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PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE REGISTER AND RECEIVER AND SURVEYORS GENERAL IN CONTESTS AND HEARINGS TO ESTABLISH THE CHARACTER OF LANDS.

108. The "Rules of Practice in cases before the United States district land offices, the General land Office, and the Department of the Interior," approved August 13, 1885, will, as far as applicable, govern in all cases and proceedings arising in contests, and hearings to determine the min eral or nonmineral character of lands.

109. No public land shall be withheld from entry as agricultural land on account of its mineral character, except such as is returned by the surveyor-general as mineral; and the presumption arising from such a return may be overcome by testimony taken in the manner hereinafter described.

110. Hearings to determine the character of lands are practically of two kinds, as follows:

1. When lands are returned as mineral by the surveyor-general. When such lands are sought to be entered as agricultural under laws which require the submission of final proof after due notice by publication and posting, the filing of the proper nonmineral affidavit in the absence of allegations that the land is mineral will be deemed sufficient as a preliminary requirement. A satisfactory showing as to character of land must be made when final proof is submitted.

In case of application to enter, locate, or select such lands as agricultural, under laws in which the submission of final proof after due publication and posting is not required, notice thereof must first be given by publication for thirty days and posting in the local office during the same period, and affirmative proof as to the character of the land submitted. In the absence of allegations that the land is mineral, and upon compliance with this requirement, the entry, location, or selection will be allowed, if otherwise regular.

2. When lands which are sought to be entered as agricultural are alleged by affidavit to be mineral or when sought as mineral their nonmineral character is alleged. The proceedings in this class of cases are in the nature of a contest between two or more known parties and are provided for in the rules of practice.

111. At the hearings under either of the aforesaid classes, the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined with regard to the character of the land; whether the same has been thoroughly prospected; whether or not there exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, or copper, or other valuable deposit which has ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under what designation, and in which subdivision of the land it lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the land; if so, what is the character thereof whether of the shallowsurface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead or gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when water can be obtained, and what the facilities are for obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particular ten-acre subdivisions mining has been done, and at what time the land was abandoned for mining purposes, if abandoned at all.

112. The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land, what kind of crops are raised thereon, and the value thereof; the number of acres actually cultivated for crops of cereals or vege

tables, and within which particular ten-acre subdivision such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace the improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of the improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc., and mining improvements. 113. The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and in addition to the leading points indicated above, where an attempt is made to prove the mineral character of lands which have been entered under the agricultural laws, it should show at what date, if at all, valuable deposits of mineral were first known to exist on the lands.

114. When the case comes before this office, such decision will be made as the law and the facts may justify; and in cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land, the necessary instructions will be given to enable the proper party at his own expense, to have the work done, at his option, either by United States deputy, county, or other local surveyor; the survey in such case, where the claims to be segregated are vein or lode claims, must be executed in such manner as will conform to the requirements in section 2320, U. S. Revised Statutes, as to length and width and parallel end lines.

115. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, officer of a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the deponent's character and credibility to be properly certified to by the officer administering the oath.

116. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such survey, duly sworn to as aforesaid, you will transmit the same to the surveyorgeneral for his verification and approval; who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will properly mark out the same upon the original township plat in his office, and furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, to be affixed to the duplicate and triplicate township plats respectively.

117. With the copy of plat and description furnished the local office and this office, must be a diagram tracing, verified by the surveyor. general, showing the claim or claims segregated, and designating the separate fractional agricultural tracts in each 40-acre legal subdivision by the proper lot number, beginning with No. 1 in each section, and giving the area in each lot, the same as provided in paragraph 45, in the survey of mining claims on surveyed lands.

118. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to be mineral in character is by no means equivalent to an award of the land to a miner. A miner is compelled by law to give sixty days' publication of notice, and posting of diagrams and notices, as a preliminary step; and then, before he can enter the land, he must show that the land yields mineral; that he is entitled to the possessory right thereto in virtue of compliance with local customs or rules of miners, or by virtue of the statute of limitations; that he or his grantors have expended, in actual labor and improvements, an amount of not less than five hundred dollars thereon, and that the claim is one in regard to which there is no controversy or opposing claim. After all these proofs are met, he is entitled to have a survey made at his own cost where a survey is required, after which he can enter and pay for the land embraced by his claim.

119. Blank forms for proofs in mineral cases are not furnished by the General Land Office.

Approved December 10, 1891.

THOMAS H. CARTER, Commissioner.

JOHN W. NOBLE, Secretary.

A.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
Washington, D. C., October 12, 1892.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices:

GENTLEMEN: Attached is a copy of the act of Congress of August 4, 1892, entitled "An act to authorize the entry of lands chiefly valuable for building-stone under the placer mining laws."

The first section of said act extends the mineral land laws already existing so as to bring land chiefly valuable for building-stone within the provisions of said law to the extent of authorizing a placer entry of such land. The proviso to said first section excludes lands reserved for the benefit of the public schools or donated to any State from entry under the act.

