bearing vein, lode, or crevice; should determine, if possible, the genera course of such vein in either direction from the point of discovery, by which direction he will be governed in marking the boundaries of his claim on the surface. His location notice should give the course and distance as nearly as practicable from the discovery-shaft on the claim, to some permanent, well-known points or objects, such, for instance, as stone monuments, blazed trees, the confluence of streams, point of intersection of well-known gulches, ravines, or roads, prominent buttes, hills, etc., which may be in the immediate vicinity, and which will serve to perpetuate and fix the locus of the claim and render it susceptible of identification from the description thereof given in the record of locations in the district, and should be duly recorded.

15. In addition to the foregoing data, the claimant should state the names of adjoining claims, or, if none adjoin, the relative positions of the nearest claims; should drive a post or erect a monument of stones at each corner of his surface-ground, and at the point of discovery or discovery shaft should fix a post, stake, or board, upon which should be designated the name of the lode, the name or names of the locators, the number of feet claimed, and in which direction from the point of discovery; it being essential that the location notice filed for record, in addition to the foregoing description, should state whether the entire claim of fifteen hundred feet is taken on one side of the point of discovery, or whether it is partly upon one and partly upon the other side thereof, and in the latter case, how many feet are claimed upon each side of such discovery-point.

16. Within a reasonable time, say twenty days after the location shall have been marked on the ground, or such time as is allowed by the local laws, notice thereof, accurately describing the claim in manner aforesaid, should be filed for record with the proper recorder of the district, who will thereupon issue the usual certificate of location.

17. In order to hold the possessory right to a location made since May 10, 1872, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor must be performed, or improvements made thereon annually until entry shall have been made. Under the provisions of the act of Congress approved January 22, 1880, the first annual expenditure becomes due and must be performed during the calendar year succeeding that in which the location was made. Expenditure made or labor performed prior to the first day of January succeeding the date of location will not be considered as a part of, or applied upon the first annual expenditure required by law. Failure to make the expenditure or perform the labor required will subject the claim to relocation by any other party having the necessary qualifications, unless the original locator, his heirs, assigns, or legal representatives have resumed work thereon after such failure and before such relocation.

18. The expenditures required upon mining-claims may be made from the surface or in running a tunnel for the development of such claims, the act of February 11, 1875, providing that where a person or company has, or may, run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode or lodes owned by said person or company, the money so expended in said tunnel shall be taken and considered as expended on said lode or lodes, and such person or company shall not be required to perform work on the surface of said lode or lodes in order to hold the same.

19. The importance of attending to these details in the matter of location, labor, and expenditure will be the more readily perceived when it is understood that a failure to give the subject proper attention may invalidate the claim.

TUNNEL RIGHTS.

20. Section 2323 provides that where a tunnel is run for the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from the face of such tunnel on the line thereof, not previously known to exist, discovered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if discovered from the surface; and locations on the line of such tunnel of veins or lodes not appearing on the surface, made by other parties after the commencement of the tunnel, and while the same is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence, shall be invalid; but failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be considered as an abandonment of the right to all undiscovered veins or lodes on the line of said tunnel.

21. The effect of this is simply to give the proprietors of a mining tunnel run in good faith the possessory right to fifteen hundred feet of any blind lodes cut, discovered, or intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known to exist, within three thousand feet from the face or point of commencement of such tunnel, and to prohibit other parties, after the commencement of the tunnel, from prospecting for and making locations of lodes on the line thereof and within said distance of three thousand feet, unless such lodes appear upon the surface or were previously known to exist.

22. The term "face," as used in said section, is construed and held to mean the first working-face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at which the tunnel actually enters cover; it being from this point that the three thousand feet are to be counted, upon which prospecting is prohibited as aforesaid.

23. To avail themselves of the benefits of this provision of law, the proprietors of a mining tunnel will be required, at the time they enter cover as aforesaid, to give proper notice of their tunnel location by erecting a substantial post, board, or monument at the face or point of commencement thereof, upon which should be posted a good and sufficient notice, giving the names of the parties or company claiming the tunnel-right; the actual or proposed course or direction of the tunnel; the height and width thereof, and the course and distance from such face or point of commencement to some permanent well-known objects in the vicinity by which to fix and determine the locus in manner heretofore set forth applicable to locations of veins or lodes, and at the time of posting such notice they shall, in order that miners or prospectors may be enabled to determine whether or not they are within the lines of the tunnel, establish the boundary lines thereof, by stakes or monuments placed along such lines at proper intervals, to the terminus of the three thousand feet from the face or point of commencement of the tunnel, and the lines so marked will define and govern as to the specific boundaries within which prospecting for lodes not previously known to exist is prohibited while work on the tunnel is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence.

