structed pursuant to said act, for drainage or other benefits derived from said tunnel or its branches, the same rate of charges as have been or may hereafter be named in agreement between such owners and the companies representing a majority of the estimated value of said Comstock lode, at the time of the passage of said act, as provided in said third section."

By reference to the inclosed circular you will perceive that both the acts of July 9, 1870, and May 10, 1872, contain clauses guarding the rights of the owners of the Satro tunnel.

The land which is embraced by the location of the tunnel has been withdrawn from sale, in accordance with said letter from this office of July 29, 1870.

Very respectfully, etc.,

WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner.

No 15. Public lands containing deposits of diamonds, are subject to location and sale under the mineral laws.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 3, 1872. SIR: Your letter of the twentieth ultimo, submitting for instructions the question whether "diamond claims be entered and patented under the mining acts of Congress, was received and submitted to the Attorney-general for his opinion thereon. I transmit herewith a copy of his opinion on the subject, under date of the thirty-first ultimo. I concur in the views therein set forth, and they will guide your official action in cases of this character. The letter of Hoyt and Sears, accompanying yours, is herewith returned. Very respectfully,

W. H. SMITH, Acting Secretary. Hon. WILLIS DRUMMOND, Com'r General Land Office.

[Inclosure.]

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 31, 1872.

Hon. C. DELANO, Secretary of the Interior.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the twentieth instant, submitting for my official opinion the question whether or not title to public

lands producing diamonds can be acquired by individuals or associations under the act of Congress entitled, "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," approved May 10, 1872.

Opinion of Attorney-general.

Section one of said act provides, "That all valuable mineral deposits in the lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the 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." Section six of said act also provides the mode in which a patent may be obtained for land claimed and located for "valuable deposits."

Definition of word mineral.

Bainbridge, in his work on the law of mines and minerals, page one, says: "A mineral has been defined to be a fossil, or what is dug out of the earth. The term may, however, in the most enlarged sense, be described as comprising all the substances which now form, or which once formed, part of the solid body of the earth, both external and internal, and which are now destitute of and incapable of supporting animal or vegetable life. In this view, it will embrace as well the bare granite of the high mountain as the deepest hidden diamonds and metallic ores."

Diamond.

Webster gives the following as the definition of a diamond: "A mineral and a gem, remarkable for its hardness, as it scratches all other minerals." Diamonds are found under a variety of circumstances, and are generally obtained by mining. They are procured in India and South Africa by digging pits in the earth down to a peculiar stratum called the diamond bed.

In Brazil they are washed out of an agglomerate composed of rounded white quartz pebbles and a light colored

sand. Diamonds, then, are clearly "valuable mineral deposits," and the provisions of said act are as applicable to lands containing them as to lands containing gold or other precious metals. Comprehensive words, no doubt, were used to include as well what might afterward be discovered, as what might be overlooked in an enumeration of minerals in the statute.

Argument.

Public lands, for the purposes of sale, are divided into agricultural and mineral lands. The minimum price of the former is one dollar and twenty-five cents, and of the latter five dollars per acre; mineral lands, exclusive of their valuable deposits, are generally worth little or nothing. Prior to the act of July 26, 1866 (14 Stats. 257) it was customary for persons to take those deposits without respect to the rights of the United States; Congress then provided a way in which persons locating lands for mining purposes might acquire title, and other acts have since been passed promotive of the same end. I think these acts ought to be most liberally construed, so as to facilitate the sale of such lands, for in that way and not otherwise can they be made to contribute something to the revenues of the government, and controversy and litigation in mining localities to a great extent prevented.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. H. WILLIAMS, Attorney-general.

No. 16. Public lands containing valuable deposits of slate are subject to location and sale under the mining acts.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 23, 1874.

Register and Receiver, Stockton, Cal.

GENTLEMEN: In reply to your letter of recent date, inclosing the application of S. H. Fickett, M. W. Parsons, J. Heckendorn, and R. C. Patton, for patent for the S. of S. W. of Sec. 29, T. 3 N., R. 11 E., Mt. Do. Mer., containing valuable deposits of slate, I have to

state that the

act of July 9, 1870, and the act of May 10, 1872, provide for the patenting of lands containing valuable deposits, and

where such deposits are found in such quantity and quality as to render a given tract more valuable on this account than for purposes of agriculture, it may be entered under said acts.

Slate.

It appears from the papers transmitted with your said letter, that valuable deposits of roofing-slate have been discovered upon said tract, and that said applicants have expended quite a large amount in the development thereof.

You will allow said applicants to proceed with their said application, and upon full compliance with the law and the instructions, enter and pay for their claim.

You will inform all parties in interest, and acknowledge the receipt hereof.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. W. CURTIS, Acting Commissioner,

No. 17. Title to lands containing valuable deposits of iron may be obtained under the mining law.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 2, 1874.

ANDREW I. STEWART, Esq., Salt Lake City, Utah.

SIR: In reply to your communication of the seventeenth ultimo, I have to state that iron lands may be patented under the mining acts of Congress. Where the iron is found in lodes or veins, or in rock in place, the proceedings to obtain patent are the same as those prescribed in the mining act of May 10, 1872, in case of vein or lode claims.

Where the iron is not found in rock in place, the proceedings to obtain government title are the same as those prescribed by said act in case of placer claims.

One of the conditions precedent to obtaining patent for a mining claim, whether vein or placer, is that an amount of not less than five hundred dollars shall have been expended thereon in actual labor and improvements.

Very respectfully,

W. W. CURTIS, Acting Commissioner.

No. 18. Iron.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 26, 1873.

C. C. CLEMENTS, Esq., U. S. Surveyor-general, Salt Lake City, Utah.

SIR: Referring to the subject of your letter of February 18, 1873, I have to state that prior to the passage of the mining act, approved May 10, 1872, lands containing deposits of iron ore were disposed of for cash at private entry, the same as agricultural lands.

The language of that statute, however, is so comprehensive as to justify the belief that it was the intention of Congress to include iron ore among the mineral deposits to be disposed of under its provisions. Congress, by subsequent legislation, appears to have placed this construction upon the act.

Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

By an act approved February 18, 1873, it is provided that "deposits or mines of iron in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, shall be excluded from the operations of the act of May 10, 1872." This is, in effect, saying that prior to that time deposits or mines of iron had been subject to the operations of said act in those States, and that they remain subject to its operations in the States not specifically named.

To your inquiry, I therefore reply, that lands more valuable on account of veins or deposits of iron than for agricultural purposes, can be entered upon compliance with the several requirements of the mining act of May 10, 1872.

No. 19.

Very respectfully,

WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner.

Lands valuable on account of deposits of fire-clays, may be pat

ented under the mining law.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 10, 1873.

G. BILLINGS, Esq., Assistant Treasurer Germania Smelting and Refining Company, Salt Lake City, Utah.

SIR: In reply to the inquiry in your letter of June 30, 1873, I have to state that lands valuable on account of de