character of the land should be elicited at the hearing. Where the testimony is taken before an officer who does not use a seal, other than the register and receiver, the official character of such officer must be attested by a clerk of a court of record, and the testimony transmitted to the register and receiver, who will thereupon examine and forward the same to this office, with their joint opinion as to the character of the land as shown by the testimony. When the case comes before this office, such an award of the land will be made as the law and the facts may justify; and in cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land in any forty-acre tract, the necessary instructions will be issued to enable the agricultural claimant, at his own expense, to have the work done, at his option, either by United States deputy, county, or other local surveyor; the survey in such case may be executed in such manner as will segregate the portion of land actually containing the mine, and used as surface ground for the convenient working thereof, from the remainder of the tract, which remainder will be patented to the agriculturist to whom the same may have been awarded, subject, however, to the condition that the land may be entered upon by the proprietor of any vein or lode for which a patent has been issued by the United States for the purpose of extracting and removing the ore from the same, where found to penetrate or intersect the land so patented as agricultural, as stipulated by the mining act. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, officer of a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the deponent's character and credibility to be properly certified to by the officer administering the oath. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such survey, duly sworn to as aforesaid, you will transmit the same to the surveyor general for his verification and approval; who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will properly mark out the same upon the original township plat in his office, and furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, to be affixed to the duplicate and triplicate township plats respectively. In cases where a portion of a forty-acre tract is awarded to an agricultural claimant, and he causes the segregation thereof from the mineral portion, as aforesaid, such agricultural portion will not be given a numerical designation as in the case of surveyed mineral claims, but will simply be described as the "Fractional quarter of the in township of range quarter of section meridian, containing acres, the same being exclusive of the land adjudged to be mineral in said forty-acre tract." The surveyor must correctly compute the area of such agricultural portion, which computation will be verified by the surveyor-general. After the authenticated plat and field notes of the survey have been received from the surveyor-general, this office will issue the necessary order for the entry of the land, and in issuing the receiver's receipt and register's patent certificate you will invariably be governed by the description of the land given in the order from this office. The fees for taking testimony and reducing the same to writing, in these cases, will have to be defrayed by the parties in interest. Where such testimony is taken before any other officer than the register and receiver, the register and receiver will be entitled to no fees. If, upon a review of the testimony at this office, a ten-acre tract should be found to be properly mineral in character, that fact will be no bar to the execution of the settler's legal right to the remaining nonmineral portion of his claim, if contiguous. No fear need be entertained that miners will be permitted to make entries of tracts ostensibly as mining claims, which are not mineral, simply for the purpose of obtaining possession and defrauding settlers out of their valuable agricultural improvements; it being almost an impossibility for such a fraud to be consummated under the laws and regulations applicable to obtaining patents for mining claims. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to be mineral in character, is by no means equivalent to an award of the land to a miner. A miner is compelled by law to give sixty days' publication of notice, and posting of diagrams and notices, as a preliminary step; and then, before he can enter the land, he must show that the land yields mineral; that he is entitled to the possessory right thereto in virtue of compliance with local customs or rules of miners, or by virtue of the Statute of Limitations; that he or his grantors have expended, in actual labor and improvements, an amount of not less that five hundred dollars thereon, and that the claim is one in regard to which there is no controversy or opposing claim. After all these proofs are met, he is entitled to have a survey made at his own cost, where a survey is required, after which he can enter and pay for the land embraced by his claim. J. A. WILLIAMSON, Commissioner. § 88. Regulations under the coal land law.-DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1880.-Gentlemen: The act of Congress approved March 3, 1873, entitled "An act to provide for the sale of the lands of the United States containing coal," is as follows, to wit:1 Your attention is called to the following points: 1. The sale of coal lands is provided for 1. By ordinary private entry under Section 1. 2. By granting a preference right of purchase 2. The land entered under either section must be by legal subdivisions, as made by the regular United States survey. Entry is confined to surveyed lands; to such as are vacant, not otherwise appropriated, reserved by competent authority, or containing valuable minerals other than coal. 3. Individuals and associations may purchase. If an individual, he must be twenty-one years of age and a citizen of the United States, or have declared his intention to become such citizen. 4. If an association of persons, each must be qualified as above. 5. A person is not disqualified by the ownership of any quantity of other land, nor by having removed from his own land in the same state or territory. 6. Any individual may enter by legal subdivisions as aforesaid any area not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres. 7. Any association may enter not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres. 8. Any association of not less than four persons, duly qualified, who shall have expended not less than $5,000 in working and improving any coal mine or mines, may enter under Section 2 not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, including such mining improvement. 9. The price per acre is ten dollars where the land is situated more than fifteen miles from any completed railroad, and twenty dollars per acre where the land is within fifteen miles of such road. 10. Where the land lies partly within fifteen miles of such road and in part outside such limit, the maximum price must be paid for all legal subdivisions the greater part of which lies within fifteen miles of such road. 11. The term "completed railroad" is held to mean one which is actually constructed on the face of the earth; and lands within fifteen miles of any point of a railroad so constructed will be held and disposed of at twenty dollars per acre. 12. Any duly qualified person or association must be preferred as purchasers of those public lands on which they have opened and improved, or shall open and improve, any coal mine or mines, and which they shall have in actual possession. 13. Possession by agent is recognized as the possession of the principal. The clearest proof on the point of agency must, however, be required in every case, and a clearly defined possession must be established. 14. The opening and improving of a coal mine, in order to confer a preference right of purchase, must not be considered as a mere matter of form; the labor expended and improvements made must be such as to clearly indicate the good faith of the claimant. 15. These lands are intended to be sold, where there are adverse claimants therefor, to the party who, by substantial improvements, actual possession, and a reasonable industry, shows an intention to continue his development of the mines in preference to those who would purchase for speculative purposes only. With this view, you will require such proof of compliance with the law, when lands are applied for under Section 2 by adverse claimants, as the circumstances of each case may justify. 16. In conflicting claims, where improvement has been made prior to March 3, 1873, you will, if each party make subsequent compliance with the law, award the land by legal subdivisions, so as to secure to each as far as |