SPECIAL ARTICLES.

Detailed technical reports on special subjects, the result of research work or extended field investigations, will continue to be issued as separate bulletins by the Bureau as has been the custom in the past.

Shorter and less elaborate technical papers and articles by members of the staff containing much information that will add to the permanent value of the Monthly Chapter are included in each number of 'Mining in California.'

It is anticipated that these special articles will cover a wide range of subjects both of historical and current interest; descriptions of new processes, or metallurgical and industrial plants, new mineral occurrences, and interesting geological formations, as well as articles intended to supply practical and timely information on the problems of the prospector and miner, such as the text of new laws and official regulations and notices affecting the mineral industry.

MINING LOCATION ON STOCK-RAISING LANDS.

Numerous inquiries have been received by the State Mining Bureau regarding the rights of a mining claim locator on land taken up under the Act of Congress, entitled "An act to provide for stock-raising homesteads, and for other purposes," commonly called the 640-acre homestead act; where such holdings conflict with mining claims or include mineral-bearing land.

At the request of the State Mineralogist, the following statement setting forth the rights of a mining locator on such lands was prepared by the United States Bureau of Mines, and may be taken as official.)

RIGHTS OF LOCATOR.

"The rights of a locator of a mining claim on grazing or stock-raising lands, is governed by section 9 of the Act of Congress, approved December 29, 1916, entitled 'An act to provide for stock-raising homesteads, and for other purposes.' (39 U. S. Stats., 862.)

The entries and patents issued under the act must contain a reservation to the United States of all coal and other minerals in any such lands, 'together with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same. Any coal or other mineral deposits in any such lands are subject to disposal by the United States, according to the coal and mineral land laws in force at the time of any such disposal. All qualified persons are expressly given the right at all times to go upon any such lands entered or patented, for the purpose of prospecting for coal or other mineral therein. Any such prospector, however, is not to injure, damage or destroy any permanent improvements of any such entryman or patentee, and he is required to compensate the entryman or patentee for any damage on such lands.

"A prospector who has thus discovered coal or minerals in or upon any lands that have been entered or patented as grazing or stock-raising lands under the provisions of the act, may, upon acquiring from the United States, the coal or other mineral deposits in such lands, and the right to mine and remove the same, then re-enter and occupy so much of the surface of such land as may be reasonably incident to the mining

and removal of the coal or other minerals, but upon the following conditions:

"1. Before re-entering for mining and removing the minerals, he must secure the written consent or waiver of the homestead entryman or patentee, and

"2. He must pay damages to crops or tangible improvements if and when an agreement is reached as to the amount of such damages.

"In lieu of either of the provisions numbered 1 or 2, he may execute a bond or undertaking to the United States for the use and benefit of the entryman, patentee or owner of the land, to secure the payment of all damages to crops or tangible improvements of the entryman or owner, as such damages may be determined and fixed in an action brought upon the bond or undertaking in any proper court. The bond or undertaking must be in form and in accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior and is to be approved by and filed with the register and receiver of the land office in the district wherein the land is situated.

"Any patents issued for coal or other mineral deposits under the provisions of the act, must contain notations declaring them to be subject to the provisions of the act with reference to the disposition, occupancy and use of the land as permitted to an entryman or patentee. "Under the first section of the act no land can be entered as a stockraising homestead until the lands shall have been designated by the Secretary of the Interior 'as stock-raising lands.' After the lands have been so designated by the secretary, then qualified persons may enter and hold the same for the purposes contemplated by the act and may hold and possess the same for such purposes as against all persons except mining prospectors and those who have acquired the right to mine and remove minerals discovered, as provided in section 9.

"An entryman, patentee or owner of any such lands may, without doubt, make a valid mining location upon the lands, the same as any other person, but in making his mining location, he must comply with the law in manner and form as if he were a stranger.

"The entryman, patentee or owner of lands acquired under this act for grazing or stock-raising purposes, has no preference right whatever to locate a mining claim upon the land. In this respect he is on an equality with all other persons and can take no advantage whatever of the fact that he is the owner or in the possession of the land. "The rights of all persons making mining locations upon any such land used for grazing or stock-raising purposes, must be measured and determined by the rules of priority that govern in relation to the location of mining claims upon public lands generally.

"Such grazing or stock-raising lands, held under the act, are, for the purposes of making mining locations, in effect, public lands.

"The fact that the notice of a mining location was posted in the night time could not affect its validity, if the locator otherwise complied with the law.

"The owner or occupant of any such grazing or stock-raising lands who defaces or destroys a notice posted upon such lands of a mining location, is subject to the same penalty and punishment as a person who destroys any notice of a mining location."

LIMESTONE DEPOSITS OF MCCLOUD RIVER, SHASTA COUNTY, AND THEIR POSSIBLE VALUE FOR CEMENT MATERIAL.