24. At the time of posting notice and marking out the lines of the tunnel as aforesaid, a full and correct copy of such notice of location defining the tunnel claim must be filed for record with the mining recorder of the district, to which notice must be attached the sworn statement or declaration of the owners, claimants, or projectors of such tunnel, setting forth the facts in the case; stating the amount expended by themselves and their predecessors in interest in prosecuting work thereon; the extent of the work performed, and that it is

bona fide their intention to prosecute work on the tunnel so located and described with reasonable diligence for the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, or both, as the case may be. This notice of location must be duly recorded, and, with the said sworn statement attached, kept on the recorder's files for future reference.

25. By a compliance with the foregoing much needless difficulty will be avoided, and the way for the adjustment of legal rights acquired in virtue of said section 2323 will be made much more easy and certain. 26. This office will take particular care that no improper advantage is taken of this provision of law by parties making or professing to make tunnel locations, ostensibly for the purposes named in the statute, but really for the purpose of monopolizing the lands lying in front of their tunnels to the detriment of the mining interests and to the exclusion of bona fide prospectors or miners, but will hold such tunnel claimants to a strict compliance with the terms of the statutes; and a reasonable diligence on their part in prosecuting the work is one of the essential conditions of their implied contract. Negligence or want of due diligence will be construed as working a forfeiture of their right to all undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel.

MANNER OF PROCEEDING TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT TITLE TO VEIN OR LODE CLAIMS.

27. By section 2325 authority is given for granting titles for mines by patent from the Government to any person, association, or corporation having the necessary qualifications as to citizenship and holding the right of possession to a claim in compliance with law.

28. The claimant is required in the first place to have a correct survey of his claim made under authority of the surveyor-general of the State or Territory in which the claim lies; such survey to show with accuracy the exterior surface boundaries of the claim, which bounda ries are required to be distinctly marked by monuments on the ground. Four plats and one copy of the original field notes, in each case, will be prepared by the surveyor-general; one plat and the original field notes to be retained in the office of the surveyor-general, one copy of the plat to be given the claimant for posting upon the claim, one plat and a copy of the field notes to be given the claimant for filing with the proper register, to be finally transmitted by that officer, with other papers in the case, to this office, and one plat to be sent by the surveyor-general to the register of the proper land district to be retained on his files for future reference. As there is no resident surveyor-general for the State of Arkansas, applications for the survey of mineral claims in said State should be made to the Commissioner of this office, who, under the law, is ex officio the U. S. surveyor-general.

29. The claimant is then required to post a copy of the plat of such survey in a conspicuous place upon the claim, together with notice of his intention to apply for a patent therefor, which notice will give the date of posting, the name of the claimant, the name of the claim, mine, or lode; the mining district and county; whether the location is of record, and, if so, where the record may be found; the number of feet claimed along the vein and the presumed direction thereof; the number of feet claimed on the lode in each direction from the point of discovery, or other well-defined place on the claim; the name or names of adjoining claimants on the same or other lodes; or, if none adjoin, the names of the nearest claims, &c.

30. After posting the said plat and notice upon the premises, the

claimant will file with the proper register and receiver a copy of such plat and the field notes of survey of the claim, accompanied by the affidavit of at least two credible witnesses, that such plat and notice are posted conspicuously upon the claim, giving the date and place of such posting; a copy of the notice so posted to be attached to, and form a part of, said affidavit.

31. Accompanying the field notes so filed must be the sworn statement of the claimant that he has the possessory right to the premises therein described, in virtue of a compliance by himself (and by his grantors, if he claims by purchase) with the mining rules, regulations, and customs of the mining-district, State, or Territory in which the claim lies, and with the mining laws of Congress; such sworn statement to narrate briefly, but as clearly as possible, the facts constituting such compliance, the origin of his possession, and the basis of his claim to a patent. 32. This affidavit should be supported by appropriate evidence from the mining recorder's office as to his possessory right, as follows, viz: Where he claims to be the locator, or a locator in company with others who have since conveyed their interest in the location to him, a full, true, and correct copy of such location should be furnished, as the same appears upon the mining records; such copy to be attested by the seal of the recorder, or if he has no seal, then he should make oath to the same being correct, as shown by his records. Where the applicant claims only as a purchaser for valuable consideration, a copy of the location record must be filed under seal or upon oath as aforesaid, with an abstract of title from the proper recorder, under seal or oath as aforesaid, brought down as near as practicable to date of filing the application, tracing the right of possession by a continuous chain of conveyances from the original locators to the applicant, also certifying that no conveyances affecting the title to the claim in question appear of record in his office other than those set forth in the accompanying abstract.

