to my knowledge, within the limits thereof any vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, or copper, and that there is not within the limits of said land, to my knowledge, any valuable deposit of gold, silver, or copper. So help me God. 29. When the township plat is not on file at date of claimant's first possession the declaratory statement must be filed within sixty days from the filing of such plat in your office. 30. One year from and after the expiration of the period allowed for filing the declaratory statement is given within which to make proof and payment; but you will allow no party to make final proof and payment except on notice to all others who appear on your records as claimants to the same tract. 31. A party who otherwise complies with the law may enter after the expiration of said year, provided no valid adverse right shall have intervened. He postpones his entry beyond said year at his own risk, and the Government can not thereafter protect him against another who complies with the law, and the value of his improvements can have no weight in his favor. 32. Each claimant at the time of actual purchase must make affidavit as follows: to the .., claiming under the provisions of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to the sale of coal-lands of the United States, the right of purchase quarter of section ......, in township ...... of range ......, subject to sale at do solemnly swear that I have never had the right of purchase under the aforesaid provisions of law either as an individual or as a member of an association, and that I have never held any other lands under its provisions; I further swear that I have expended in developing coal mines on said tract, in labor and improvements, the sum of ... dollars, the nature of such improvements being as follows: .; that I am now in the actual possession of said mines, and make the entry for my own use and benefit, and not directly or indirectly for the use and benefit of any other party; and I do furthermore swear that I am well acquainted with the character of said described land, and with each and every legal subdivision thereof, having frequently passed over the same; that my knowledge of said land is such as to enable me to testify understandingly with regard thereto; that the same is chiefly valuable for coal; that there is not, to my knowledge, within the limits thereof any vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, or copper, and that there is not within the limits of said land, to my knowledge, any valuable deposit of gold, silver, or copper. So help me God. 33. The application, declaratory statement, and the affidavit required at the time of actual purchase, the forms of which are given above under paragraphs 23, 28, and 32, may be sworn to before any officer authorized by law to administer oaths, but the authority of such officer must be properly shown. 34. Any party duly qualified under the law, after swearing to his application or declaratory statement, may, by a sufficient power of attorney duly executed under the laws of the State or Territory in which such party may then be residing, empower an agent to file with the register of the proper land office the application, declaratory statement, or affidavit required at the time of actual purchase, and also authorize him to make payment for and entry of the land in the name of such qualified party; and when such power of attorney shall have been filed in your office you will permit such agent to act thereunder as above indicated. 35. Where a claimant shows by affidavit that he is not personally acquainted with the character of the land, his duly authorized agent who possesses such knowledge may make the required affidavit as to its character; but whether this affidavit is made by principal or agent it must be corroborated by the affidavits of two disinterested and credible witnesses having knowledge of its character. 36. Nothing in these regulations shall be so construed as to prevent a party from proving his citizenship or age, or establishing the status of the lands sought to be entered, in accordance with ordinary rules of evidence; and any proof regularly introduced for that purpose that would be competent in a court or before a commissioner charged with the ascertainment of facts may be considered. 37. Assignments of the right to purchase will be recognized when properly executed. Proof and payment must be made, however, within the prescribed period, which dates from the first day of the possession of the assignor who initiated the claim. 38. The "Rules of Practice in cases before the United States district land offices, the General Land Office, and the Department of the Interior," approved December 20, 1880 [Revision approved January 27, 1899], will, as far as applicable, govern all cases and proceedings arising under the sections of the Revised Statutes above quoted providing for the sale of coal-lands of the United States. 39. You will report at the close of each month as "sales of coal lands" all filings and entries in separate abstracts, commencing with No. 1 and thereafter proceeding consecutively in the order of their reception. Where a series of numbers has already been commenced by sale of coal-lands you will continue the same without change. N. C. MCFARLAND, Commissioner. TO REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, July 31, 1882. H. M. TELLER, Secretary. COAL CLAIMANTS' APPLICATIONS. [From circular instructions issued August 7, 1895, relative to deposits by individuals for the survey of public lands under section 2401, Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of August 20, 1894.-21 L. D., 77.] In addition to the rights of settlers, referred to in the foregoing portions of this circular, sections 2401, 2402, and 2403, United States Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of August 20, 1894, embrace provisions in favor of "persons and associations lawfully possessed of coal lands and otherwise qualified to make entry thereof." For The coal-land laws contained in sections 2347 to 2352, United States Revised Statutes, provide methods by which persons properly qualified may become lawfully possessed of coal lands even before the survey of the lands, and be entitled to enter the same after survey. particular information in regard thereto, reference is made to Departmental circular of July 31, 1882, entitled "Coal-Land Laws and Regulations Thereunder." Such parties, in cases where the tracts of which they are lawfully possessed are still unsurveyed, may, under said sections 2401, 2402, and 2403, as amended by act of August 20, 1894, apply to the surveyor-general for the surveying district in which the lands are included, for a survey of the township or townships including the land, according to the provisions of said sections. Such an application must be accompanied by the affidavit of the applicant or applicants substantially as prescribed for declaratory statements on page 7 of the said circular of July 31, 1882, corroborated by the testimony of two or more witnesses, in which the qualifications of the applicants, the character and location of the land, indicating the township or townships in which it is included as nearly as practicable, and other essential facts must be so set forth as to satisfy the surveyorgeneral that the case comes properly within the provisions of the law as above given. He will, thereupon, if he approves the application, transmit the same to this office, with the required proofs and his report. INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE ACQUISITION OF TITLE TO COAL LANDS IN ALASKA. [Act of Congress approved June 6, 1900 (Public-No. 168), entitled "An act to extend the coal-land laws to the district of Alaska."] Circular.] DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., June 27, 1900. To Registers and Receivers, District of Alaska. GENTLEMEN: Your attention is directed to the following act of Congress approved June 6, 1900, extending the coal-land laws to the district of Alaska: AN ACT to extend the coal-land laws to the district of Alaska. