sions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon the payment of five dollars per acre for such vein or lode claim, and twenty-five feet of surface on each side thereof. The remainder of the placer-claim or any placer-claim not embracing any vein or lode claim, shall be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, together with all costs of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, such as is described in section twenty-three hundred and twenty, is known to exist within the boundaries of a placer-claim, an application for a patent for such placer-claim which does not include an application for the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclusive declaration that the claimant of the placerclaim, has no right of possession of the vein or lode claim; but where the existence of a vein or lode in a placer-claim is not known, a patent for the placer-claim shall convey all valuable mineral and other deposits within the boundaries thereof. ing claims, &c. SEC. 2334. The surveyor-general of the United States may appoint in Surveyor-geneach land district containing mineral lands as many competent survey-eral to appoint ors as shall apply for appointment to survey mining claims. The ex- surveyors of minpenses of the survey of vein or lode claims and the survey and subdivi- 10 May, 1872, c. sion of placer-claims into smaller quantities than one hundred and sixty 152, s. 12, v. 17, p. acres, together with the cost of publication of notices, shall be paid by 95. the applicants, and they shall be at liberty to obtain the same at the most reasonable rates, and they shall also be at liberty to employ any United States deputy surveyor to make the survey. The Commissioner of the General Land Office shall also have power to establish the maximum charges for surveys and publication of notices under this chapter, and, in case of excessive charges for publication, he may designate any newspaper published in a land district where mines are situated for the publication of mining notices in such district, and fix the rates to be charged by such paper; and, to the end that the Commissioner may be fully informed on the subject, each applicant shall file with the register a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by such applicant for publication and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the register and the receiver of the land office, which statement shall be transmitted, with the other papers in the case, to the Commissioner of the General Land Office. 95. Verification of SEC. 2335. All affidavits required to be made under this chapter may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the affidavits, &c. land district where the claims may be situated, and all testimony and 10 May, 1872, c. proofs may be taken before any such officer, and, when duly certified by 152, s. 13, v. 17, p the officer taking the same, shall have the same force and effect as if taken before the register and receiver of the land office. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character of land, the testimony and proofs may be taken as herein provided on personal notice of at least ten days to the opposing party; or if such party cannot be found, then by publication of at least once a week for thirty days in a newspaper to be designated by the register of the land office as published nearest to the location of such land; and the register shall require proof that such notice has been given. Where veins SEC. 2336. Where two or more veins intersect or cross each other, priority of title shall govern, and such prior location shall be entitled to intersect, &c. all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but the 10 May, 1872, c. subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space of 152, 8. 14, v. 17. p. intersection for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine. And where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take the vein below the point of unión, including all the space of intersection. 96. Patents for nonmineral lands, &c. 10 May, 1872, c. SEC. 2337. Where non-mineral land not contiguous to the vein or lode is used or occupied by the proprietor of such vein or lode for mining or milling purposes, such non-adjacent surface-ground may be embraced and included in an application for a patent for such vein or lode, and 152, s. 15, v. 17, p. the same may be patented therewith, subject to the same preliminary 96. requirements as to survey and notice as are applicable to veins or lodes; but no location hereafter made of such non-adjacent land shall exceed five acres, and payment for the same must be made at the same rate as fixed by this chapter for the superficies of the lode. The owner of a quartz-mill or reduction-works, not owning a mine in connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill-site, as provided in this section. SEC 2338. As a condition of sale, in the absence of necessa y legisla- What condition by Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory may tous of sale may be made by local provide rules for working mines, involving easements, drainage, and legislature. other necessary means to their complete development; and those con26 July, 1866, c. ditions shall be fully expressed in the patent. 262, s. 5, v. 14, p. 252. Vested rights SEC. 2339. Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of to use of water water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have for mining, &c.; vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by right of way for canals. the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and 26 July, 1866, c. Owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the 262, s. 9, v. 14, p. same, and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. 253. Patents, pre SEC. 2340. All patents granted, or pre-emption & homesteads allowed, emptions, and shall be subject to any vested and accrued water-rights, or rights to homesteads sub; ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water-rights, as ject to vested and accrued water may have been acquired under or recognized by the preceding section. 9 July, 1870, c. 235, s. 17, v. 16, p. 218. rights. Mineral lands 26 July, 1866, c. 262, s. 10, v. 14, p. SEC. 2341. Wherever, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral in which no val- lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been uable mines are homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have discovered, open declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been to homesteads. made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres ; or they may avail themselves of the provisions of chapter five of this Title, relating to "HOMESTEADS." 253. Mineral lands SEC. 2342. Upon the survey of the lands described in the preceding how set apart section, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such as agricultural portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands lands. shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands, 26 July, 1866, c. and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same. 262, s. 11, v. 14, p. 253. Additional SEC. 2343. The President is authorized to establish additional land land-districts and districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, officers, power of wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this chapter. the President to provide. 