otherwise than as a body corporate, with or without written agreement, for mining purposes on the public lands, shall become copartners with any one associating himself with them, upon receiving notice of the fact, and shall be subject to all the liabilities imposed by the act. By Section two it is provided that any member of such company or association, desiring to work the claim located, may call a meeting by notifying the other members to have an assessment levied for that purpose, and at such meeting, whether there be representatives of a majority in interest present or not, a majority of those present may decide to work the claim at the expense of all, and thereafter levy assessments not oftener than once in thirty days, to defray the expenses. These assessments may be levied by any member not delinquent. When the company has by-laws the assessments shall only be for the amount thereby authorized. No new assessment shall be made until previous ones are collected, or the means for that purpose have been exhausted. By Section three written notice to the member, his heirs, executors, etc., when the assessment is thirty days overdue, is required, which notice should specify the name of the mine, mining district, and the liability. Section four provides for the service of notice. To residents of the county where the mine is located it must be by personal delivery, or left at his residence. To residents of the state without the county, by the post or through the express office, addressed to him at his residence, if known. To non-residents of the state, and those whose residences are unknown, by publication, once a week for eight weeks, in a paper of the county where the mine is located, if any, otherwise in a paper of an adjoining county. Section five declares the forture complete at the expiration of ten days after peral service; twenty days after posting, or the full

period of publication, and authorizes a sale of so much of the interest of the delinquent as will pay delinquent assessments. Section six requires the sale to take place at the mine on ten day's notice, by posting in three public places. The sale is to be by offering the smallest number of feet or shares at a time, and continuing until enough is realized, or all is sold. The sale may be conducted by any constable of the township, sheriff or auctioneer, and is to be by auction. The deed of the officer selling is prima facie evidence of his authority, and the regularity of proceedings prior to sale. Section seven applies the provisions of the act to all persons who have refused to join in incorporating the company. Section eight is the repealing clause.3

1 Hart's Civil Code of Cal., 344 (1876).

2 Stat. 1863-64, p. 478.

3 Stat. 1867-68, p. 173.

§ 194. Conveyance of mining claims-May be by bill of sale or other instrument of writing, sealed or unsealed. All prior conveyances by this method are validated; but such conveyances are held fraudulent and void except as between the parties, unless there be an immediate and continued change of possession, or the instrument is acknowledged and recorded. This act only applied to gold mining claims until March 20, 1863, when this limitation was repealed.1

Stat. 1860, p. 175.

§ 195. Sale of decedents' interests in mines.--Generally an interest in a mine, except when represented by stock in a corporation, is regarded as real estate; but such interests may be brought into an estate in course of administration and sold as personal property on petition of any creditor, partner, or member of a company, or of the president of a corporation. Such petition should

describe the condition and situation of the mine, interest or corporation. The order of sale is only made after a hearing before the probate judge, upon summons from him giving the time and place, within not less than four nor more than ten weeks, to show cause against the order of sale. The order, or summons, shall be personally served on the parties interested ten days before hearing, or published four successive weeks in a newspaper. But if the written consent of the parties interested be obtained, the notice may be dispensed with. If upon the hearing it appear that the interests of the estate, or of the partners, tenants in common or corporations would be best subserved thereby, the executor or administrator will be ordered to sell in conformity with the laws providing for the sale of other real property under order of of the probate court, except where the interest is represented by shares of stock, when the sale shall be made as of other personal property.1

1 Stat. 1865-66, p. 359.

§ 196. Sale of state mineral lands.-The original statute, as amended, regulating the sale of the sixteenth and thirty-second sections of lands designated, or found in fact to be mineral in character, is in substance as follows, with the amendments noted: Section one provides that one desiring to purchase shall make affidavit of citizenship or declaration of intention; of lawful age, and a desire to purchase the land described by legal subdivisions; that the applicant has not entered to exceed forty acres, including that applied for; that there is no adverse occupation, or if any, that the plat of the township has been filed, and the adverse occupant in occupation six months or over. Section two provides that persons in actual possession at the time of survey by the United States or at the passage of the act, shall be preferred

d.

ed

purchasers, "to the extent of his or her mining claim, pro-
vided he or she make application for the purchase of the
same on or before the first day of January, 1877, if the
plat of such survey be already filed in the United States
land office; and if not so filed, then within six months
after the filing of such plat as aforesaid."1 Section three
provides, that in cases of contest the matter shall, within
thirty days after application, be referred by the surveyor-
general or register, unless sooner, at the request of either
party to the superior 2 court of the county in which the
land is situated. Upon filing a copy of the order of
reference with the clerk of the court, either party may
commence the action; unless the action be commenced
within ninety days, the party making the demand, or
where the order is filed without demand, the adverse
party, shall be deemed to have waived his claim. Section
four prescribes the price of the land at $2.50 per acre,
payable, in gold coin, to the county treasurer within fifty
days from the approval by the surveyor-general, in
default of which the land reverts to the state. Pay-
ments to the county treasurer to be paid over and
accounted for as other moneys received for state lands.
Section five requires the same proceedings as to approv-
ing locations, issuing certificates of purchase or patents,
etc., as are required in the sale of non-mineral sections,
except as is specially provided for in the act. Section six
subjects all state patents to the lands in question, to ac-
crued water rights, ditches and reservoirs acquired by
prior possession, and confirms all rights of way for
ditches, canals, mining and other purposes over all the
sixteenth and thirty-second sections. Section seven pro-
hibits the issuing of a patent to lands embracing mining
claims, except to the owners thereof ["and not to such
owners in excess of forty acres "],3 and provides for the
reimbursement of those who have paid for such lands

not owning the mining claim embraced therein, and provides, also, that the owner of the claim shall apply to purchase within six months after the township plat is filed in the local land office, or "on or before the first day of January, 1877."4 Owners of such claims who have entered into agreements with purchasers of these lands to secure title to their mining claims are not to have the benefit of the act.5

1 Amend. Act Feb. 3, 1876-Stat. 1875-6, p. 20. Words in italics omitted in original, and applicants were required to apply within six months after filing plat, or ten months after passage of act.

2 Altered by act April 6, 1880, from "district," Stat. 1880, p. 26 3 Omitted in amendment of Feb. 3, 1876.

4 Supplied by Am. Feb. 3, 1876, in lieu of "within ten months after the passage of this act."

5 Stat. 1873-74, p. 766.

§ 197. Liens.—An act securing liens to mechanics and others 1 was extended to include bridges, ditches, flumes or aqueducts for mining and other purposes, giving the mechanic, laborer or material man a lien upon such structures.2 This act, however, was repealed April 26, 1862,3 by a general lien law, which was repealed by the general lien law of March 30, 1868.4

1 April 19. 1856.

2 Stat. 1857, p. 84.
3 Stat. 1862, p. 384.
4 Stat. 1867-68, p. 589.

§ 198. Taxation.-The law exempting mines from taxation has been repealed so far as it affects mining claims that have become private property by grant from the governments of the United States, Spain, or Mexico.1 1 Stat. 1863-64, p. 471.

§ 199.

Easements-Rights of way-Ditches-Drains -Flumes and tunnels-Dumpage.-The following are the provisions of a statute upon the subjects embraced in