§2335, Revised Statutes.

All affidavits required to be made 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 and effect as if taken before the register and receiver of the land office. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character of land, the testimony and proofs may be taken as herein provided on personal notice of at least 10 days to the opposing party; or if such party cannot be found, then by publication of at least once a week for 30 days in a newspaper, to be designated by the register of the land office as published nearest to the location of such land; and the register shall require proof that such notice has been given.

§2336, Revised Statutes.

Where two or more veins intersect or cross each other, priority of title shall govern, and such prior location shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but the subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space of intersection for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine. And where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take the vein below the point of union, including all the space of intersection.

§2337, Revised Statutes.

Where nonmineral land not contiguous to the vein or lode is used or occupied by the proprietor of such vein or lode for mining or milling purposes, such nonadjacent surface ground may be embraced and included in an application for a patent for such vein or lode, and the same may be patented therewith, subject to the same preliminary requirements as to survey and notice as are applicable to veins or lodes; but no location hereafter made of such nonadjacent land shall exceed five acres, and payment for the same must be made at the same rate as fixed by this chapter for the superficies of the lode. The owner of a quartz mill or reduction works, not owning a mine in connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill site, as provided in this section.

§2338, Revised Statutes.

As a condition of sale, in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory may

provide rules for working mines, involving easements, drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent.

§2339, Revised Statutes.

Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the con-struction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

§2340, Revised Statutes.

All patents granted, or preemption, or homesteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or righ's to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may have been acquired under or reccgnized by the preceding section.

§2341, Revised Statutes.

Wherever, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of $1.25 per acre, and in quantity not to exceed 160 acres; or they may avail themselves of the provisions of chapter 5 of this Title, relating to "Homesteads."

§2342, Revised Statutes.

Upon the survey of the lands described in the preceding section, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which

lands shall thereafter be subject to preemption and sale as other public lands, and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

§2343, Revised Statutes.

The President is authorized to establish additional land districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this chapter.

§2344, Revised Statutes.

Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to impair, in any way, rights or interests in mining property acquired under existing laws; nor to affect the provisions of the act entitled "An act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada," approved July 25, 1866.

$2345, Revised Statutes.

The provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter shall not apply to the mineral lands situated in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which are declared free and open to exploration and purchase, according to legal subdivisions, in like manner as before the 10th day of May, 1872. And any bona fide entries of such lands within the States named since the 10th day of May, 1872, may be patented without reference to any of the foregoing provisions of this chapter. Such lands shall be offered for public sale in the same manner, at the same minimum price, and under the same rights of preemption as other public lands.

§2346, Revised Statutes.

No act passed at the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress granting lands to States or corporations to aid in the construction of roads or for other purposes, or to extend the time of grants made prior to the 30th day of January, 1865, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in all cases are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless otherwise specially provided in the act or acts making the grant.

COAL STATUTES.

13 Stat. 343, July 1, 1864.
COAL LANDS-DISPOSAL.

An Act to Dispose of Coal Lands and of Town Property in the Public Domain.

Be it enacted, etc., That where any tracts embracing coal beds or coal fields, constituting portions of the public domain, and which, as mines," are excluded from the preemption act of 1841, and which under past legislation are not liable to ordinary private entry, it shall and may be lawful for the President to cause such tracts, in suitable legal subdivisions, to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, after public notice of not less than three months, at a minimum price of $20 per acre; and any lands not thus disposed of shall thereafter be liable to private entry at said minimum.

An Act Supplemental to the Act Approved July 1, 1864, for the Disposal of Coal Lands, Etc.

Be it enacted, etc., That in the case of any citizen of the United States who, at the passage of this act, may be in the business of bona fide actual coal mining on the public lands, except on lands reserved by the President of the United States for public uses, for purposes of commerce, such citizen, upon making proof satisfactory to the register and receiver to that effect, shall have the right to enter, according to legal subdivisions, a quantity of land not exceeding 160 acres, to embrace his improvements and mining premises, at the minimum price of $20 per acre, fixed in the coal and town property act of July 1, 1864: Provided, That where the mining improvements and premises are on lands surveyed at the passage of this act, a sworn declaratory statement descriptive of the tract and premises, showing also the extent and character of the improvements, shall be filed within six months from the date of this act; and proof and payment shall be made within one year from the date of such filing; but where such mining premises may be on lands hereafter to be surveyed, such declaratory statement shall be filed within three months from the return to the district land office of the

official plat; and proof and payment shall be made within one year from the date of filing.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That in the case of any city or town which, at the passage of this act, may be existing on the public lands in which the lots therein may be variant as to size from the limitations fixed in the said act of July 1, 1864, and in which the lots and buildings as municipal improvements shall cover an area greater than 160 acres, such variance as to size of lots or excess in area shall prove no bar to such city or town claim, under said act of July 1, 1864, effect to be given to this act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, That the minimum price of each said lots in any such town or city, which may contain a greater number of square feet than the maximum named in the act to which this is an amendment, shall be increased to such reasonable amount as the Secretary of the Interior may by rule establish: Provided, further, That where mineral veins are possessed, which possession is recognized by local authority, and to the extent so possessed and recognized, the title to town lots to be acquired shall be subject to such recognized possession and the necessary use thereof: Provided, however, That nothing contained herein shall be so construed as to recognize any color of title in possessors for mining purposes as against the Government of the United States.

ORIGINAL COAL-LAND ACT.

17 Stat. 607, March 3, 1873.

An Act to Provide for the Sale of the Lands of the United States Containing Coal.

Be it enacted, etc., That any person above the age of 21 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 160 acres to such individual person, or 320 acres to such association, upon payment to the receiver of not less than $10 per acre for such lands, where the same shall be situated more than 15 miles from any completed railroad, and not less than $20 per acre for such lands as shall be within 15 miles of such road.