26 July, 1866, c. 262, s. 7, v. 14, p. 252. Provisions of rights. SEC. 2344. Notning contained in this chapter shall be construed to this chapter not impair, in any way, rights or interests in mining property acquired to affect certain under existing laws; nor to affect the provisions of the act entitled “An act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to aid in 10 May, 1872, C. the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock 152, s. 16, v. 17, P. lode in the State of Nevada," approved July twenty-five, eighteen hun9 July, 1870, c. dred and sixty-six. 235 s. 17, v. 16, p. 218. 96. Mineral lands SEC. 2345. The provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter in certain States shall not apply to the mineral lands situated in the States of Michiexcepted. gan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which are declared free and open to 18 Feb., 1873, C. exploration and purchase, according to legal subdivisions, in like man159, v. 17, p. 465. ner as before the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. And any bona fide entries of such lands within the States named since the tenth of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, may be patented without reference to any of the foregoing provisions of this chapter. Such lands shall be offered for public sale in the same manner, at the same minimum price, and under the same rights of pre emption as other public lands. Grants of lands SEC. 2346. No act passed at the first session of the Thirty-eighth Conto States or cor- gress, granting lands to States or corporations to aid in the construction porations not to include mineral of roads or for other purposes, or to extend the time of grants made prior to the thirtieth day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in all cases 1965, Res. No. 10, are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless otherwise specially v. 13, p. 567. provided in the act or acts making the grant. lands. REPEAL PROVISIONS. TITLE LXXIV. brace. em SEC. 5595. The foregoing seventy-three titles embrace the Statutes of What Revised the United States general and permanent in their nature, in force on Statutes the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, as revised and consolidated by commissioners appointed under an act of Congress, and the same shall be designated and cited as The Revised Statutes of the United States. SEC. 5596. All acts of Congress passed prior to said first day of Decem- Repeal of acts ber, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, any portion of embraced in rewhich is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby repealed, vision. and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision having been repealed or superseded by subsequent acts, or not being general and permanent in their nature: Provided, That the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent provision, taken from an act making appropriations, or from an act containing other provisions of a private, local, or temporary character, shall not repeal or in any way affect any appropri ation, or any provision of a private, local, or temporary character, contained in any of said acts, but the same shall remain in force; and all acts of Congress passed prior to said last named day, no part of which are embraced in said revision, shall not be affected or changed by its enactments. Accrued rights SEC. 5597. The repeal of the several acts embraced in said revision shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued, or any reserved. suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil cause before the said repeal, but all rights and liabilities under said acts shall continue, and may be enforced in the same manner, as if said repeal had not been made; nor shall said repeal in any manner affect the right to any office, or change the term or tenure thereof. Prosecutions SEC. 5598. All offenses committed and all penalties or forfeitures incurred under any statute embraced in said revision prior to said repeal, and punishments. may be prosecuted and punished in the same manner and with the same effect, as if said repeal had not been made. Acts of limita SEC. 5599. All acts of limitation, whether applicable to civil causes and proceedings, or to the prosecution of offenses, or for the recovery of pen- tion. alties or forfeitures, embraced in said revision and covered by said repeal, shall not be affected thereby, but all suits, proceedings, or prosecutions, whether civil or criminal, for causes arising or acts done or committed prior to said repea may be commenced and prosecuted within the same time as if said repeal had not been made. of sections. SEC. 5600. The arrangement and classification of the several sections Arrangement of the revision have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and and classification orderly arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the title under which any particular section is placed. SEC. 5601. The enactment of the said revision is not to affect or repeal Acts passed any act of Congress passed since the first day of December, one thousand since December 1, eight hundred and seventy-three, and all acts passed since that date are to 1873, not affected. have full effect as if passed after the enactment of this revision, and so far as such acts vary from, or conflict with, any provision contained in said revision, they are to have effect as subsequent statutes, and as repealing any portion of the revision inconsistent therewith. Approved June 22, 1874. The following is an act of Congress approved June 6, 1874: An act to amend the act entitled "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," passed May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of the fifth section of the act entitled "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," passed May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, which requires expenditures of labor and improvements on claims located prior to the passage of said act, are hereby so amended that the time for the first annual expenditure on claims located prior to the passage of said act shall be extended to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. The following is an act of Congress approved February 11, 1875: An act to amend section two thousand three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes, relating to the development of the mining resources of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section two thousand three hundred and twenty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so that where a person or company has or may run a tunnel for the purposes 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, whether located prior to or since the passage of said act; 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 as required by said act. The following is an act of Congress approved May 5, 1876: An act to exclude the States of Missouri and Kansas from the provisions of the act of Congress entitled "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States, approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That within the States of Missouri and Kansas deposits of coal, iron, lead, or other mineral be, and they are hereby, excluded from the operation of the act entitled "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and all lands in said States shall be subject to disposal as agricultural lands. MINERAL LANDS OPEN TO EXPLORATION, OCCUPATION, AND PURCHASE. 1. It will be perceived that by the foregoing provisions of law the mineral lands in the public domain, surveyed or unsurveyed, are open to exploration, occupation, and purchase by all citizens of the United States and all those who have declared their intention to become such. STATUS OF LODE CLAIMS LOCATED PRIOR TO MAY 10, 1872. 