In cases that may arise hereafter in reference to any lands subject to entry under the mining laws, you will be governed by said act in admitting such entries. The proper instructions for your guidance in so doing may be found in official circular of December 10, 1891, entitled "United States Mining Laws and Regulations Thereunder," to which you are referred, and your special attention is called to the law and instructions therein relating to placer claims.

It is not the understanding of this office that the first section of said act of August 4, 1892, withdraws land chiefly valuable for buildingstone from entry under any existing law applicable thereto.

The second section of said act of August 4, 1892, makes the timber and stone act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat., 89), applicable to all the publicland States. You will observe the same in acting upon applications for entries in your respective districts. For instructions you are referred to the general circular of February 6, 1892, pages 35 to 38 inclusive. In allowing placer entries for stone chiefly valuable for building purposes, under first section of the act of August 4, 1892, you will make a reference to said act on the entry papers returned.

Very respectfully,

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An act to authorize the entry of lands chiefly valuable for building stone under the placer mining laws. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person authorized to enter lands under the mining laws of the United States may enter lands that are chiefly valuable for building stone under the provisions of the law in relation to placer mineral claims: Provided, That lands reserved for the benefit of the public schools or donated to any State shall not be subject to entry under this act.

SEC. 2. That an act entitled "An act for the sale of timber lands in the States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington Territory," approved June third, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, be, and the same is hereby, amended by striking out the

words "States of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington Territory" where the same occur in the second and third lines of said act, and insert in lieu thereof the words, "public-land States," the purpose of this act being to make said act of June third, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, applicable to all the public-land States.

SEC. 3. That nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal section twenty-four of the act entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes," approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one. Approved August 4, 1892.

A.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., October 24, 1892.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices:

GENTLEMEN: In addition to instructions contained in general circular of February 6, 1892, pages 35 to 38, inclusive, and pages 147 and 148, in relation to the timber and stone act of June 3, 1878, extended by the act of August 4, 1892, referred to in circular A of October 12, 1892, you are advised as follows:

1. That entries made under section one of said act are required to be kept and reported in consecutive and numerical order in your mineral land series.

2. That entries made under section two of said act are required to be kept and reported in consecutive numerical order in your regular agricultural cash series.

Necessary additional blank forms for entries under said act are as follows:

Form Nos. 4-357; 4-363; 4-370; 4–371; 4–537; 4–658 c.
Very respectfully,

W. M. STONE,

Acting Commissioner.

AN ACT to amend section numbered twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to mining claims.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of section numbered twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which require that on each claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and until patent has been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year, be suspended for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, so that no mining claim which has been regularly located and recorded as required by the local laws and mining regulations shall be subject to forfeiture for nonperformance of the annual assessment for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four: Provided, That the claimant or claimants of any mining location, in order to secure the benefits of this Act, shall cause to be recorded in the office where the location notice or certificate is filed on or before December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, a notice that he or they in good faith intend to hold and work said claim: Provided, however, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the State of South Dakota.

Sec. 2. That this Act shall take effect from and after its passage. Approved July 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 114).

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
Washington, D. C., November 7, 1895.

Paragraphs 32, 50, and 51 of the "United States Mining Laws and Regulations Thereunder," approved December 10, 1891, are amended to read as follows:

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 notice 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 purchaser, a copy of the location record must be filed under seal or upon oath as aforesaid, with an abstract of title, under seal or oath as aforesaid, brought down 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 other than those set forth in the accompanying abstract.

The abstracts herein required may be certified to by the proper recorder, or by any abstracter or abstract company, duly authorized by State or Territorial statute, if abstracts so certified by abstracters or abstract companies are by statute receivable as evidence in the courts of such State or Territory, in the same manner and to like extent that abstracts certified by the recorder are now admitted: Provided, That proof be furnished that the abstracts so certified by abstracters or abstract companies are receivable as evidence in the courts as aforesaid. 50. The rights granted to locators under section 2322, Revised Statutes, are restricted to such locations on veins, lodes, or ledges as may be "situated on the public domain." In applications for lode claims where the survey conflicts with a prior valid lode claim and the ground in conflict is excluded, the applicant not only has no right to the excluded ground, but he has no right to that portion of any vein or lode the top or apex of which lies within such excluded ground, unless his location was prior to May 10, 1872. His right to the lode claimed terminates where the lode, in its onward course or strike, intersects the exterior boundary of such excluded ground and passes within it. The end line of his survey should not, therefore, be established beyond such intersection.

51. Where, however, the lode claim for which survey is being made was located prior to the conflicting claim, and such conflict is to be excluded, in order to include all ground not so excluded the end line of the survey may be established within the conflicting lode claim, but the line must be so run as not to extend any farther into such conflicting claim than may be necessary to make such end line parallel to the

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