all cases to the gauge suitable for trunk-roads would be to check, nay, even to prevent, the construction of many tributary or branch roads, in themselves most necessary for the development of the country. Thus, in the vast empire of India, where the trunk-roads have the 5-foot 6inch gauge, the government is seriously and favorably entertaining the question of adopting a much narrower gauge for the tributary roads, to open up the country.

With the above reservation, Sir Charles Fox & Sons, and others interested in this question, have found, after an experience spread over many years, that the most economical gauge for such tributary roads which can be used with advantage is that of 3 feet 6 inches. A broader gauge than this is, in their opinion, for speeds of twenty-five miles an hour and moderate traffic; quite unnecessary, and of course involves additional outlay, especially if the country is of a hilly nature. To use, on the other hand, a narrower gauge than 3 feet 6 inches is likewise objectionable, and especially so where wood is the fuel chiefly employed, as on very narrow gauges it becomes impossible to use either boilers or fire-boxes of such dimensions as to give satisfactory results.

The following are given as examples of railroads which have been built, or are now in progress of construction, upon this gauge:

Examples and cost in gold, including in each case stations, rolling-stock, engineering, and all management expenses.

1st. The Queensland Railways, Australia. Length, two hundred and twenty-two miles; gauge, 3 feet 6 inches. Wages: Skilled laborer, $2 50 to $3 10; ordinary, $1 50 to $1 75. Average cost per mile, $32,000. 2d. The railway from Conyeveram to Arconnur, India. Length, nineteen miles; gauge, 3 feet 6 inches. (Land and portion of road-bed given by government.) Materials chiefly sent out from England. Rails, 35 pounds; iron. Average cost per mile, $19,000.

3d. The Toronto, Grey and Bruce, and the Toronto and Nipissing Railways, Canada. Length of first section, one hundred and ninetythree miles; gauge, 3 feet 6 inches. Wages: Ordinary laborer, $1 to $1 50. Average cost per mile, $14,150.

4th. The government railways, Norway, (constructed by Carl Pihl, civil engineer.) Length, one hundred and six miles; gauge, 3 feet 6 inches. (Rails and many other materials sent out from England.) First, through easy country, $15,900 per mile; second, through heavy country, $23,700 to $26,150 per mile.

It will be seen that, the two first of these principles being conceded, it at once becomes possible to construct a thoroughly substantial track with rails not weighing more than from 30 to 40 pounds per linear yard, provided that the ties are laid sufficiently close, the rails well fished at the joints, and an ample supply of ballast provided.

The speed of twenty-five miles an hour is found in practice to be more than sufficient for tributary roads. A load of four tons per wheel is sufficient to enable the passenger and freight cars to be of ample dimensions for convenience of traffic.

The passenger-cars of latest design are of the usual American type, 32 feet long exclusive of platforms, and 8 feet 6 inches wide, carrying very comfortably thirty-two passengers. Their center of gravity being very low, they run with great steadiness. The box-cars are 15 feet long and 8 feet 6 inches wide. The platform-cars are 24 feet long and 8 feet 6 inches wide, and carry ten tons, their own weight being only five tons. It will thus be seen that the non-paying load, or dead weight, is re

duced from the usual proportion of one-half to one-third of the gross weight; and from this results an important saving in operating expenses. The locomotives are generally of two types.

Type 1, or freight-engine, has 11-inch to 12-inch cylinders, six coupled wheels, 3 feet 3 inches in diameter, and a four-wheeled bogie, and weighs about twenty tons, exclusive of tender.

Type 2, or passenger-engine, has 10-inch to 11-inch cylinders, four coupled wheels, 3 feet 3 inches in diameter, and a four-wheeled bogie, and weighs about sixteen tons, exclusive of tender.

The maximum grades vary from 100 to 132 feet to the mile. The sharpest curves are from 500 to 330 feet radius. The grading has generally a width in cuts of 15 feet, and on banks of 12 feet. The bridges are sometimes of iron, with masonry substructure; sometimes altogether of timber. The depots are of neat but economical design. The railroads are generally fenced throughout.

On the Canadian roads careful arrangements are made to protect the track from snow, and to provide in every detail against the effects of frost.

The cost of the Canadian roads, viz, about $14,000 per mile, may be taken to fairly represent the probable outlay (including every expense of right of way, management, &c.) for the building and equipping of a road of this gauge through an undulating and well-settled country, involving considerable expenses for right of way, say, 15,000 cubic yards of grading per mile, frequent road-crossings, fencing throughout, and a fair proportion of bridges, depots, side-tracks, and an ample equipment for a considerable traffic.

On the other hand, in the great prairie country of the West, where right of way, grading, and bridging are at the minimum, where 36-pound rails would be ample, where fencing is not necessary, and where the provision for depots, side-tracks, and equipments could be materially reduced, a well-constructed and substantial railroad of the 3-foot 6-inch gauge may be completed and equipped ready for operating, with an expenditure not exceeding from $8,000 to $10,000 per mile, and on such a road, as both grades and curves would be easy, trains carrying a net load of 100 tons of freight could be operated with facility at a speed of from twenty to twenty-five miles per hour.

OPERATING.

So far as the gauge is concerned, the cost of traction would be very much the same per train-mile, and per ton as on railroads of the ordinary 4-foot 8-inch gauge, were it not reduced by the much more favorable proportion which the net or paying load bears to the gross weight of the train. Moreover, in consequence of the lower speeds and the lightrolling loads there is on these light railways a most important saving in wear and tear, both of tracks and equipment, and the total cost of operating is therefore considerably reduced.