By W. B. TUCKER, Mining Engineer.

Description of the McCloud Limestone.

In the Redding Folio of the United States Geological Survey this belt of limestone is described as follows: The limestone can be traced more or less continuously for twenty-five miles from the north end of the Sacramento Valley, near Lilienthal, northward to Nawtawakit Mountain, where it passes beyond the quadrangle boundary. Near Lilienthal it begins with a series of small limestone lenses, apparently included in Dekkas andesite and worn down to the level of the valley plain. Although much metamorphosed and in some places wholly crystalline, they contain distinct traces of fossils definitely fixing their

View of McCloud Limestone Exposure, Section 13, Township 34 North, Range 4 West, Shasta County.

age. Farther north they rise above the plain and form hills increasing in prominence to Gray Rocks. For ten miles beyond Pit River the escarpment of the McCloud limestone forms one of the principal topographic features, but it is very much cut up by quartz-augite-diorite into irregular patches of limestone separated from one another by distances varying from a few feet to over two miles. How much of this irregularity may be due to the original lenticular character of the limestone is not known, but there can be no doubt that it is mostly due to the dissecting igneous rock. The largest mass is that opposite the United States Fishery, in Sec. 13, T. 34 N., R. 4 W. Two other large masses occur in the Hirz Mountain region, but farther north, in the western portion of Nawtawakit Mountain, there is a considerable decrease in size.

The largest and most accessible exposures of the McCloud limestone are at Gray Rocks, near Bayha, the old Bass's ranch locality and farther north on the McCloud River opposite the United States Fishery. The two localities are separated by quartz-augite-diorite, which cuts the limestone.

Topography.

The McCloud limestone generally resists weathering more effectively than the associated quartz-augite-diorite, so that it usually gives rise to bold outcrops and, where large, becomes one of the principal factors in the topography, forming prominent ridges and peaks.

Thickness.

In thickness the McCloud limestone varies from 200 feet or less near the south end, where it appears in small lenses, to approximately 2000 feet in the prominent rugged mountain formed by it a short distance. northeast of the United States Fishery.

Relation to Adjacent Formations.

Throughout the greater part of its extent in the Redding quadrangle the McCloud limestone is bounded both east and west by quartz-augitediorite, but for over two miles south of the Black Diamond mine it lies conformably between the Baird and the Nosoni formation.

Lithologic Character.

The limestone is dark gray and massive below, and lighter colored and somewhat thinner-bedded above, with many nodules and sheets of gray chert, often containing silicified fossils.

Analysis of a sample of limestone from the deposit opposite the United States Fishery, submitted by Mr. E. W. D. Johnson, made by Smith, Emery and Company of San Francisco, is as follows:

The largest and most accessible exposures of the McCloud limestone are in Sections 12, 13, 14, 23, and 24, T. 34 N., R. 4 W., M. D. B. and M. In these sections there is an inexhaustible supply of limestone which, due to its low magnesia content, is satisfactory for the manufacture of cement. The prominent rugged mountain, northeast of the United States Fishery, has an elevation of 3114 feet above sea level. The limestone here allows an elevation above the base exposed on the mountain

of over 1600 feet. Where exposed by erosion of a canyon to a depth of 1600 feet on the south end of Sec. 13, the deposit shows a thickness of fully 2000 feet.

Transportation.

These deposits are 2 miles north of the Sacramento and Eastern Railroad, which crosses the McCloud River at its mouth and continues up the Pit River to the Bully Hill smelter of the Shasta Zine and Copper Company, at Winthrop, a distance of 17 miles. This railroad connects with the main line of the Southern Pacific four miles below the mouth of the McCloud River. The distance from San Francisco on the main line of the Southern Pacific is 253 miles, to Pit Station, the terminus of the Sacramento and Eastern Railway.

Power.

Hydro-electric power is available from the lines of the Northern California Power Company. The nearest substation is located at Heroult, about three miles south of the property. The published rate for extensive industrial use is about three-fourths of a cent per kilowatt hour.

Shale.

One mile and a half distant from the United States Fishery are large deposits of shale, located on the opposite side of the McCloud River, in section 16, T. 34 N., R. 4 W., about 400 feet above the elevation of the river.

This deposit has been estimated by M. E. Dittmar, to contain approximately 200,000,000 tons of shale, as a cross-section of the erosion shows a thickness of over 300 feet, and average width of half a mile. The state highway crosses the northernly end of the shale deposits. Analysis of sample from this shale deposit submitted to Smith, Emery and Company of San Francisco, is as follows:

These deposits of limestone and shale will furnish an inexhaustible supply of raw material for the manufacture of cement and are situated only a short distance from railroad transportation.