33. In the event of the mining records in any case having been destroyed by fire or otherwise lost, affidavit of the fact should be made, and secondary evidence of possessory title will be received, which may consist of the affidavit of the claimant, supported by those of any other parties cognizant of the facts relative to his location, occupancy, possession, improvements, &c.; and in such case of lost records, any deeds, certificates of location or purchase, or other evidence which may be in the claimant's possession and tend to establish his claim, should be filed.

34. Upon the receipt of these papers the register will, at the expense of the claimant (who must furnish the agreement of the publisher to hold applicant for patent alone responsible for charges of publication), publish a notice of such application for the period of sixty days in a newspaper published nearest to the claim, and will post a copy of such notice in his office for the same period. When the notice is published in a weekly newspaper ten consecutive insertions are necessary; when in a daily newspaper the notice must appear in each issue for sixty-one consecutive issues, the first day of issue being excluded in estimating the period of sixty days.

35. The notices so published and posted must be as full and complete as possible, and embrace all the data given in the notice posted upon the claim.

36. Too much care can not be exercised in the preparation of these notices, inasmuch as upon their accuracy and completeness will depend, in a great measure, the regularity and validity of the whole proceeding.

37. In the publication of final-proof notices the register has no dis cretion under the law to designate any other than the newspaper "nearest the land" for such purpose when such paper is a newspaper of general circulation. But he will in all cases designate the newspaper of general circulation that is published nearest the land, geographically measured. When two or more such newspapers are published in the same town, nearest the land, he may select the one which, in his honest and impartial judgment as a public officer, will best subserve the purpose of the law and the general interests of the public.

38. Newspaper charges must not exceed the rates established by this office for the publication of legal notices.

39. The claimant, either at the time of filing these papers with the register or at any time during the sixty days' publication, is required to file a certificate of the surveyor-general that not less than five hundred dollars' worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by the applicant or his grantors; that the plat filed by the claimant is correct; that the field-notes of the survey, as filed, furnish such an accurate description of the claim as will, if incorporated into a patent, serve to fully identify the premises, and that such reference is made therein to natural objects or permanent monuments as will perpetuate and fix the locus thereof.

40. It will be the more convenient way to have this certificate indorsed by the surveyor-general, both upon the plat and field-notes of survey filed by the claimant as aforesaid.

41. After the sixty days' period of newspaper publication has expired the claimant will furnish from the office of publication a sworn statement that the notice was published for the statutory period, giving the first and last day of such publication, and his own affidavit showing that the plat and notice aforesaid remained conspicuously posted upon the claim sought to be patented during said sixty days' publication, giving the dates.

42. Upon the filing of this affidavit the register will, if no adverse claim was filed in his office during the period of publication, permit the claimant to pay for the land according to the area given in the plat and field notes of survey aforesaid, at the rate of five dollars for each acre and five dollars for each fractional part of an acre, the receiver issuing the usual duplicate receipt therefor. The claimant will also make a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by him for publication and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the register and receiver of the land office; after which the whole matter will be forwarded to the Commissioner of the General Land Office and a patent issued thereon if found regular.

43. In sending up the papers in the case the register must not omit certifying to the fact that the notice was posted in his office for the full period of sixty days, such certificate to state distinctly when such posting was done and how long continued.

44. The consecutive series of numbers of mineral entries must be continued, whether the same are of lode or placer claims or mill sites. 45. The surveyors-general should designate all surveyed mineral claims by a progressive series of numbers, beginning with survey No. 37, irrespective as to whether they are situated on surveyed or unsurveyed lands, the claim to be so designated at date of issuing the order therefor, in addition to the local designation of the claim; it being required in all cases that the plat and field-notes of the survey of a claim must, in addition to the reference to permanent objects in the neighborhood, describe the locus of the claim, with reference to the lines of public