laws of the United States. The State of California has no law of its own upon the subject. When the locator does not determine by survey or exploration where the middle of his vein at the surface is, his discovery shaft is taken to mark the middle of the vein.

Revised Statutes of the United States, Section 2320.

Section 1016.-SIZE OF PLACER CLAIM.-An individual may locate twenty acres as a placer claim. Two persons may associate themselves together and locate forty acres as a placer claim; and so on up to eight persons, who may locate one hundred and sixty acres as a placer claim. But no individual can locate more than twenty acres, and no association of persons can locate more than one hundred and sixty acres.

Revised Statutes of the United States, Sections 2330, 2331.

Section 1017.-DISCOVERY ON PLACER GROUND. -It has already been stated that there must be a valid discovery of minerals, before the location can have any legal effect, and that the discovery of a quartz claim must be of a lode or vein in rock in place. But when we come to consider a placer claim, the rule stated does not apply. The term "placer" is of wide significance. It includes any form of mineral deposit, except quartz or other rock in place. All forms of mineral and metal bearing earth, other than veins or lodes in rock in place, are held to be "placer." They cannot be fixed in place, confined within walls of rock, for they may be found in shifting sand, or loose gravel, or in the channels of rivers; and the term "placer" includes natural. gas, petroleum, and hydrocarbons. But while a valid location may be made under the laws relating to placer locations without a previous discovery of mineral, yet such discovery must be made before a patent from the United States Government can be issued under the Acts of Congress relating to the disposition of mineral lands.

(Decided by the Supreme Court of California in the case of Gregory vs. Pershbaker, which decision is printed in Volume 73 of the California Reports, page 109.)

Section 1018.-TIME WITHIN WHICH LOCATION MUST BE MADE AFTER DISCOVERY.-The law of the United States does not specify any certain time within which location must be made, and notices posted or recorded, after discovery. The location must be made, and the boundaries marked on the ground, within a reasonable time after discovery. If local rules and customs prescribe a certain time, that time must be followed.

Section 1019.-OIL AND ASPHALTUM.-Petroleum, natural gas, and asphaltum are held to be mineral, and may be located as placer claims. Much controversy over the question, whether public land in which petroleum was found could be located under the mining laws, caused the Congress of the United States to pass an Act on the subject in 1897, which removes all doubt. The law reads: "Any person authorized to enter lands under the mining laws of the United States may enter or obtain patent to lands containing petroleum or other mineral oil, and chiefly valuable therefor, under the provisions of the laws relating to placer and mineral claims." Therefore, twenty acres of oil lands may be located as a placer claim by an individual, and as much as one hundred and sixty acres by an association of persons. It is not necessary that discovery of oil should be first made.

Act of Congress, approved February 11, 1897.

Section 1020.-ANNUAL LABOR AND ASSESSMENT WORK.-In order to hold a mining claim, the locator must do a certain amount of work each year, and this is measured not by time, but by the value of the work performed. On each claim located, whether quartz or placer, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor

must be done, or an equal value of improvements made, during each year until a patent has been issued for the claim. A failure to comply with this law forfeits the claim, and leaves it open for relocation by another person. But if the original locator, his heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, after the time has expired within which he should have done the assessment work, and before another person has located on the ground, then proceeds to do the work, he saves the forfeiture and recovers the claim again to himself.

Revised Statutes of the United States, Section 2324.

Section 1021. WHEN FIRST WORK MUST BE DONE. The law does not mean that the work should be done within a year from the date of location. The period for performing the assessment work commences on the first day of January succeeding the date of location of the claim. At least one hundred dollars' worth of work must be done each year.

Supplement to the Revised Statutes of the United 'States, Volume 1, page 276.

Section 1022.-WHERE WORK SHOULD BE DONE. -Annual labor or improvements to the amount of one hundred dollars may be anywhere within the boundaries of the claim. But it is not absolutely necessary that this work be done within such boundaries. It may be done on adjoining or neighboring ground, if the work so done tends to develop the claim, and this will be a sufficient compliance with the law.

And in a case where a miner holds several claims, the annual labor or improvements required for the whole of them may be done or made upon any one or more of them, provided that such labor or improvements tend to develop them all. And even if the claim upon which the work is done is patented, and the remainder are unpatented, it will make no difference, so long as the work done tends in fact

to develop, and is done for the purpose of developing, the unpatented claims, and as assessment work upon them.

Work done or improvements made, for the purpose of developing the ground embraced in the location, outside of the limits of the claim, is as available for holding it as if done within its boundaries. Labor and improvements, within the meaning of the law, are deemed to have been had on a mining claim, whether it consists of one location or several, when the labor is performed or the improvements are made for its development, to facilitate the extraction of the metals it may contain; and such labor and improvements may lawfully be on ground which originally constituted only one of the locations, as in sinking a shaft; or the labor and improvements may be at a distance from the claim itself, as where the labor is performed for the turning of a stream, or to bring water on the claim, or where the improvement consists in the construction of a flume to carry off the debris or waste material. (Decided by the Supreme Court of California in the case of De Noon vs. Morrison, which decision is printed in Volume 83 of the California Reports, page 163.)

Section 1023-PROOF OF ASSESSMENT WORK.—The law of California provides that proof of assessment work must be made by affidavit, within thirty days after the time limited for performing the labor or making the improvements, particularly describing the labor performed and improvements made, and the value thereof. The law also provides that this affidavit must be recorded in the office. of the County Recorder of the county in which the mine or claim is situated.

Statutes of 1891, page 219.

Section 1024.-FORM OF PROOF OF ASSESSMENT WORK. The following is a form of proof of assessment work:

Before me the subscriber personally appeared .. who being duly sworn says, that at least

made upon....

$100 worth of labor or improvements were performed or (here state name of minmining State of California,

ing claim), situated in

district, County of ...

during the year ending December 31, 19... Such expenditure was made by or at the expense of

holding said claim.

owner of said claim, for the purpose of

That the labor performed and improvements made were as follows, to-wit:

(Here give a particular description of the labor performed

and improvements made.)

That the value of said labor was $....
That the value of said improvements was $..

Subscribed and sworn to before me this

day

of

19...

Notary Public in and for County of

State of California.

(Note. The above affidavit may be sworn to before a Notary, a Justice of the Peace, or any officer authorized by law to administer oaths.)

Section 1025.-RELOCATION OF CLAIM AFTER FORFEITURE.-If for any reason a mining claim has been forfeited, by failure to do assessment work, or by reason of abandonment, another person may relocate it. He must make his location as the original locator did, and in his notice of location he should state that the claim was originally located by another person (naming him), but that the claim had been abandoned or forfeited.