are inclined to be liberal with persons making mining locations, and are not inclined to defeat a claim of a locator who has in good faith attempted to comply with the requirements of the law by technical criticism of the act relied upon to constitute a valid location.

(Gold Creek Antimony Mines & Smelter Co. vs. Perry (Washington), 162 Pacific, 996, p. 997.)

DESCRIPTION.

Survey-Monuments Control Distance.

Where mining claims were actually surveyed out on the ground and the four corners established and if in the application of descriptions in the patent to the claims as surveyed, a latent ambiguity arises in that a distance called for conflicted with the corners as established for the mining claims, then the mining claim's corners as fixed control the call for distance as given in the patent and distance called must yield to the established corners of the claims.

(Plummer vs. McLain (Texas Civil App.), 192 Southwestern, 571, p. 575.)

ASSESSMENT WORK.

Time of Performance-Resuming Work.

The United States mining statutes (sec. 2324) require that all locators of mining claims perform $100 worth of work during each year to entitle them to hold the claim as against a relocator. After the year in which a location is made the entire assessment work must be performed during each year and must be completed within each calendar year, or a third person may enter and relocate the claim, unless the locator has resumed work after his failure to complete the same before a relocation is made. If a locator or owner has begun the assessment work before the expiration of any given year and is carrying on to completion such work the claim is not subject to relocation, although the locator or owner is not on a particular day upon the claim at work.

(Plough vs. Nelson (Utah), 161 Pacific, 1134.)

Proof of Failure to Perform Assessment Work.

A person who has been acquainted with a mining location for years, familiar with its workings, and who assisted in doing the assessment work for the previous year, must make a strong case of failure of the prior locator to perform the annual assessment work before he can be heard to say the ground was vacant and unoccupied and subject to relocation by him.

(Gold Creek Antimony Mines & Smelter Co. vs. Perry (Washington), 162 Pacific, 996, p. 997.)

EXTRALATERAL RIGHTS.

Termination of Vein.

The fact that a vein terminates against a granite or monzonite at one end does not affect the extralateral rights given by the provisions of section 2322 of the United States Revised Statutes. Where a vein so terminates the locator would be entitled to have the end line pass through such point of termination parallel with the vertical plane of the other end line, thus giving him the extralateral right of the pursuit of the vein between the planes bounded by these end lines beneath all other mining claims under which it dips.

(Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 865.)

Bases-Right to Follow Vein.

The provisions of section 2322, United States Revised Statutes, is determined by the apex on the surface upon which the prospector makes his location and the dip of the vein, and not upon the levels in the depth of the earth opened and disclosed in the working of the mine.

(Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 866.)

Course of Vein.

The course of a vein is not determined by its direction at any single given point where the vein is a crooked one. A locator's extralateral rights must be determined by the course of the vein at its apex at the surface of the claim. The most practical rule is to regard the course of the vein as that which is indicated by the surface outcropping or surface exploration and workings. The lower levels of a mine frequently show a different direction of the vein from that which guided the miner in making his location and are at variance with conditions shown in openings nearest to the surface.

(Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 866.)

Expert and Positive Testimony.

The positive testimony of miners who mined the ore and developed the mine and the engineers and others who made actual surveys of the mine involved in a controversy as to extralateral rights must be taken for more than the speculative theories of experts on the geology and formation of ore bodies and the mineralization of veins. Physical facts should be given greater weight than mere expert opinion and speculative theories.

(Alameda Mining Co. vs. Success Mining Co. (Idaho), 161 Pacific, 862, p. 868.)

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 525 Market Street, San Francisco. Union League Building, Los Angeles.

MINE SAFETY RULES.

Effective January 1, 1916.

Sections 51 to 72, inclusive, of the Workmen's Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act give the Industrial Accident Commission power to make and enforce safety orders, rules and regulations, to prescribe safety devices, to fix safety standards, and to order the reporting of accidents.

The phrase "place of employment" is defined in such a way that mining operations are included within the provisions of the act. It is stated that the terms "safe" and "safety" as applied to an employment or a place of employment shall mean such freedom from danger to the life or safety of employees as the nature of the employment will reasonably permit, and that the terms "safety device" and "safeguard" shall be given a broad interpretation so as to include any practicable method of mitigating or preventing a specific danger.

The commission has power, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon complaint, by general or special orders, rules or regulations, or otherwise, "to fix such reasonable standards and to prescribe, modify, and enforce such reasonable orders for the adoption, installation, use, maintenance and operation of safety devices, safeguards and other means or methods of protection, to be as nearly uniform as possible, as may be necessary to carry out all laws and lawful orders relative to the protection of the life and safety of employees in employments and places of employment."

