35. Where a claimant shows by affidavit that he is not personally acquainted with the character of the land, his duly authorized agent who possesses such knowledge may make the required affidavit as to its character; but whether this affidavit is made by principal or agent, it must be corroborated by the affidavits of two disinterested and credible witnesses having knowledge of its character.

36. Nothing in these regulations shall be so construed as to prevent a party from proving his citizenship or age, or establishing the status of the lands sought to be entered in accordance with ordinary rules of evidence; and any proof regularly introduced for that purpose that would be competent in a court or before a commissioner charged with the ascertainment of facts may be considered.

37. Assignments of the right to purchase will be recognized when properly executed. Proof and payment must be made, however, within the prescribed period, which dates from the first day of the possession of the assignor who initiated the claim.

38. The "Rules of Practice in cases before the United States district land offices, the General Land Office, and the Department of the Interior," approved December 20, 1880, will, as far as applicable, govern all cases and proceedings arising under the sections of the Revised Statues above quoted providing for the sale of coal lands of the United States.

39. You will report at the close of each month as "sales of coal lands" all filings and entries in separate abstracts, commencing with number one, and thereafter proceeding consecutively in the order of their reception. Where a series of numbers has already been commenced by sale of coal lands you will continue the same without change. Approved :

H. M. TELLer,

Secretary.

SURVEY OF MINING CLAIMS.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Commissioner McFarland to U. S. surveyors-general, November 16, 1882.

The regulations of this office require that the plats and field-notes of surveys of mining claims shall disclose all conflicts between such surveys and prior surveys, giving the areas of conflicts.

The rule has not been properly observed in all cases.

Your attention

is invited to the following particulars which should be observed in the survey of every mining claim:

1. The exterior boundaries of the claim should be represented on the plat of survey and in the field-notes.

2. The intersection of the lines of survey with the lines of conflicting prior surveys should be noted in the field-notes and represented upon the plat.

3. Conflicts with unsurveyed claims, where the applicant for survey does not claim the area in conflict, should be shown by actual survey. 4. The total area of the claim embraced by the exterior boundaries should be stated, and also the area in conflict with each intersecting survey, substantially as follows:

Total area of claim.....

Area in conflict with survey No. 302.

Acres.

10.50

1.56

2.33

1.48

Area in conflict with survey No. 948.

Area in conflict with Mountain Maid lode mining claim, unsurveyed ..................

In a number of instances that have come to the attention of this office the total area in conflict has been given but not the area in conflict with each intersecting claim. The portion of the plat not in conflict has been colored and the remainder left uncolored. The language of the fieldnotes has been such as to convey the idea that the conflicting areas were excluded from the claim, whereas such was not the intention. It does not follow that because mining surveys are required to exhibit all conflicts with prior surveys the areas of conflict are to be excluded. The field-notes and plat are made a part of the application for patent, and care should be taken that the description does not inadvertently exclude portions intended to be retained. It is better that the application for patent should state the portions to be excluded in express terms. A survey executed as in the example given will enable the applicant for patent to exclude such conflicts as may seem desirable. For instance, the conflict with survey No. 302 and with the Mountain Maid lode claim might be excluded and that with survey No. 948 included.

Your attention is also invited to another matter. The practice of coloring portions of surveys, leaving other portions uncolored, is open to the same objections that have been stated concerning the field-notes. In the future no coloring will be used.

PLACER CLAIM—AREA-EXPENDITURE.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Commissioner McFarland to registers and receivers, and surveyors-general, December 9, 1882.

By direction, contained in letter dated the 7th instant, from the honorable Secretary of the Interior, paragraph No. 8 of the preceding circular of September 22, 1882, relating to placer mining claims, has been amended so as to read as follows:

8. No application by an association of persons for patent to a placer claim will be allowed to embrace more than 160 acres; and not less than $500 worth of work must be shown to have been expended upon or for the benefit of each separate location embraced in such application. If an individual becomes the purchaser and possessor of several separate claims of twenty acres each or less, he may be permitted to include

in his application for patent any number of such claims contiguous to each other, not exceeding in the aggregate 160 acres; but upon or for the benefit of each original claim or location so embraced, he or his grantors must have expended the sum of $500in improvements.

You are instructed to observe this modification of my said circular of September 22, 1882.

TIMBER TRESPASS-DAMAGES.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Commissioner McFarland to special timber agents, March 1, 1883.

Respecting the measure of damages to which the government is entitled in settlement for timber trespass upon the public domain, the United States supreme court has recently decided that

1. Where the trespasser is a knowing and willful one, the full value of the property at the time and place of demand, with no deduction for labor and expense of the defendant, is the proper rule of damages.

