The duty of the surveyor ceases when he has executed the survey and returned the field notes and preliminary plat thereof with his report to the surveyor-general. He will not be allowed to prepare for the mining claimant the papers in support of an application for patent, or otherwise perform the duties of an attorney before the land office in connection with a mining claim.

The surveyors general and local land officers are expected to report any infringement of this regulation to this office.

94. Should it appear that excessive or exorbitant charges have been made by any surveyor or any publisher, prompt action will be taken with the view of correcting the abuse.

95. The fees payable to the register and receiver for filing and acting upon applications for mineral-land patents are five dollars to each officer, to be paid by the applicant for patent at the time of filing, and the like sum of five dollars is payable to each officer by an adverse claimant at the time of filing his adverse claim. (Sec. 2238, R. S., paragraph 9.)

96. At the time of payment of fee for mining application or adverse claim the receiver will issue his receipt therefor in duplicate, one to be given the applicant or adverse claimant, as the case may be, and one to be forwarded to the Commissioner of the General Land Office on the day of issue. The receipt for mining application should have attached the certificate of the register that the lands included in the application are subject to such appropriation, as far as shown by the records of his office.

97. The register and receiver will, at the close of each month, forward to this office an abstract of mining applications filed, an abstract of adverse claims filed, an abstract of mineral lands sold, and a report of receipts from such sales.

98. The fees and purchase money received by registers and receivers must be placed to the credit of the United States in the receiver's monthly and quarterly account, charging up in the disbursing account the sums to which the register and receiver may be respectively entitled as fees and commissions, with limitations in regard to the legal maximum.

HEARINGS TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF LANDS.

99. The Rules of Practice in cases before the United States district land offices, the General Land Office, and the Department of the Interior will, so far as applicable, govern in all cases and proceedings arising in contests and hearings to determine the mineral character of lands.

100. Public land returned by the surveyor-general as mineral shall be withheld from entry as agricultural land until the presumption arising from such a return shall be overcome by testimony taken in the manner hereinafter described.

101. Hearings to determine the character of lands are practically of two kinds, as follows:

(1) Lands returned as mineral by the surveyor-general.

When such lands are sought to be entered as agricultural under laws which require the submission of final proof after due notice by publication and posting, the filing of the proper nonmineral affidavit in the absence of allegations that the land is mineral will be deemed sufficient as a preliminary requirement. A satisfactory showing as to character of land must be made when final proof is submitted.

In case of application to enter, locate, or select such lands as agricultural, under laws in which the submission of final proof after due publication and posting is not required, notice thereof must first be given by publication for sixty days and posting in the local office during the same period, and affirmative proof as to the character of the land submitted. In the absence of allegations that the land is mineral, and upon compliance with this requirement, the entry, location, or selection will be allowed, if otherwise regular.

(2) Lands returned as agricultural and alleged to be mineral in character.

Where as against the claimed right to enter such lands as agricultural it is alleged that the same are mineral, or are applied for as mineral lands, the proceedings in this class of cases will be in the nature of a contest, and the practice will be governed by the rules in force in

contest cases.

102. Where a railroad company seeks to select lands not returned as mineral, but within six miles of any mining location, claim, or entry, or where in the case of a selection by a State, the lands sought to be selected are within a township in which there is a mining location, claim, or entry, publication must be made of the lands selected at the expense of the railroad company or State for a period of sixty days, with posting for the same period in the land office for the district in which the lands are situated, during which period of publication the local land officers will receive protests or contests for any of said tracts or subdivisions of lands claimed to be more valuable for mining than for agricultural purposes.

103. At the expiration of the period of publication the register and receiver will forward to the Commissioner of the General Land Office the published list, noting thereon any protests, or contests, or suggestions as to the mineral character of any such lands, together with any information they may have received as to the mineral character of any of the lands mentioned in said list, when a hearing may be ordered.

104. In lieu selections under the acts of June 4, 1897, and June 6, 1900, of land which has been returned as mineral, or which is within six miles of any mining claim, notice of the selection, commencing within twenty days thereafter, must be given, for a period of thirty days, by posting upon the land and in the local land office, and by publication at the cost of the applicant in a newspaper designated by the register as of general circulation in the vicinity of the land and published nearest thereto. Where the selection embraces noncontiguous tracts the notice must be posted upon each tract; but such notice will not be required in any case where the selection is in lieu of "a tract covered by an unperfected bona fide claim," viz: A tract the title to which has not passed out of the United States or for which patent certificate has not issued.

105. At the hearings under either of the aforesaid classes, the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined with regard to the character of the land; whether the same has been thoroughly prospected; whether or not there exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, or copper, or other valuable deposit which has ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under what designation, and in

which subdivision of the land it lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the land; if so, what is the character thereof whether of the shallow-surface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead, or gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when water can be obtained, and what the facilities are for obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particular ten-acre subdivisions mining has been done, and at what time the land was abandoned for mining purposes. if abandoned at all.

106. The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land, what kind of crops are raised thereon, and the value thereof; the number of acres actually cultivated for crops of cereals or vegetables, and within which particular ten-acre subdivision such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace the improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of the improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc., and mining improvements. 107. The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and in addition to the leading points indicated above, where an attempt is made to prove the mineral character of lands which have been entered under the agricultural laws, it should show at what date, if at all, valuable deposits of minerals were first known to exist on the lands.

108. When the case comes before this office, such decision will be made as the law and the facts may justify. In cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land, the proper party, at his own expense, will be required to have the work done by a surveyor to be designated by the surveyor-general. Application therefor must be made to the register and receiver, accompanied by description of the land to be segregated and the evidence of service upon the opposite party of notice of his intention to have such segregation made. The register and receiver will forward the same to this office, when the necessary instructions for the survey will be given. The survey in such case, where the claims to be segregated are vein or lode claims, must be executed in such manner as will conform to the requirements in section 2320, United States Revised Statutes, as to length and width and parallel end lines.

109. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, officer of a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the deponent's character and credibility to be properly certified to by the officer administering the oath.

110. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such survey with the register and receiver, duly sworn to as aforesaid, they will transmit the same to the surveyor-general for his verification and approval; who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, made upon the usual drawing-paper township blank.

The copy of plat furnished the local office and this office must be a diagram verified by the surveyor-general, showing the claim or claims segregated, and designating the separate fractional agricultural tracts in each 40-acre legal subdivision by the proper lot number, beginning with No. 1 in each section, and giving the area in each lot, the same as provided in paragraph 37 in the survey of mining claims on surveyed lands.

111. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to be mineral in character is by no means equivalent to an award of

the land to a miner. In order to secure a patent for such land, he must proceed as in other cases, in accordance with the foregoing regulations. Blank forms for proofs in mineral cases are not furnished by the General Land Office.

DISTRICT OF ALASKA.

112. Section 13, act of May 14, 1898, according to native-born citizens of Canada "the same mining rights and privileges" in the district of Alaska as are accorded to citizens of the United States in British Columbia and the Northwest Territory by the laws of the Dominion. of Canada, is not now and never has been operative, for the reason that the only mining rights and privileges granted to any person by the laws of the Dominion of Canada are those of leasing mineral lands upon the payment of a stated royalty, and the mining laws of the United States make no provision for such leases.

113. For the sections of the act of June 6, 1900, making further provision for a civil government for Alaska, which provide for the establishment of recording districts and the recording of mining locations; for the making of rules and regulations by the miners and for the legalization of mining records; for the extension of the mining laws to the district of Alaska, and for the exploration and mining of tide lands and lands below low tide; and relating to the rights of Indians and persons conducting schools or missions, see page 20 of this circular.

MINERAL LANDS WITHIN FOREST RESERVES.

114. The act of June 4, 1897, provides that "any mineral lands in any forest reservation which have been or which may be shown to be such, and subject to entry under the existing mining laws of the United States and the rules and regulations applying thereto, shall continue to be subject to such location and entry," notwithstanding the reservation. This makes mineral lands in the forest reserves subject to location and entry under the general mining laws in the usual manner. The act also provides that, "The Secretary of the Interior may permit, under regulations to be prescribed by him, the use of timber and stone found upon such reservations, free of charge, by bona fide settlers, miners, residents, and prospectors for minerals, for firewood, fencing, buildings, mining, prospecting, and other domestic purposes, as may be needed by such persons for such purposes; such timber to be used within the State or Territory, respectively, where such reservations may be located."

For further instructions under this act see circular of April 4, 1900 (30 L. D., 23, 28-30).

SURVEYS OF MINING CLAIMS.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

115. Under section 2334, U. S. Rev. Stats., the U. S. 'surveyorgeneral "may appoint in each land district containing mineral lands as many competent surveyors as shall apply for appointment to survey mining claims."

116. Persons desiring such appointments should therefore file their applications with the surveyor-general for the district wherein. appointment is asked, who will furnish all information necessary.

117. All appointments of deputy mineral surveyors must be submitted to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for approval.

118. The surveyors-general have authority to suspend or revoke the commissions of deputy mineral surveyors for cause. Before final action, however, the matter should be submitted to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for approval.

119. Such surveyors will be allowed the right of appeal from the action of the surveyor-general in the usual manner. Such appeal should be filed with the surveyor-general, who will at once transmit the same, with a full report, to the General Land Office.

120. Neither the surveyor-general nor the Commissioner of the General Land Office has jurisdiction to settle differences, relative to the payment of charges for field work, between deputy mineral surveyors and claimants. These are matters of private contract and must be enforced in the ordinary manner, i. e., in the local courts. The Department has, however, authority to investigate charges affecting the official actions of deputy mineral surveyors, and will, on sufficient cause shown, suspend or revoke their appointment.

121. The surveyors-general should appoint as many competent deputy mineral surveyors as apply for appointment, in order that claimants may have a choice of surveyors, and be enabled to have their work done on the most advantageous terms.

122. The schedule. of charges for office work should be as low as is possible. No additional charges should be made for orders for amended surveys, unless the necessity therefor is clearly the fault of the claimant, or considerable additional office work results therefrom. 123. In cases where the error in the original survey is due to the carelessness or neglect of the surveyor who made it, he should be required to make the necessary corrections in the field at his own expense, and the surveyor-general should advise him that the penalty for failure to comply with instructions within a specified time will be the suspension or revocation of his commission.

124. Mineral surveyors will address all official communications to the surveyor-general. They will, when a mining claim is the subject of correspondence, give the name and survey number. In replying to letters they will give the subject-matter and date of the letter. They will promptly notify the surveyor-general of any change in post-office address.

125. Mineral surveyors should keep a complete record of each survey made by them and the facts coming to their knowledge at the time, as well as copies of all their field notes, reports, and official correspondence, in order that such evidence may be readily produced when called for at any future time. Field notes and other reports must be written in a clear and legible hand or typewritten, in noncopying ink, and upon the proper blanks furnished gratuitously by the surveyor-general's office upon application therefor. No interlineations or erasures will be allowed.

126. No return by a mineral surveyor will be recognized as official unless it is over his signature as a United States deputy mineral surveyor, and made in pursuance of a special order from the surveyorgeneral's office. After he has received an order for survey he is required to make the survey and return correct field notes thereof to the surveyor-general's office without delay.

127. The claimant is required, in all cases, to make satisfactory