In order to secure reasonable mine safety rules, which the Industrial Accident Commission has authority to make and enforce, a committee of three mine operators and three practical miners was appointed to meet with the mining engineer of the commission to formulate the proposed rules. The mine employees were unable to attend the meetings of the committee so that most of the work was done by the three operators appointed from the California Metal Producers' Association, and by the mining engineer of the commission. The employees made suggestions by mail.

The committee held a number of meetings and drafted Tentative Mine Safety Rules which were printed and distributed throughout the state, to those interested in mining. A public hearing was held June 11, 12 and 14, 1915, at which time the proposed Mine

Safety Rules were discussed in detail and a number of sections referred back to the committee to be redrafted. The committee met July 20 and 21, 1915, redrafted the sections that had been referred back to it, and a circular containing the redrafted sections was sent out to those interested.

A second public hearing was called for September 25, 1915, at which time it was agreed that, after listening to the additional discussion of the rules, the committee would prepare its final draft of the rules to present to the commission. This was done at a meeting held on October 13, 1915. At a meeting of the Industrial Accident Commission, the Mine Safety Rules were adopted and made permanent, to become effective on January 1, 1916.

In putting these rules into effect the Industrial Accident Commission desires to have the hearty cooperation of miners, operators, and others interested in making the mining industry less hazardous. It also desires to express its appreciation and thanks for the interest and cooperation of those who have assisted in the formulation of the rules. It is the earnest desire to have rules that are practical, workable, and fair, and to secure the enforcement thereof by means of cooperation.

The Industrial Accident Commission wishes to acknowledge the excellent cooperation of the California Metal Producers' Association, and to express its thanks for the assistance given in the preparation of the Mine Safety Rules. The commission also desires to express its appreciation and thanks to the individual members of the committee for their valuable services in preparing the rules.

NOTE-For printed copies of these rules address the commission at either its San Francisco or Los Angeles Office.

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS TEMPORARILY RELIEVED FROM NECESSITY OF PERFORMING ASSESSMENT WORK ON MINING CLAIMS.

This step was taken by Congress and approved by the President, as a war measure, the text of the resolution reading as follows:

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of section twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which require that on each mining claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and until patent has been issued therefor, not less than $100 worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year, shall not apply to claims or parts of claims owned by officers or enlisted men who have been or may, during the present war with Germany, be mustered into the military or naval service of the United States to serve during their enlistment in the war with Germany, so that no mining claim or any part thereof owned by such person which has been regularly located and recorded shall be subject to forfeiture for nonperformance of the annual assessments during the period of his service or until six months after such owner is mustered out of the service or until six months after his death in the service; Provided, that the claimant of any mining location, in order to obtain the benefits of this resolution, shall file, or cause to be filed, a notice in the office where the location notice or certificate is recorded, before the expiration of the assessment year during which he is so mustered, giving notice of his muster into the service of the United States and of his desire to hold said mining claim under this resolutionApproved, July 17, 1917."

ASSESSMENT WORK SUSPENDED DURING 1917 AND 1918 ON ALL MINING CLAIMS, EXCEPT OIL PLACER LOCATIONS.

(Public Resolution No. 12, 65th Congress.)

(S. J. Res. 78.)

[Approved October 5, 1917.]

Joint Resolution to suspend the requirements of annual assessment work on mining claims during the years nineteen hundred and seventeen and nineteen hundred and eighteen.

Resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, That in order that labor may be most effectively used in raising and producing those things needed in the prosecution of the present war with Germany, that the provision of section twenty-three hundred and twentyfour of the Revised Statutes of the United States which requires on each mining claim located, and until a patent has been issued therefor, not less than $100 worth of labor to be performed or improvements to be made during each year, be, and the same is hereby, suspended during the years nineteen hundred and seventeen and nineteen hundred and eighteen :

Provided, That every claimant of any such mining claim in order to obtain the benefits of this resolution shall file or cause to be filed in the office where the location notice or certificate is recorded on or before December thirty-first, of each of the years nineteen hundred and seventeen and nineteen hundred and eighteen, a notice of his desire to hold said mining claim under this resolution; provided, further, That this resolution shall not apply to oil placer locations or claims.

This resolution shall not be deemed to amend or repeal the public resolution entitled "Joint resolution to relieve the owners of mining claims who have been mustered into the military or naval service of the United States as officers or enlisted men from performing assessment work during the term of such service," approved July seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen.