conditions, and like proceedings as contemplated in the original act for vein or lode claims.

Placer claims on surveyed lands are authorized to be entered by legal subdivisions, no special survey or plat in such case being required, at the rate of $2 50 per acre. In regard to placer claims, however, the amendatory law restricts their extent in respect to locations made after the date of its passage to not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, such location being required to conform to the government surveys and not to interfere with any bona fide preemption or homestead claims upon agricultural lands.

2. The act further provides for the subdivision of forty-acre legal subdivisions into ten-acre tracts, and authorizes two or more persons, or association of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although less than ten acres each, to make joint entry of such minor subdivisions, all bona fide preemption or homestead claims upon agricultural lands being protected by law. The surveyors general are, therefore, hereby authorized to have such subdivisions into ten-acre tracts made by their deputies when applied for by claimants, numbering each ten-acre tract with consecutive numbers of claims in the township, as in the case of other mineral surveys; and if the service is performed by county and local surveyors, as authorized by the sixteenth section of the amendatory act, it will be the duty of the surveyor general to verify the surveys so executed, and, if found correctly done, to adopt the same and certify the fact, appending his approval as in cases where surveys are made under his own direction. The expense of such subdividing is required to be defrayed by the mining claimants.

3. In the thirteenth section it is declared that in the absence of any adverse claim where said person or association, they and their grantors, shall have held and worked their said claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto, subject to any lien which may have attached to such claim prior to the issue of said patent.

The foregoing provision is construed to apply as well to lode as to placer claims, and should lessen the amount of proof usually required to establish a right to a patent.

4. In the fourteenth section it is provided that all ex parte affidavits required under the original and amendatory acts may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district in which the claims are situated.

5. By the fifteenth section it is declared that registers and receivers are entitled to the same fees for services in mining cases as are provided by law for like services under other acts of Congress, the rates of allowance being specifically given in our circular dated July 25, 1870.

6. By the sixteenth section the interdict placed by the act of March 3, 1853, "that none other than township lines shall be surveyed where the lands are mineral," is repealed, this provision of law being referable to surveys in California only; the extension of the lines of future surveys over the lands mentioned in this section applies exclusively to that State. The requirement, however, in the last proviso of the same section, "that nothing herein contained shall require the survey of waste or useless lands," is a principle of general application, and surveyors general will refrain from extending the lines of public surveys over such waste lands which are considered to be those covered by alkali to a depth calculated to prevent the growing of crops, moving sand, or other sandy

plains of great extent, and abrupt or snowy mountains not known to contain mineral deposits.

7. Section seventeen authorizes the extension of the rights conferred by sections 5, 8, and 9 of the original mining act to all public lands affected by this law, and subjects all patents granted or preëmptions or homesteads allowed, to any vested or accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may have been acquired under, or recognized by, the said ninth section, said section declaring further that nothing in the act shall be construed to repeal, or in any way affect, the act granting the right of way and other privileges to aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode in the State of Nevada, approved July 25, 1866, (14 U. S. Stat., p. 242.)

S. The per diem allowance to deputy surveyors, including all expenses of assistants for surveys of mineral claims, as stipulated in our circular letter of January 14, 1867, has been in several cases found quite inadequate, and that, consequently, parties, in order to induce deputies to make the surveys, bave found it necessary to pay additional sums as on private account. To avoid such results the surveyors general are hereby authorized to increase the maximum per diem allowance according to the difficulty of the service, taking care, however, to have the work performed on the most economical scale by skillful and responsible surveyors, and in no case to exceed a maximum of $20 per day.

In each case where an allowance is made of over $10 per day, the reasons showing the necessity for doing so must be stated in the contract and then reported to this office, and it must be understood that no extra compensation, under any circumstances whatever, is to be exacted or received by the deputy, under penalty of forfeiting the contract and exclusion from the public surveying service.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS RELATIVE TO OBTAINING PATENTS FOR MINING CLAIMS.