2. Where the trespasser is an unintentional or mistaken one, or an innocent purchaser from such a trespasser, the value of the timber at the time when first taken by the trespasser, or if it has been converted into other material, its then value, less what the labor and expense of the trespasser and his vender have added to its value, is the proper rule of damages.

3. Where a person or corporation is a purchaser without notice of wrong from a willful trespasser, the value at the time of purchase should be the measure of damages.

You will, therefore, in cases where settlement is contemplated, state the facts and circumstances attending the cutting and the purchase of the timber in such clear and definite manner that the supreme court decision above referred to can be readily applied.

In cases where settlement with an innocent purchaser of timber cut unintentionally through inadvertence or mistake is contemplated, you are instructed to report as nearly as possible the damage to the government as measured by the value of the timber before cutting. Approved.

H. M. TELLER,

Secretary.

TIMBER TRESPASS-MESQUITE-MINERAL LAND.

CIRCULAR.

Commissioner McFarland to registers and receivers, and special timber agents, October 12, 1882.

The rules and regulations heretofore prescribed in relation to the cutting and removing of mesquite growing and being upon any of the

public lands of the United States-mineral in character-are hereby modified as follows:

The cutting and removing of mesquite is restricted and confined to actual settlers and bona fide residents of the State or Territory, who are citizens of the United States.

The cutting and removal of mesquite from the public lands of the United States-said lands being mineral-is permitted for all building, agricultural, mining and domestic purposes needed in the development and improvement of the homes or mining interests of such actual settlers, residents, or miners.

It is further permitted that mesquite may be cut and removed from the public mineral lands for the purpose of selling the same to any actual settler or resident of the State or Territory, but only for the uses and purposes herein before prescribed.

The cutting and removing of mesquite from any of the public mineral lands of the United States for export from the State or Territory, or by, or for sale to, any railroad company, as an article of fuel or repair is strictly prohibited, the person or persons so offending being liable to civil and criminal prosecution, as provided by Section 3 of the act approved June 3, 1878, entitled "An act authorizing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes."

The cutting and removing of mesquite from any of the public lands of the United States-non-mineral in character-is strictly prohibited for any purpose, except the same is to be used in building, fencing, or otherwise improving and cultivating the land or claim from which the same is cut or removed.

Any person cutting and removing mesquite from non-mineral public lands of the United States except for the purposes and uses above stated, is liable to punishment therefor under Section 2461 Revised Statutes, both civilly and criminally.

The foregoing is hereby approved.

H. M. TELLER,

Secretary.

PROTECTION OF TIMBER ON PUBLIC LAND.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Commissioner McFarland to special timber agents, September 19, 1882.

The fact having been brought to the notice of this Department that extensive forest fires from time to time, in different sections of the country, are destroying vast amounts of timber upon the public lands, and no means have heretofore been provided by the government for the purpose of checking or preventing the same and preserving the public timber from such destruction, you are hereby informed that it will here

after be a part of the duty of the special timber agents of the General Land Office to protect and preserve the public timber from this kind of waste and destruction, as well as from destruction by the woodsman, or from any other source.

You are, therefore, hereby instructed to keep yourself fully informed as to the condition of the timber upon the public land in your district, and to use your best endeavors to protect it from waste and destruction from any and all sources; and to this end-where there are State or Territorial laws for the preservation of timber-you are authorized and directed to co-operate with the State or Territorial authorities and to aid and assist them in enforcing said laws.

Should you at any time receive information of any forest fire being in progress in your district, you will at once proceed to the locality of the same and use all possible means to check its progress and to extinguish it.

Should it be necessary to employ assistance in such a case, and the emergency be such that it would be impossible to inform this office of that fact and to receive special instructions, you are hereby authorized to expend a reasonable sum for such purpose, but you will at once inform this office, by telegraph, of the number of persons so employed and the total probable expense.

One of the most dangerous elements to contend with in case of forest fires, and one of the principal auxiliaries to the spread of the same, is the dry tops of trees which parties leave upon the ground after having cut and removed the timber for saw logs and other purposes. When the tree tops can be profitably cut into wood, the person cutting such trees on public land-when such cutting is authorized by law-must cut the tops into wood, or at least cut up and pile the brush in such manner as to prevent the spread of fires.

A failure on the part of woodsmen to utilize all of the tree that can profitably be used, and to take reasonable precaution to prevent the spread of fires, will be regarded at this office as a wanton waste, and subject them to prosecution for wanton waste and destruction of public timber.

Approved:

H. M. TELLER,

Secretary.

TIMBER TRESPASS-ACT OF JUNE 3, 1878.

CIRCULAR.

Commissioner McFarland to registers and receivers, and special timber

agents, June 30, 1882.

The rules and regulations heretofore prescribed by this Department under act of Congress approved June 3, 1878, entitled "An act author. izing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and