drawn area in California only about 30 per cent is unpatented and less than 24 per cent is vacant on the books of the local land offices. Data are not available to show what part of this 24 per cent is covered by valid mineral locations not yet of record in the local land offices, but it is evident that the amount which is actually vacant and unappropriated is small. The following table, which is based on figures compiled by the General Land Office, shows the approximate status of the lands withdrawn by the three orders most recently issued. The difference which this table shows between Montana and North Dakota is due to the fact that the withdrawals in Montana are chiefly within the Northern Pacific land grant, whereas the withdrawal in North Dakota is chiefly outside that grant. In addition to the lands listed as vacant, oil and gas rights will probably be reserved to the Government on many of the lands indicated as entered. Approximate status of lands in Montana and North Dakota withdrawn by the three most recent orders. a Previous withdrawal, Montana No. 1, not included. No statistics are at hand for the withdrawn areas in other States. In Louisiana the amount of Government land withdrawn must be very small indeed; in Utah and Arizona it must be a large percentage of the withdrawn area. Including lands which are vacant and unoccupied, entered lands in which oil and gas deposits will be reserved to the Government, and lands covered by invalid locations or applications, but not including lands shown as vacant on Land Office records which are in fact covered by valid locations, it seems likely that, if the present laws are enforced without change, the oil deposits in about one-half of the present withdrawn area will prove to be in public ownership. From this outline of the history of the withdrawals it is evident that they fall into four periods: (1) The period of Land Office withdrawals from agricultural entry, prior to 1907; (2) the period of Departmental withdrawals from agricultural entry, extending to September, 1909; (3) the period of Departmental withdrawals from all disposition, from September, 1909, to June, 1910; and (4) the period of Presidential withdrawals from all entry under the act of June 25, 1910, beginning July 1, 1910. The chapter giving the orders and correspondence has been subdivided under these four periods, although it should be noted that some of the withdrawals in the first period were made by the Department, and that Land Office restorations will be found in the third and fourth periods. OIL-LAND LAW. It is not practicable within the limits of this bulletin to present an exhaustive study of the law relating to oil and gas, nor to consider every contingency which may arise in the acquisition of deposits of these minerals from the Government. In this chapter, therefore, although all the Federal statutes relating directly to public oil and gas lands are given, the citation and discussion of decisions are confined to those points which bear most immediately upon questions of general interest to oil operators, present and prospective, on Government land. THE PLACER LAW AND THE ACT OF FEBRUARY 11, 1897.1 THE ACT OF FEBRUARY 11, 1897. Petroleum deposits on the unwithdrawn public domain are acquired under the placer law. The act of February 11, 1897 (29 Stat., 526), which ended all doubts upon this point, is as follows: AN ACT To authorize the entry and patenting of lands containing petroleum and other mineral oils under the placer mining laws of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person authorized to enter lands under the mining laws of the United States may enter and obtain patent to lands containing petroleum or other mineral oils, and chiefly valuable therefor, under the provisions of the laws 1 Some of the matter under this head is taken, partly verbatim, from a previous paper (Ball, M. W., The placer law as applied to petroleum: Am. Inst. Min. Eng. Trans., vol. 48, pp. 451-470). relating to placer mineral claims: Provided, That lands containing such petroleum or other mineral oils which have heretofore been filed upon, claimed, or improved as mineral, but not yet patented, may be held and patented under the provisions of this act the same as if such filing, claim, or improvement were subsequent to the date of the passage hereof. It is important to note that lands, to fall within the purview of this act, must be chiefly valuable for petroleum or other mineral oils. In the mining laws as they apply to the great majority of mineral deposits it is not stated whether lands, in order to be considered mineral, must be more valuable for mineral development than for any other purpose, or whether the presence of mineral in paying quantities impresses a mineral character upon the land despite other and perhaps more valuable uses. But in the case of petroleum lands there is no doubt; to be subject to entry under the placer law oil lands must be chiefly valuable for their oil content. PROVISIONS OF THE REVISED STATUTES. The sections of the Revised Statutes which directly provide for placer claims are the following: placer claims to Conformity of SEC. 2329. Claims usually called "placers," including all forms of surveys, limit of. deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be sub9 July, 1870, c. ject to entry and patent, under like circumstances and conditions, and 235, s. 12, v. 16, p. upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims; but where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands. 217. Subdivisions of ten-acre tracts; cer locations. SEC. 2330. Legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into maximum of pla ten-acre tracts; and two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be 9 July, 1870, c. less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof; but no location 235, s. 12, v. 16, P. of a placer claim, made after the ninth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide preemption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to any purchaser. Conformity of placer claims to surveys, SEC. 2331. Where placer claims are upon surveyed lands, and conlimita- form to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat shall be required, tion of claims. and all placer-mining claims located after the tenth day of May, 10 May, 1872, c. eighteen hundred and seventy-two, shall conform as near as practicable 152, s. 10, v. 17, P. with the United States system of public-land surveys, and the rec 94. tangular subdivisions of such surveys, and no such location shall include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant; but where placer claims can not be conformed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat shall be made as on unsurveyed lands; and where