With reference to the proceedings necessary to obtain patents for lode, and placer claims under the provisions of the acts of Congress above mentioned, the following is communicated:

9. The mining enactments limit the right to apply for and receive patents for mining claims to claimants

First. Who have occupied and improved their claims according to the local customs or rules of miners; or,

Second. Who have, by themselves or their grantors, held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated.

Third. Who have expended in actual labor and improvements upon their respective claims an amount of not less than one thousand dollars; and,

Fourth. In regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim.

Unless, therefore, applicants for mining patents are properly within these requirements they are not in a condition to avail themselves of the privileges extended by the laws referred to.

THE APPLICATION.

10. This must be in writing, and must be filed in the office of the register and receiver of the land district in which the claim lies. It

must distinctly state the name of the applicant, and whether the claim is applied for by an individual, an association, or an incorporation; the name and extent of the claim; the character of the ore; the mining district, county, and State; the date of its original location according to the mining customs; where the same was recorded; whether the applicant claims as a locator or purchaser; give a description of the premises claimed, and the nature of the improvements made or labor performed; and finally the application should state that the claimant has posted a "diagram" of the claim in a conspicuous place thereon, together with notice of his intention to apply for a patent, giving the date of such posting.

11. With the above application the claimant must file a copy of the "diagram" posted on the claim, which diagram must represent the boundaries of the premises, as fixed by the local laws, customs, or rules of miners; and when the claim lies upon surveyed land, it must also show its relation to the public surveys.

12. Diagrams of PLACER claims upon SURVEYED lands must represent the subdivision of the public lands which the claimant desires to enter, as the act requires such entries, in their exterior limits, to conform to such legal subdivisions.

13. With said diagram must be filed a copy of the "notice" posted upon the claim.

This should state the name of the claimant, describe the claim, give the names of adjoining claims, or, if none adjoin, the names of the nearest claims; state whether it is a placer or rock claim; if the former, the approximate area; if the latter, the estimated extent of surface ground, and the number of feet claimed on the course of the vein, distinctly stating the name of the lode and the character of the vein exposed; the mining district, county, and State in which it lies; whether upon surveyed or unsurveyed lands; if the former, in what section, township, and range; if the latter, the location of the claim relatively to some well-known natural object or land-mark in the vicinity, and finally the notice should state that it is the intention of the claimants to apply for a patent for the premises therein designated, and upon which it is posted.

14. There should also be filed with the application satisfactory evidence that the applicant has the possessory right to the claim, agreeably to the local laws or customs of miners. This should consist of a certified copy of the laws or customs of the miners of the district in force at the date of the location of the claim, and of a certificate, under seal, of the county or mining recorder, giving a copy of the record of the origi nal location of the claim, with name or names of the locators, and if the applicant claims as a purchaser, an abstract of title should be filed, tracing the right of possession from the original locators to the applicant for patent. Where applicants furnish satisfactory evidence that they and their grantors have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations of mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, such evidence being sufficient to establish a right to a patent for a claim so held and worked, upon compliance with the other provisions of the law and instructions, the proofs enumerated under this subdivision (14) of the instructions are not required.

15. Proof of citizenship is required. Where the applicant is a corporation, a copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation may befiled in lieu of evidence of citizenship. In case, however, the applicant is an individual or an association of persons unincorporated, affidavits of

citizenship, or of having filed declarations of intention to become citizens, should be filed.

16. Upon filing these papers, the register and receiver will give the same careful examination, and if found to be regular the register will order the publication of the "notice" for ninety days in a newspaper published nearest the location of the claim; but before ordering such publication, the register will, in future, require the claimant to enter into an agreement with the publisher, to the effect that no claim or demand shall be made against the United States for the payment of such publication, and the register will decline to order the publication until such written agreement shall have been filed in his office. The cost of the publication of notice will, therefore, not be estimated by the surveyor general in future cases.

17. The register will also post copies of the said "notice" and "diagram" in his office for ninety days, and upon forwarding the case to this office will certify that they were so posted.

18. On the expiration of the ninety days, the claimant or his duly authorized agent must file with the register his 'own affidavit, supported by that of at least one other person cognizant of the fact, that said "notice" and "diagram" were posted in a conspicuous place upon the claim for the period of ninety consecutive days, giving the date of the same. The affidavit of the publisher must also be filed to the effect that the notice, a printed copy of which should be attached, was published in his newspaper for ninety days, giving the dates on which such publication commenced and ended, and that he has received payment in full for the same.

