shall be stated in the application filed as aforesaid, and the length of the claim shall, also, in all cases be exhibited on t course or direction of such end lines, when not fixed by agr joining claimants, nor by the local customs or rules of the m shall be drawn at right angles to the ascertained or apparent g vein or lode.

Second Where, by the local laws, customs, or rules of m no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vein or lod and the lateral extent of such vein or lode unknown, it shal giving the description and diagram aforesaid, to state the fa such vein or lode cannot be ascertained by actual measure said vein or lode is bounded on each side by the wall of th mate the amount of ground contained between the given e ascertained walls of the vein or lode; and in such case the all the land contained between such end lines and side wal follow such vein or lode, with all its dips, angles, and varia although it may enter the land adjoining: Provided, The shall be equal to a horizontal plane bounded by the given walls on the sides of such vein or lode.

Third. Where, by the local laws, customs, or rules of mi no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining p surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vein or and well known, such wall shall be named in the description diagram, in connection with the end lines of such claims.

Fourth. Where, by the laws, customs, or rules of miners of quantity of surface ground is fixed for the purpose of mining the aforesaid diagram and description in the entry shall corr clude so much of the surface as shall be allowed by such lay for the purpose aforesaid.

Fifth. In the absence of uniform rules in any mining district of surface to be used for mining purposes, actual and peacea tion for mining and milling purposes shall be regarded as e of miners authorizing the same, and the ground so occupied tion with the vein or lode, and being adjacent thereto, may the entry aforesaid, and the diagram shall embrace the san the mine.

Where the claimant or claimants desire to include within gram any surface ground beyond the surface of the vein, it upon filing the application, to furnish the register of the land the usage, law, or custom under which he or they claim such such evidence may consist either of the written rules of the n or the testimony of two credible witnesses to the uniform use and occupation as aforesaid, which testimony shall be r the register and receiver, and filed in the register's office, wi record thereof to be made as contemplated under the first h

By the third section of the act it is required that upon the as provided in the second section, and posting the same in on the claim, with notice of intention to apply for a pate publish a notice of the same in a newspaper nearest the lo which notice shall state name of the claimant, name of mine claimants on each end of the claim, the district and county situated, informing the public that application has been m same, the register also to post such notice in his office for n Thereafter should no adverse claim have been filed, a should be produced that the diagram and notice have been

and for the period stipulated in the statute, it will become the duty of the surveyor general, upon application of the party, to survey the premises and make 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. As preliminary to the survey, however, the surveyor general must estimate the expense of surveying, platting, and ascertain from the register the cost of the publication of notice, the amount of all which must be deposited by the applicant for survey with any assistant United States treasurer or designated depositary in favor of the United States Teasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created by individual depositors for the surveys of the public lands. Duplicate certificates of such deposits must be filed with the surveyor general for transmission to this office, as in the case of deposits for surveys of public lands under the 10th section of the act of Congress approved May 30, 1862, and joint resolution of July 1, 1864.

After the survey thus paid for shall have been duly executed and the plat thereof approved by the surveyor general designating the number and the description of the location, accompanied by his official certificate of the value of the labor and improvements and character of the vein exposed, with the tesimony of two or more reliable persons cognizant of the facts on which his certificate may be founded as to the value of the labor and improvements, the party claiming shall file the same with the register and receiver, and thereupon pay to the said receiver five dollars per acre for the premises embraced in the survey, and shall file with those officers a triplicate certificate of deposit showing the payment of the cost of survey, plat, and notice, with satisfactory evidence, which shall be the testimony of at least two credible witnesses, that the diagram and notice were posted on the claim for a period of ninety days, as required by law and as contemplated in the foregoing. Thereupon it shall be the duty of the register to transmit to the General Land Office said plat, survey, and description, with the proof indorsed as satisfactory by the register and receiver, so that a patent may issue if the proceedings are found regular, but neither the plat, survey, description, nor patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode.

The unity of the surveying system is to be maintained by extending over the mining districts the rectangular method, at least so far as township lines are concerned.

The contemplated surveys of the mineral lands will be made by district deputies, under contracts, according to the mode adopted in the survey of the public lands and private land claims, embracing in them all such veins or lodes as will be called for by claimants entitled to have them surveyed.

In consideration of the very limited scope of surveying involved in each mining claim, the per mileage allowed by law may not be adequate to secure the services of scientific surveyors, and hence the necessity of resorting to a per diem principle, it being the most equitable under the circumstances.

The surveyor general is therefore hereby authorized to commission resident mineral surveyors for different districts, where isolated from each other and absolutely inconvenient for one surveyor promptly to attend to the several calls for surveying in such localities; the compensation not to exceed ten dollars per diem, including all expenses incident thereto. Such surveyors shall enter into bonds of $10,000 for the faithful performance of their duties in the survey of such claims as the surveyor general may be required to execute in pursuance of the aforesaid law and these instructions.