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much of the public-land laws of the United States are hereby extended to the district of Alaska as relate to coal lands, namely, sections twenty-three hundred and forty-seven to twenty-three hundred and fifty-two, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes. Under the coal-land law, sections 2347 to 2352, inclusive, of the Revised Statutes, and the regulations thereunder issued July 31, 1882, coal-land filings and entries must be by legal subdivisions as made by the regular United States Survey. Section 2401 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by act of August 20, 1894, is as follows: Section 2401 (as amended by the act of August 20, 1894). When the settlers in any township not mineral or reserved by the Government, or persons and associations lawfully possessed of coal lands and otherwise qualified to make entry thereof, or when the owners or grantees of public lands of the United States, under any law thereof, desire a survey made of the same under the authority of the surveyor-general and shall file an application therefor in writing, and shall deposit in a proper United States depository to the credit of the United States a sum sufficient to pay for such survey, together with all expenditures incident thereto, without cost or claim for indemnity on the United States, it shall be lawful for the surveyor-general, under such instructions as may be given him by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and in accordance with law, to survey such township or such public lands owned by said grantees of the Government, and make return therefor to the general and proper local land office: Provided, That no application shall be granted unless the township so proposed to be surveyed is within the range of the regular progress of the public surveys embraced by existing standard lines or bases for township and subdivisional surveys. Under said section 2401 as amended, persons and associations lawfully possessed of coal claims upon unsurveyed lands may have such claims surveyed, provided the township so proposed to be surveyed is within the range of the regular progress of the public surveys embraced by existing standard lines or bases for township and subdivisional surveys. Although the system of public-land surveys was extended to the district of Alaska by a provision contained in the act of Congress approved March 3, 1899 (30 Stat., 1098), no township or subdivisional surveys have been made, nor have any standard lines or bases for township and subdivisional surveys been established within the district; therefore, until the filing in your office of the official plat of survey of the township, no coal filing nor entry can be made. BINGER HERMANN, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, June 27, 1900. Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., January 5, 1904. To Registers and Receivers, United States land offices. SIRS: Paragraphs 30 and 31 of the Coal-Land Regulations (circular of July 31, 1882) were, on December 31, 1903, amended by the Secretary of the Interior, to read as follows: 30. One year from and after the expiration of the period allowed for filing a coal declaratory statement is given within which to make proof and payment; but you will allow no party to make final proof and payment except on notice to all others who appear on your records as claimants to the same tract. No notice will hereafter be given to parties whose coal filings have expired by limitation under the law. 31. A declarant who otherwise complies with the law may enter after the expiration of said year, provided no valid adverse right shall have intervened, but postpones his entry beyond said year at his own risk. Thereafter the land is subject to entry by any duly qualified applicant, without notice to the claimant under the expired declaratory statement; and the Government can not thereafter protect the latter against another who complies with the law or give the value of his improvements any weight in his favor. Very respectfully, W. A. RICHARDS, INSTRUCTIONS TO REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS. [Act of March 3, 1887.] DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., February 13, 1889. To registers and receivers, United States land offices. GENTLEMEN: The following instructions under the act of Congress approved March 3, 1887 (24 Stat. L., 556), are forwarded for your guidance: FIRST SECTION. The first section directs that all railroad land grants not adjusted heretofore shall be adjusted immediately; that is, without unnecessary delay. The duties thereunder pertain to the General Land Office and Department of the Interior. SECOND SECTION. The second section provides for the recovery by the United States of title to lands which from any cause have been erroneously certified or patented "to or for the use or benefit of any company" on account of railroad grant, whenever the fact may be ascertained that a certificate or patent has been erroneously issued, and prescribes the duties of the Secretary of the Interior and Attorney-General in connection therewith. THIRD SECTION. The third section provides: That if in the adjustment of said grants it shall appear that the homestead or preemption entry of any bona fide settler has been erroneously canceled on account of any railroad grant or the withdrawal of public lands from market, such settler, upon application, shall be reinstated in all his rights and allowed to perfect his entry by complying with the public-land laws: Provided, That he has not located another claim or made an entry in lieu of the one so erroneously canceled: And provided also, That he did not voluntarily abandon said original entry: And provided further, That if any of said settlers do not renew their application to be reinstated within a reasonable time, to be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, then all such unclaimed lands shall be disposed of under the public-land laws, with priority of right given to bona fide purchasers of said unclaimed land, if any, and if there be no such purchasers then to bona fide settlers residing thereon. Three classes of persons are provided for under this section: First. Bona fide settlers whose homestead or preemption entries have been erroneously canceled on account of a railroad grant or withdrawal. Second. Bona fide purchasers of such unclaimed lands. |