by the segregation of mineral lands in any legal subdivision a quantity of agricultural land less than forty acres remains, such fractional portion of agricultural land may be entered by any party qualified by law, for homestead or preemption purposes. SEC. 2332. Where such person or association, they and their grantors, What evidence of possession, etc., have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time to establish a prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State right to a patent. or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such posses- 235, s. 13, v. 16, p. 9 July, 1870, c. sion and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to 217. establish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter, in the absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent. SEC. 2333. Where the same person, association, or corporation is in possession of a placer claim, and also a vein or lode included within 94. Proceedings for patent for placer claim, etc. the boundaries thereof, application shall be made for a patent for the 10 May, 1872, c. placer claim, with the statement that it includes such vein or lode, 152, s. 11, v. 17, p. and in such case a patent shall issue for the placer claim, subject to the provisions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon the payment of five dollars per acre for such vein or lode claim and twentyfive feet of surface on each side thereof. The remainder of the placer claim or any placer claim not embracing any vein or lode claim shall be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, together with all costs of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, such as is described in section twenty-three hundred and twenty, is known to exist within the boundaries of a placer claim, an application for a patent for such placer claim which does not include an application for the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclusive declaration that the claimant of the placer claim has no right of possession of the vein or lode claim; but where the existence of a vein or lode in a placer claim is not known, a patent for the placer claim shall convey all valuable mineral and other deposits within the boundaries thereof. It is obvious that to interpret these sections a knowledge of the lode law is necessary, and the pertinent sections of the Revised Statutes bearing upon lode claims, together with certain sections of general application, are here given: SEC. 2318. In all cases lands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law. Mineral lands reserved. 4 July, 1866, c. 166, s. 5, v. 14, p. 86. Mineral lands open to purchase 91. SEC. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared by citizens. to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in 10 May, 1872, c. which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the 152, s. 1, v. 17, p. 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. Length of min SEC. 2320. Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other veins or lodes. ing claims upon valuable deposits, heretofore located, shall be governed as to length 10 May, 1872, c. along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force 152, s. 2, v. 17, p. at the date of their location. A mining claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, whether located by one or more persons, may equal, but shall not exceed, one thousand 91. Proof of citizenship. 94. five hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located. * * * SEC. 2321. Proof of citizenship, under this chapter, may consist, in the case of an individual, of his own affidavit thereof; in the case of an 10 May, 1872, c. 152, s. 7, v. 17, p. association of persons unincorporated, of the affidavit of their authorized agent, made on his own knowledge or upon information and belief; and in the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, by the filing of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation. Regulations made by miners. 10 May, 1872, c. 152, s. 5, v. 17, p. 92. * SEC. 2324. The miners of each mining district may make regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or with the laws of the State or Territory in which the district is situated, governing the location, manner of recording, amount of work necessary to hold possession of a mining claim, subject to the following requirements: The location must be distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries can be readily traced. All records of mining claims hereafter made shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date of the location, and such a description of the claim or claims located by reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claim. On each claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and until a patent has been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year. On all claims located prior to the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, ten dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made by the tenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, and each year thereafter, for each one hundred feet in length along the vein until a patent has been issued therefor; but where such claims are held in common, such expenditure may be made upon any one claim; and upon a failure to comply with these conditions the claim or mine upon which such failure occurred shall be open to relocation in the same manner as if no location of the same had ever been made, provided that the original locators, their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, have not resumed work upon the claim after failure and before such location. Upon the failure of any one of several co-owners to contribute his proportion of the expenditures required hereby, the co-owners who have performed the labor or made the improvements may, at the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in writing or notice by publication in the newspaper published nearest the claim for at least once a week for ninety days, and if at the expiration of ninety days after such notice in writing or by publication such delinquent should fail or refuse to contribute his proportion of the expenditure required by this section his interest in the claim shall become the property of his co-owners who have made the required expenditures. Patents for SEC. 2325. A patent for any land claimed and located for valuable mineral lands, how obtained. deposits may be obtained in the following manner: Any person, asso10 May, 1872, c. ciation, or corporation authorized to locate a claim under this chapter, 152, s. 6, v. 17, P. having claimed and located a piece of land for such purposes, who has, 92. 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 |