The fourth section contemplates the location and entry of a mine upon unsurveyed lands, stipulating for the surveys of public lands to be adjusted to the lines of the claims, according to the location and possession and plat thereof. In surveying such claims, the surveyor general is authorized to vary from the rectangular form to suit the circumstances of the country, local rules, laws, and customs of miners. The extent of the locations made from and after the H. Ex. Doc. 29-23

passage of the act shall, however, not exceed two hundred fe the vein for each locator, with an additional claim for 'discov erer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quan the convenient working of the same as fixed by local rul person may make more than one location on the same lode, three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any

The deputy surveyors should be scientific men, capable of porting fully on every lode they will survey, and to bring in d of the ore, one of which you will send to this, office, and the general will keep, to be ultimately turned over with the surv the State authorities.

The surveyors of mineral claims, whether on surveyed or must designate those claims by a progressive series of numbe No 37, so as to avoid interference in that respect with th series of numbers in each township; and shall designate t each claim, where the side lines of the same are known, so can be given by either trees, if any are found standing in p rocks exist in place, or posts may be set diagonally and deep four sides facing adjoining claims, sufficiently flattened to ac thereon; but where the corners are unknown, it will be suffici built solid mound at each end of the claim. The beginning nearest to any corners of the public surveys is to be connec distance, so as to ascertain the relative position of each cla township and range when the same have been surveyed; bu the surveying district where no such lines have as yet been the duty of surveyors general to have the same surveye least so far as standard and township lines are concerned, at lowed, so as to embrace the mineral region, and to connect t of the mineral claims with the corners of the public surveys

Should it, however, be found impracticable to establish in meridian lines, or to extend township lines over the region claims required to be surveyed under the law, then, and in cause to be surveyed in the first instance such a claim, the in will start either from a confluence of waters or such natural jects as will unmistakably identify the point of the beginni the claim, upon which other surveys will depend.

Section 5 provides that in cases where the laws of Cong the subject of rules for working mines, respecting easements, necessary means to the complete development of the same, of any State or Territory may provide them, and in order actments into patents, you are directed to communicate any office.

SEC. 6. Should adverse claimants to any mine appear be the survey, all further proceedings shall be stayed until a f adjudication are had in the courts of the rights of possession cept where the parties agree to settlement, or a portion of th dispute, when a patent may issue as in other cases.

Section 7 provides for such additional land districts as m Section 8 for the right of way.

Section 9 for the protection of rights to the use of water tural, manufacturing, or other purposes, for the right of way of ditches and canals; and makes parties constructing such sage of this act) to the injury of settlers liable in damages. SEC. 10. Homesteads made prior to the passage of this a

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United States, or persons who have declared their intentions to become citizens, but on which lands no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper have been discovered, are protected, so that settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, at $1 25 per acre, or to avail themselves of the homestead act and acts amendatory thereof.

Section 11 stipulates that, upon the survey of the lands in question, the Secretary of the Interior may set apart such portions as are clearly agricultural, and - thereafter subjects such agricultural tracts to pre-emption and sale as other public lands.

In order to enable the department properly to give effect to this section of the law, you will cause your deputy surveyors to describe in their field-notes of surveys, in addition to the data required to be noted in the printed manual of surveying instructions, on pages 17 and 18, the agricultural lands, and represent the same on township plats by the designation of "agricultural lands.”

It is to be understood that there is nothing obligatory on claimants to proceed under this statute, and that where they fail to do so, there being no adverse interest, they hold the same relations to the premises they may be working which they did before the passage of this act, with the additional guarantee that they possess the right of occupancy under the statute.

The foregoing presents such views as have occurred to this office in considering the prominent points of the statute, and will be followed by further instructions as the rulings in actual cases and experience in the administration of the statute may from time to time suggest.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. S. WILSON,
Commissioner.

The UNITED STATES REGISTERS AND

RECEIVERS AND SURVEYORS GENERAL.

CHAP. CCLXII.

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 custom or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon 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 joining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition.

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

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That when such location and mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands, it shall and may be lawful, a tension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the surveys to the li premises according to the location and possession and plat aforesai surveyor general may, in extending the surveys, vary the same fro gular form to suit the circumstances of the country and the local and customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter made s two hundred feet in length along the vein for each locator, with a claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode, with the right to vein to any depth, with all its dips, variations, and angles, together wi able quantity of surface for the convenient working of the same, as fi rules: And provided further, That no person may make more than on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall be t one claim by any association of persons.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further condition of absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the local legislature o or Territory may provide rules for working mines involving easen age, and other necessary means to their complete development; and ditions shall be fully expressed in the patent.

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

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the U be, and is hereby, authorized to establish additional land districts, an the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may dee necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of SEC. S. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is her SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever by priority o rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, poses, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and a by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessor of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the sa