General Land Office to establish the rates to be charged for surveys and for newspaper publications, prescribes the fees allowed to the local officers for receiving and acting upon applications for mining patents and for adverse claims thereto, etc.

83. The surveyors-general of the several districts will, in pursuance of said law, appoint in each land district as many competent deputies for the survey of mining claims as may seek such appointment; it being distinctly understood that all expenses of these notices and surveys are to be borne by the mining claimants and not by the United States; the system of making deposits for mineral surveys, as required by previous instructions, being hereby revoked as regards field work; the claimant having the option of employing any deputy surveyor within such district to do his work in the

field.

84. With regard to the platting of the claim and other office work, in the surveyor-general's office, that officer will make an estimate of the cost thereof, which amount the claimant will deposit 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 file with the surveyor-general duplicate certificates of such deposit in the usual manner.

85. The surveyors-general will endeavor to appoint mineral deputy surveyors so that one or more may be located in each mining district for the greater convenience of miners.

86. The usual oaths will be required of these deputies and their assistants as to the correctness of each survey executed by them.

87. The law requires that each applicant shall file with the Register and Receiver a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by him for publication of notice and for survey; together with all fees and money paid the Register and Receiver, which sworn statement is required to be transmitted to this office, for the information of the Commissioner.

88. 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.

89. 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.

90. All fees or charges under this law may be paid in United States currency.

91. The Register and Receiver will, at the close of each month, forward to this office an abstract of mining applications filed, and a register of receipts, accompanied with an abstract of mineral lands sold, and an abstract of adverse claims filed.

92. 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 ESTABLISH THE CHARACTER OF LANDS.*

93. Section 2335 provides that all affidavits required under this chapter may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated, and all testimony and proofs may be taken before any such officer, and when duly certified by the officer taking the same shall have the same force aud effect as if taken before the Register and Receiver of the land office.

94. Hearings of this character, as practically distinguished, are of two kinds:

1. Where lands which are sought to be entered and patented as agricultural are alleged by affidavit to be mineral, or when sought as mineral their non-mineral character is alleged.

The proceedings relative to this class are in the nature of a contest between two or more known parties, and the testimony may be taken on personal notice of at least ten days, duly served on all parties, or, if they can not be found, then

* See Nos. 3 and 4.

by publication, for thirty days in a newspaper of general circulation, to be designated by the register of the land office as published nearest to the land in controversy. If publication is made in a weekly newspaper, the notice must be inserted in five consecutive weekly issues thereof.

2. When lands are returned as mineral by the Surveyorgeneral, or are withdrawn as mineral by direction of this office.

When such lands are sought to be entered as agricultural, notice must be given by publication for thirty days, as aforesaid, and also by posting in a conspicuous place on each forty-acre subdivision of the land claimed, for the same period.

95. All notices must describe the land, give the name and address of the claimant, the character of his claim, and the time, place, and purpose of the hearing.

Proof of service of notice, when personal, must consist of either acknowledgment of service indorsed on the citation (which is always desirable), or the affidavit of the party. serving the same, giving date, place, and manner of service, indorsed as aforesaid.

Proof of publication must be the affidavit of the publisher of the newspaper, stating the period of publication, giving dates, stating whether in a daily or weekly issue, and a copy of the notice so published must be attached to, and form a .part of, the affidavit.

Proof of posting on the claim must be made by the affidavits of two or more persons who state when and where the notice was posted; that it remained so posted during the prescribed period, giving dates, and a copy of the notice so posted must be attached to, and made a part of, the affidavits.

Proof of notice is indispensable to the regularity of proceedings, and must accompany the record in every case. The expense of notice must in every case be paid by the parties thereto.

96. At the hearing there must be filed the affidavit of the publisher of the paper that the said notice was published for the required time, stating when and for how long such publication was made, a printed copy thereof to be attached and made a part of the affidavit. In every case where prac

ticable, in addition to the foregoing, personal notice must be served upon the mineral affiants, and upon any parties who may be mining upon or claiming the land.

97. At the hearing, 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 never 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.

98. The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land, what kinds of crops are raised thereon, and the value thereof; the number of acres actually cultivated for crops or cereals or vegetables, and within which particular ten-acre subdivisions such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace his improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of his improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc.

99. It is thought that bona fide settlers upon lands really agricultural will be able to show, by a clear, logical, and succinct chain of evidence, that their claims are founded upon law and justice; while parties who have made little or no permanent agricultural improvements, and who only seek title for speculative purposes, on account of the mineral deposits known to themselves to be contained in the laud, will be defeated in their intentions.

100. The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and, in addition to the leading points indicated above, everything of importance bearing upon the question

of the character of the land should be elicited at the hearing.

101. Where the testimony is taken before an officer who does not use a seal, other than the register and receiver, the official character of such officer must be attested by a clerk of a court of record, and the testimony transmitted to the register and receiver, who will thereupon examine and forward the same to this office, with their joint opinion as to the character of the land as shown by the testimony.

102. When the case comes before this office, such an award of the land will be made as the law and the facts may justify; and in cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land in any forty-acre tract, the necessary instructions will be issued to enable the agricultural claimant, at his own expense, to have the work done, at his option, either by the United States deputy, county, or other local surveyor; the survey in such case may be executed in such manner as will segregate the portion of land actually containing the mine, and used as surface ground for the convenient working thereof, from the remainder of the tract, which remainder will be patented to the agriculturist to whom the same may have been awarded, subject, however, to the condition that the land may be entered upon by the proprietor of any vein or lode for which a patent has been issued by the United States for the purpose of extracting and removing the ore from the same, where found to penetrate or intersect the land so patented as agricultural, as stipulated by the mining act.

103. 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.

104. Upon the filing of the plat and field-notes of such survey, duly sworn to as aforesaid, you will transmit the same to the surveyor-general for his verification and approval; who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will properly mark out the same upon the original township plat in his office, and furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, to be affixed to the duplicate and triplicate township plats respectively.