at the rate of five dollars for each acre and five dollars

for each fractional part of an acre, the receiver issuing the usual duplicate receipt therefor. The claimant will also make a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by him for publication and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the register and receiver of the land office, after which the whole matter will be forwarded to the commissioner of the general land office, and a patent issued thereon if found regular. In sending up the papers in the case the register must not omit certifying to the fact that the notice was posted in his office for the full period of sixty days, such certificate to state distinctly when such posting was done and how long continued. The consecutive series of numbers of mineral entries must be continued, whether the same are of lode or placer claims. The surveyorgeneral must continue to designate all surveyed mineral claims as heretofore by a progressive series of numbers, beginning with lot No. 37 in each township; the claim to be so designated at date of filing the plat, field-notes, etc., in addition to the local designation of the claim; it being required in all cases that the plat and field-notes of the survey of a claim must, in addition to the reference to permanent objects in the neighborhood, describe the locus of the claim with reference to the lines of public surveys by a line connecting a corner of the claim with the nearest public corner of the United States surveys, unless such claim be on unsurveyed lands at a remote distance from such public corner, in which latter case the reference by course and distance to permanent objects in the neighborhood will be a sufficient designation by which to fix the locus until the public surveys shall have been closed upon its boundaries.

§ 81. Adverse claims.-Section 2326 provides for adverse claims, fixes the time within which they shall be filed to have legal effect, and prescribes the manner of their adjustment. Said section requires that the adverse claim shall be filed during the period of publication of notice; that it must be on the oath of the adverse claimant; and that it must show the "nature," the "boundaries," and the "extent" of the adverse claim. In order that this section of law may be properly carried into effect, the following is communicated for the information of all concerned: An adverse mining claim must be filed with the register of the same land office with whom the application for patent was filed, or in his absence with the receiver, and within the sixty days' period of newspaper publication of notice. The adverse notice must be duly sworn to by the person or persons making the same before an officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district, or before the register or receiver; it will fully set forth the nature and extent of the interference or conflict; whether the adverse party claims as a purchaser for valuable consideration or as a locator; if the former, a certified copy of the original location, the original conveyance, a duly certified copy thereof, or an abstract of title from the office of the proper recorder should be furnished, or if the transaction was a mere verbal one he will narrate the circumstances attending the purchase, the date thereof, and the amount paid, which facts should be supported by the affidavit of one or more witnesses, if any were present at the time, and if he claims as a locator he must file a duly certified copy of the location from the office of the proper recorder. In order that the "boundaries" and "extent" of the claim may be shown, it will be incumbent upon the adverse claimant to file a plat showing his entire claim, its relative situation or position with the one against

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which he claims, and the extent of the conflict. This plat must be made from an actual survey by a United States deputy surveyor, who will officially certify thereon to its correctness; and in addition there must be attached to such plat of survey a certificate or sworn statement by the surveyor as to the approximate value of the labor performed or improvements made upon the claim by the adverse party or his predecessors in interest, and the plat must indicate the position of any shafts, tunnels, or other improvements, if any such exist, upon the claim of the party opposing the application, and by which party said improvements were made. Upon the foregoing being filed within the sixty days as aforesaid, the register, or in his absence the receiver, will give notice in writing to both parties to the contest that such adverse claim has been filed, informing them that the party who filed the adverse claim will be required within thirty days from the date of such filing to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to determine the question of right of possession, and to prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment, and that should such adverse claimant fail to do so, his adverse claim will be considered waived, and the application for patent be allowed to proceed upon its merits. When an adverse claim is filed as aforesaid, the register or receiver will indorse upon the same the precise date of filing, and preserve a record of the date of notifications issued thereon; and thereafter all proceedings on the application for patent will be suspended, with the exception of the completion of the publication and posting of notices and plat, and the filing of the necessary proof thereof, until the controversy shall have been adjudicated in court, or the adverse claim waived or withdrawn. The proceedings after rendition of judgment by the court in such

case are so clearly defined by the act itself as to render it unnecessary to enlarge thereon in this place.

§ 82. Placer claims.-The proceedings to obtain patents for claims usually called placers, including all forms of deposit, are similar to the proceedings prescribed for obtaining patents for vein or lode claims; but where said placer claim shall be upon surveyed lands, and conform to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat will be required, and all placer mining claims located after May 10, 1872, shall conform as nearly as practicable with the United States system of public land surveys and the rectangular subdivisions of such surveys, and no such location shall include more than 20 acres for each individual claimant; but where placer claims cannot be conformed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat shall be made as on unsurveyed lands. But where such claims are located previous to the public surveys, and do not conform to legal subdivisions, survey, plat, and entry thereof may be made according to the boundaries thereof, provided the location is in all respects legal. The proceedings for obtaining patents for veins or lodes having already been fully given, it will not be necessary to repeat them here; it being thought that careful attention thereto by applicants and the local officers will enable them to act understandingly in the matter and make such slight modifications in the notice, or otherwise, as may be necessary in view of the different nature of the two classes of claims, placer claims being fixed, however, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, or fractional part of an acre. By Section 2330, authority is given for the subdivision of forty-acre legal subdivisions into ten-acre lots, which is intended for the greater convenience of miners in segregating their claims both from one another and from intervening agricultural lands. It is held, there

fore, that under a proper construction of the law these ten-acre lots in mining districts should be considered and dealt with, to all intents and purposes, as legal subdivisions, and that an applicant having a legal claim which conforms to one or more of these ten-acre lots, either adjoining or cornering, may make entry thereof, after the usual proceedings, without further survey or plat. In cases of this kind, however, the notice given of the application must be very specific and accurate in description, and as the forty-acre tracts may be subdivided into ten-acre lots, either in the form of squares of ten by ten chains, or of parallelograms five by twenty chains, so long as the lines are parallel and at right angles with the lines of the public surveys, it will be necessary that the notice and application state specifically what ten-acre lots are sought to be patented, in addition to the other data required in the notice. Where the ten-acre subdivision is in the form of a square it may be described, for instance, as the "S. E. of the S. W. of N. W. 4," or, if in the form of a parallelogram as aforesaid, it may be described as the "W. of the W. of the S. W. of the N. W. (or the N. of the S. of the N. E. S. E.) of section township -, range the case may be; but, in addition to this description of the land, the notice must give all the other data that is required in a mineral application, by which parties may be put on inquiry as to the premises sought to be patented. The proof submitted with applications for claims of this kind must show clearly the character and the extent of the improvements upon the premises. Applicants for patent to a placer claim, who are also in possession of a known vein or lode included therein, must state in their application that the placer includes such vein or lode. The published and posted notices must also include such statement; and the vein or lode must be sur

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