I earnestly commend this subject to those in the West who are interested in the opening out and settlement of districts not yet supplied with railroads, and refer them for more detailed information to Sir Charles Fox & Sons, 6 Delahay street, London.

Another variety of so-called narrow-gauge railways should rather be ranked with the suspension tramways, of which the wire tramways at the Brown, Griffith, and Stevens mines in Clear Creek County, Colorado, described in my last report, (page 372,) are examples. At the meeting of the British Association, to which reference has already been made, draw

ings were exhibited of a road recently constructed as a branch line for carrying iron ore from the Park-house mines to the Furness Railway in North Lancashire. The gauge of this line is 8 inches, and the length about one mile. It is carried at various elevations from 3 to 20 feet over an undulating country, passing over the fences, roads, and water-courses without requiring the construction of earthworks or masonry. The structure consists of a narrow beam of wood, supported at intervals on a single row of pillars. The narrow gauge is practically made equivalent to a broader one by the steadying power of guide-rails fixed on the sides of the beam and below the carrying rails. The wagons are suspended from the axles, and by this means the center of gravity is brought low. They are also furnished with horizontal wheels, which run upon the guide-bars, and thus maintain the equilibrium of the carriages, and render it almost impossible for them to leave the rails. The Parkhouse line will have a traffic of 50,000 tons per annum. The cost has been £1,000 per mile, without stations or rolling-stock. It is worked by a stationary engine and endless wire rope. The saving effected in the cost of transport will be at least 6d. per ton upon the distance of one mile. In Switzerland application has been made to the government of the canton Vaud for a passenger line on this principle from the town of Lausanne to the lake of Geneva. Plans have also been laid before the war office for accelerating military transport in foreign countries, and before the governor-general of India for the construction of cheap branches from the trunk lines in that country. The gauge of these railways may be from 6 to 18 inches. They may be made of wood or iron, or of the two combined, and may be worked by either stationary engines or by locomotives of a form specially designed for the purpose. They have the advantages of being economical in both construction and working; they occupy but little land and cause no severance; they may be erected with great rapidity, and, being portable, may be removed when no longer required and reërected in another locality. Before the war commenced, an offer was made to the French government to construct one of these portable railways to supply their army with from 1,000 to 3,000 tons of ammunition and provisions per day. The work would have been undertaken by a gentleman in Paris, who, with a force of 2,500 men, would have constructed from four to five miles of railway per day, following the advance of the army into Germany. The result has, however, shown how little such a provision was needed.*

* Since the foregoing chapter was compiled the available data on the subject have been greatly augmented, and the narrow-gauge system has been eagerly taken up by American enterprise. I hear of proposed roads on this plan in many parts of the West, and probably before another year has elapsed many such undertakings will be in progress. At the present moment, however, I cannot distinguish between rumors, or sanguine schemes, and facts.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE MINING LAW.

The following are the two acts of Congress under which the present administration of the mining law is conducted, so far as the United States Government is concerned. They comprise, therefore, all the regulations which are universal in their application, and superior to the local and variable rules established by State and territorial legislation, or by the "laws" and "customs" of mining districts:

AN ACT granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the mineral lands of the public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States, and those who have declared their intention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and subject also to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any person, or association of persons, claim a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local customs or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements theron an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be lawful for said claimant, or association of claimants, to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to follow such vein or lode, with its dips, angles, and variations to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon the filing of the diagram as provided in the second section of this act, and posting the same in a conspicuous place on the claim, together with a notice of intention to apply for a patent, the register of the land office shall publish a notice of the same in a newspaper published nearest to the location of said claim, and shall also post such notice in his office for the period of ninety days; and after the expiration of said period, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the duty of the surveyor general, upon application of the party, to survey the premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his approval, designating the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed; and upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, together with the cost of such survey, plat, and notice, and giving satisfactory evidence that said diagram and notice have been posted on the claim during said period of ninety days, the register of the land office shall transmit to the General Land Office said plat, survey, and description, and a patent shall issue for the same thereupon. But said plat, survey, or description shall in no case cover more than one vein or lode, and no patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode, which shall be expressed in the patent issued.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That when such location and entry of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands, it shall and may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the surveys to the limits of the premises according to the location and possession and plat aforesaid; and the surveyor general may, in extending the surveys, vary the same from a rectangular form to suit the circumstances of the country and the local rules, laws, and customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter made shall exceed two hundred feet in length along the vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for the convenient working of the same, as fixed by local rules: And provided further, That no person may make more than one location on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any association of persons.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further 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.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse claimants to any mine, located and claimed as aforesaid, shall appear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until final settlement and adjudication, in the courts of competent jurisdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, 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 act.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That 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 construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage 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.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage of this act, 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 said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of preemption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of Congress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to preëmption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

Approved July 26, 1866.

AN ACT to amend "An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes, approved July twenty-six, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following additional sections, numbered twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, respectively, which shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the aforesaid act.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That claims, usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under this act, under like circumstances and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims: Provided, That where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further survey or plat in such case being required, and the lands may be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre: Provided further, That legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into ten-acre tracts; and that two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof: And provided further, That no location of a placer claim, hereafter made, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bonafide preemption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona-fide settler to any purchaser.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That where said person or association, they and