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labor or improvements thereon within the calendar year 1880; and that whatever may have been expended during the year 1879 will not answer the requirements of expenditures in 1880.

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A claim located on any date subsequent to the first day of January, 1879, requires no further expenditures during the remainder of that year than is made necessary by local laws. I find that I have inadvertently signed a letter indicating a different construction of the section aforesaid.

The conclusion herein given has, however, been reached after careful consideration and will control my official action. Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner.

No. 8. Proceedings necessary under section 2324, United States Revised Statutes, as against co-owner.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 9, 1877.

D. P. WHEDON, Esq., Silver Reef, Utah.

SIR: Referring to your letter of the twenty-eighth ultimo, I have to state that where a party proceeds against one or more of his co-owners, under section twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States, he should file with his application for patent a copy of the original notice of location; an abstract of all conveyances made of the claim; a copy of the notice published to delinquent co-owners, which notice should embrace the names of all delinquents, to which must be attached the affidavit of the publishers of the paper in which the notice was inserted that the attached notice was published for the period of ninety consecutive days, giving dates; the affidavit of the claimant or claimants who have made the required expenditures, corroborated by the sworn statement of two or more disinterested witnesses, showing the character and extent of the improvements made upon the claim, and the time when such improvements were

made.

There must also be filed the sworn statement of the * See No. 4, Location.

claimant or claimants, who had made the required expenditures, as to whether or not either of the parties whose names appear in such published notice contributed his proportion of the required expenditure, either during the ninety days notice by publication or the succeeding ninety days. The evidence must be full, positive, and explicit upon all these points. Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner.

CHAPTER X.

COAL LANDS.

No. 1. The coal land laws relate to every variety of coal.

No. 2.

No. 3.

No. 4.

No. 5.

No. 6.

a. Section 2347 Revised Statutes provides for entry of coal land at private entry.

b. But one declarative statement by the same party.

c. Coal is a mineral.

a. Form of declarative statement by incorporated company.

b. Secretary to file affidavit stating personal qualification of stockholders.

c. Land not contiguous.

Coal land within limits of the grant to the Union Pacific Railroad. Sections 16 and 36 containing valuable deposits of coal do not pass to State.

Coal land to be withheld from public offering.

No. 1. The act of March 3, 1873,* providing for the sale of coal lands, relates to lands containing any variety of coal, whether anthracite, bituminous, lignite, or cannel.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1880.

Register and Receiver, Bismarck, Dakota.

GENTLEMEN: I am in receipt of Register's letter of sixth instant, in which the question is asked: "Is lignite coal, and does the land containing the same come within the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1873, entitled 'An Act to provide for the sale of the lands of the United States containing coal'?"

Lignite is defined to be "mineral coal retaining the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and burning with an empyreumatic odor. It is of more recent origin than the anthracite bituminous coal of the proper coal series." (Webster's Dictionary.)

Furthermore, all of the known coal deposits west of the Missouri river are lignite, so far as I have been able to ascertain, and I think there can be no question but that the act relates to all lands containing any variety of coal, whether anthracite, bituminous, lignite, or cannel.

Very respectfully,

J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner.

* Sections 2347-2352, Revised Statutes. See No. 2, Laws.

No. 2. 1. Section 2347, U. S. Revised Statutes, provides for the sale of coal land at ordinary private entry.

2. Under section 2350, but one declaratory statement can be filed by the same person.

3. Coal is a mineral.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 30, 1878.

SIR: I have considered the case of James B. McKean v. David E, Buell and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, involving certain lands in Township 2 North, Range 5 East, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, on appeal from your decision of April 9, 1877, adverse to the claims of McKean and the railroad company.

The township plat was filed in the local office on January 9, 1874.

John Spriggs filed Coal D. S. No. 28, May 20, 1874, for the SE.Section 8, Township 2 North, Range 5 East.

Samuel H. Levan filed Coal D. S. No. 86, on May 20, 1875, for the SE. 4 Section 8, 2 North, 5 East; and on the thirteenth of May, 1876, assigned and conveyed the SE. of SE. of said tract to James B. McKean for the sum of four hundred dollars, and relinquished the balance to the United States.

On May 20, 1875, James H. Nounnan, as agent for David E. Buell, filed Coal D. S. No. 87, for the E. of SE.Section 8, NE. of NE. 4 Section 17, and SW. of SW. Section 9, Township 2 North, Range 5 East.

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A hearing to determine the rights of the parties was held before the local officers in July, 1876. The claim of the railroad company was rejected and the lands in contest awarded to the town site of Coalville, by my predecessor's decision of February 10, 1877, and it is therefore unnecessary to consider the claims of the company in disposing of this case. The town site of Coalville was not represented at the hearing, and has asserted no claim to these coal mines.

The testimony shows that the lands in dispute contain a valuable vein of coal from ten to twelve feet in thickness; that the same was discovered by John Spriggs in the year 1863; that Spriggs immediately took possession thereof, and expended several thousand dollars in developing said mines.

Spriggs sold an undivided half interest in said mines to D. E. Buell and J. C. Bateman, in the year 1871, and said parties subsequently went into possession thereof, and have ever since remained in possession, either in person or by agent or tenant. They have expended between forty and fifty thousand dollars in developing said mines.

Neither Levan, who filed D. S. No. 86, nor his assignee, J. B. McKean, have ever been in possession of the SE. of SE. of said Section 8. Mr. McKean admits that he has placed no improvements on said land and does not know whether Levan improved the same or not.

You found that the testimony failed to establish the good faith of Levan or his assignee, McKean, and rejected said claim for that reason, and awarded the land to Buell, and Mr. McKean has appealed from your decision.

I concur in your conclusion that the claim of McKean is invalid, but not for the reasons assigned in your decision.

As Levan had never been in possession of the land or made any improvements thereon, he was only entitled to make an entry under section 2347 of the Revised Statutes, which is as follows:

"SECTION 2347. Every person above the age of twentyone years, who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become such, or any association of persons severally qualified as above, shall, upon application to the register of the proper land office, have the right to enter, by legal subdivisions, any quantity of vacant coal lands of the United States not otherwise appropriated or reserved by competent authority, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to such individual person, or three hundred and twenty acres to such association, upon payment to the receiver of not less than ten dollars per acre for such lands, where the same shall be situated more than fifteen miles from any completed railroad, and not less than twenty dollars per acre for such lands as shall be within fifteen miles of such road."

Private entry of coal land.

This section provides for the sale of coal lands by ordinary private entry, and the manner of making such entry is clearly pointed out in paragraphs 26, 27, and 28, of your circular of April 15, 1873, viz.:

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