2. By an examination of the several sections of the Revised Statutes it will be seen that the status of lode claims located previous to the 10th May, 1872, is not changed with regard to their extent along the lode or width of surface, such claims being restricted and governed, both as to their lateral and linear extent, by the State, territorial, or local laws, customs, or regulations which were in force in the respective districts at the date of such locations. 3. Mining rights acquired under such previous locations are, however, enlarged by said Revised Statutes in the following respect, viz: The locators of all such previously taken veins or lodes, their heirs and assigns, so long as they comply with the laws of Congress, and with State, territorial, or local regulations not in conflict therewith, governing mining claims, are invested with the exclusive possessory right of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all the veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies inside of such surface lines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of such locations at the surface, it being expressly provided, however, that the right of possession to such outside parts of said veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as aforesaid, through the end lines of their locations so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins, lodes, or ledges; no right being granted, however, to the claimant of such outside portion of a vein or ledge to enter upon the surface location of another claimant. 4. It is to be distinctly understood, however, that the law limits the possessory right to veins, lodes, or ledges other than the one named in the original location, to such as were not adversely claimed on May 10, 1872, and that where such other vein or ledge was so adversely claimed at that date, the right of the party so adversely claiming is in no way impaired by the provisions of the Revised Statutes. 5. In order to hold the possessory title to a mining claim located prior to May 10, 1872, and for which a patent has not been issued, the law requires that ten dollars shall be expended annually in labor or improvements on each claim of one hundred feet on the course of the vein or lode until a patent shall have been issued therefor; but where a number of such claims are held in common upon the same vein or lode the aggregate expenditure the would be necessary to hold all the claims, at the rate of ten dolars per hundred feet, may be made upon any one claim; a failure to comply with this requirement in any one year subjecting the claim upon which such failure occurred to relocation by other parties, the same as if no previous location thereof had ever been made, unless the claimants under the original location shall have resumed work thereon after such failure and before such relocation. The first annual expenditure upon claims of this class should have been performed subsequent to May 10, 1872, and prior to January 1, 1875. From and after January 1, 1875, the required amount must be expended annually until patent issues. 6. Upon the failure of any one of several co-owners of a vein, lode, or ledge, which has not been patented, to contribute his proportion of the expenditures necessary to hold the claim or claims so held in ownership in common, the co-owners who have performed the labor, or made the improvements as required by said Revised Statutes, may, at the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in writing, or notice by publication in the newspaper published nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety days; and if upon the expiration of ninety days after such notice in writing, or upon the expiration of one hundred and eighty days after the first newspaper publication of notice, the delinquent co-owner shall have failed to contribute his proportion to meet such expenditure or improvements, his interest in the claim by law passes to his co-owners who have made the expenditures or improvements as aforesaid. PATENTS FOR VEINS OR LODES HERETOFORE ISSUED. 7. Rights under patents for veins or lodes heretofore granted under previous legislation of Congress are enlarged by the Revised Statutes so as to invest the patentee, his heirs or assigns, with title to all veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies within the end and side boundary lines of his claim on the suface, as patented, extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of the claim at the surface. The right of possession to such outside parts of such veins or ledges to be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward through the end lines of the claim at the surface, so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins or ledges; it being expressly provided, however, that all veins, lodes, or ledges, the top or apex of which lies inside such surface locations, other than the one named in the patent, which were adversely claimed on the 10th May, 1872, are excluded from such conveyance by patent. 8. Applications for patents for mining claims pending at the date of the act of May 10, 1872, may be prosecuted to final decision in the General Land Office, and, where no adverse rights are affected thereby, patents will be issued, in pursuance of the provisions of the Revised Statutes. MANNER OF LOCATING CLAIMS ON VEINS OR LODES AFTER MAY 10, 1872. 9. From and after the 10th May, 1872, any person who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become a citizen, may locate, record, and hold a mining claim of fifteen hundred linear feet along the course of any mineral vein or lode subject to location; or an association of persons, severally qualified as above, may make joint location of such claim of fifteen hundred feet, but in no event can a location of a vein or lode made subsequent to May 10, 1872, exceed fifteen hundred feet along the course thereof, whatever may be the number of persons composing the association. 10. With regard to the extent of surface ground adjoining a vein or lode, and claimed for the convenient working thereof, the Revised Statutes provide that the lateral extent of locations of veins or lodes made after May 10, 1872, shall in no case exceed three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, and that no such surface rights shall be limited by any mining regulations to less than twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the 10th May, 1872, may render such limitation necessary, the end lines of such claims to be in all cases parallel to each other. 11. By the foregoing it will be perceived that no lode claim located after the 10th May, 1872, can exceed a parallelogram fifteen hundred feet in length by six hundred feet in width, but whether surface ground of that width can be taken depends upon the local regulations or State or territorial laws in force in the several mining districts; and that no such local regulations or State or territorial laws shall limit a vein or lode claim to less than fifteen hundred feet along the course thereof, whether the location is made by one or more persons, nor can surface rights be limited to less than fifty feet in width, unless adverse claims existing on the 10th day of May, 1872, render such lateral limitation necessary. 12. It is provided by the Revised Statutes that the miners of each district may make rules and regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or of the State or Territory in which such districts are respectively situated, governing the location, manner of recording, and amount of work necessary to hold possession of a claim. |