t of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever, r the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public main, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party red for such injury or damage. SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage of s act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been luded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become izens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural rposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, nabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the d settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption ereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and enty-five cents per acre and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty res; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of ongress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An t to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts mendatory thereof. SEC. 11 And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands aforeaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of he said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be ubject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and abject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same. Approved July 26, 1866. INDEX. LETTER FROM SECRETARY OF TREASURY. REPORT OF J. Ross BROWN.... Section 1.-Historical sketch of gold and silver mining on the Pacific slope. 2. Gold found before 1848 3. Marshall's discovery... 4. The discovery of gold in print 5. Excitement abroad. 6. Pan washing.. 7. The rocker 8. Mining ditches. 9. Miners' "rushes". 10. Gold Lake and Gold Bluff. 11. The "tom" 12. The sluice... 13. Placer leads traced to quartz 14. A gold-dredging machine. 15. Decrease of wages... 16. Growth of the quartz interest.. 17. Failure in quartz... 18. Improvement in quartz mining 19. The hydraulic process 20. Hill mining 21. Decline of river mining.. 22. "Rushes" to Australia.. 23. The Kern river excitement. 24. Ancient rivers. 25. The Tuolumne table mountain. 26. The Fraser fever. 27. Discovery of the Comstock lode 28. The Washoe excitement 29. The barrel and yard processes 30. The pan process 31. Growth of the Washoe excitement 32. Virginia City..... 33. The silver panic... 34. Litigation about the Comstock mines. 35. The many-lode theory. 36. Expenses increasing with the depth.. 37. Some characteristics of Esmeraida, Humboldt, and Reese rivers. 38. Sutro tunnel project 39. Baron Richthofen's report. 40. Columbia basin and Cariboo mines Section 2.-Geological formation, &c., of Pacific slope, (Report of Mr. Willi 1. Gold mining interest of California.. 2. Characteristics of the gold belt 3. Northern mining districts.. 4. Mining in the sierras; mills, expenses, &c Section 3.--Condition of gold and silver mining on the Pacific coast. 1. Decrease of yield... 2. The exportation of treasure from California 3. Receipts from northern and southern mines.. 4. Comparison of receipts and exports 5. Quartz yield increasing.. 6. Uncertainty in quartz mining 7. Professor Ashburner's statistics. 8. Rémond's statistics... 9. Pulverization of quartz 10. Amalgamation of gold... 45. Improvements in silver mining.. 84 Section 4.-Resources of Nevada, Oregon, Washington Territory, Utah, Montana, and Idalio 85 4. Mining property, &c.. 120 5. General view of the mines of Nevada, Washington Territory, Utah, Montana, 123 Report of Dr. A. Blatchly 132 Southeastern Nevada.. 132 Arizona, (extract from Governor McCormick's message, October 8, 1866). 135 " 1 7. Timber. Section 9.-Annotated catalogue of the principal mineral species hitherto ree Notes on the geographical distribution and geology, &c.......... Section 10.-Laws and customs of foreign governments in relation to the oce 1. The crown right 2. Permanent titles to mineral lands in the United States.. Section 11......... 1. Mining laws... 2. Need of congressional mining law. 3. The customary limitation of size. 4. Proposed width of claims.... 5. Work required to hold claims... 6. Proposed change as to work required 7. Law needed for centuries of mining.. 8. Congress alone can establish uniformity 9. Miners' regulations-Quartz regulations of Nevada county, California. 10. Quartz regulations of Sierra county, California 11. Quartz regulations of Tuolumne county, California.. 11. Quartz regulations of Sacramento county.. 12. Placer regulations of Columbia district, California. 13. Placer regulations of North San Juan district.. 14. Placer regulations of Pilot Hill. 15. Regulations of New Kanaka camp. 16 Regulations of the Copperopolis (copper) district 22. Statute of Arizona... 23. The mining laws of Mexico 1 Books on Californian mines. 2. Table of distances... Appendix 1. Address on the history of California.. Appendix 2. Address on the acquisition of California by the United States. GOLD MINES EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF TREASURY REPORT OF JAMES W. TAYLOR The Rocky mountains New Mexico Colorado. Montana. |