19. These affidavits may be taken before the register and receiver or any officer authorized to administer oaths within their district, but if taken before a magistrate, without an official seal, his official character must be authenticated under seal by the county clerk in the usua

manner.

20. If all the proof furnished is satisfactory to the register and re ceiver, and no adverse claim has been filed, those officers will, at the end of the ninety days, so inform the applicant for patent and the surveyor general, which last-named officer will make an estimate of the expense of surveying and platting the claim, except in the case of placer claims on surveyed land where no further survey is required; and when the claimant shall have deposited the amount so estimated with any assistant United States treasurer or designated depository in favor of the United States Treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created by "individual depositors for surveys of the public lands," and shall have filed with the surveyor general one of the duplicate certificates of deposit, that officer will order the claim to be surveyed and platted in accordance with the regulations of this office governing mineral surveys, except in cases where the claimant has had a preliminary survey made by the United States deputy surveyor, for the purpose of perfecting the diagram and notice posted on the claim, in which case such preliminary survey may be platted and adopted by the surveyor general for the final survey. Copies of plat and field-notes of survey are to be sent to the register and receiver and to the General Land Office, the latter accompanied by the certificate of deposit.

21. The register and receiver will examine the returns of the survey, and, if found satisfactory, will allow the entry to be completed at the rate of five dollars per acre, or fractional part of an acre, for lode claims, or two dollars and fifty cents per acre, or factional part of an acre, for placer claims, and transmit all the papers on their files bear

ing upon the case to the General Land Office, together with their joint opinion thereon, so that a patent may be issued if all is found regular.

22. In regard to placer claims on surveyed land, where the claimant applies to enter one hundred and sixty acres in legal subdivisions, no survey and plat of the claim are required; the entry in that case being allowed to be completed at the local land office as soon as satisfactory proof has been made after the expiration of ninety days' notice and publication, provided no adverse claimant has appeared in the meantime.

23. Where the claimant of a placer mine desires the subdivision of a quarter section, the service may be performed by county and local surveyors at the expense of the claimant, as required by law.

ADVERSE CLAIMANTS.

24. The sixth section of the mining act of July 26, 1866, provides that "whenever any adverse claimants to any mine, located and claimed as aforesaid, shall appear before the approval of the survey as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until a final settlement and adjudication, in the courts of competent ju risdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases."

An opposing claimant must file his adverse notice with the register and receiver, and in order that it may appear to those officers whether or not the adverse claim is such an one as is contemplated by the said sixth section they will require the opposing claimant to present his affidavit, setting out in detail the nature of his adverse claim, stating when and how it originated, whether by purchase or by location, the names of all the original locators, with a certified copy of the original location from the mining recorder's office, and if he claims as a purchaser, an abstract of title, certified by the said recorder, tracing the title to the possession from the original locators to the claimant, should be furnished.

Such affidavit and accompanying papers will be carefully examined by the register and receiver, and if, in their judgment, an adverse claim is made out they will suspend all further action on the application for patent until an adjustment is had in the local courts; if they find otherwise they will refuse to suspend, but in either event the papers filed both by the applicant for patent and the adverse claimant will be referred to this office for review, when the decision of the register and receiver will either be affirmed or set aside, and all parties in interest notified of the result.

25. In the case of placer claims upon surveyed lands where no survey is required, the adverse claimant should appear before the entry is made; but if, from any cause, such adverse claimant should be unable to appear within the time specified, and should appear before the patent is issued, the register will nevertheless take his sworn statement, and transmit it to the General Land Office for such action as the Commissioner may deem proper.

26. When the parties are notified that an adverse claim is made out it then becomes the duty of the adverse claimant immediately to commence action in court, and to prosecute the same to final judgment or decree, by which the further proceedings of this office will be governed; - yet in default of such suit being instituted within a reasonable time the original claim will be dealt with as if no adverse interest had been asserted.