§ 2352. Nothing in the five preceding sections shall be construed to destroy or impair any rights which may have attached, prior to the third day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, or to authorize the sale of lands valuable for mines of gold, silver or copper. (Act of Congress March 3, 1873, Ch. 279, § 6.) § 13. Referring to the repeal provisions, United States Revised Statutes.-Mention has already been made of the saving clauses, by which prior rights are left unaffected by repeals and substitutions. These will be more clearly understood by consulting the following sections which have been compiled from the Revised Statutes: TITLE LXXIV. REPEAL PROVISIONS. SECTION 5595-What Revised Statutes embrace. 5596-Repeal of acts embraced in revision. 5597-Accrued rights reserved. 5598-Prosecutions and punishments. 5599-Acts of limitation. 5600-Arrangement and classification of sections. § 5595. The foregoing seventy-three titles embrace the statutes of the United States general and permanent in their nature, in force on the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventythree, 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. § 5596. All acts of Congress passed prior to said first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, any portion of which is embraced in any section of said revision, are hereby repealed, and the section applicable thereto shall be in force in lieu thereof; all parts of such acts not contained in such revision, having been repealed or superseded by subsequent acts, or not being general and permanent in their nature: Provided, That the incorporation into said revision of any general and permanent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 appropriation, 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. § 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 suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil cause before the said repeal, but all rights and liabilities under said act 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. § 5598. All offenses committed, and all penalties or forfeitures incurred under any statute embraced in said revision prior to said repeal, may be prosecuted and punished in the same manner and with the same effect, as if said repeal had not been made. § 5599. All acts of limitation, whether applicable to civil causes and proceedings, or to the prosecution of offenses, or for the recovery of penalties 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 repeal, may be commenced and prosecuted within the same time as if said repeal had not been made. § 5600. The arrangement and classification of the several sections of the revision have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and 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. § 5601. The enactment of the said revision is not to affect or repeal any act of Congress passed since the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, and all acts passed since that date are to 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.1 (Approved June 22, 1874.) 1 This section gives full effect to the act of June 6, 1874. Supra, p. 17, note 1. CHAPTER III. LODE CLAIMS. SECTION 14-Definition of lode. $ 14. 15-Possession. 16-Possession prior to location. 20-Qualifications entitling persons to explore, occupy and purchase. 26-Survey, length, width, form. 27-Provisions as to recording, and herein of notice to subsequent purchaser. 28-What record to contain, description. 29-Annual labor. 30-Forfeiture. 31-Re-location of entire claims forfeited. 32-Re-location of claims forfeited to co-owner. 33-Abandonment. 34-Surface rights acquired by location. 35-Right to side veins. 36-Right to dip, apex. 37-Same-Veins uniting on the dip. 37a-Right to cross veins. Definition of lode.—The exact meaning of the term lode, as used in the acts of Congress. is nowhere 66 66 laid down in the statutes where it is employed, nor does it seem ever to have received a definition, from which considerable variation is not made by those using the word for practical purposes. It has been defined by geologists as a fissure in the earth's crust, filled with mineral matter, containing ores.1 This would render the word synonymous with "fissure vein." In one case it is said to be "a Cornish word, nearly synonymous with vein."2 But the geological definition is too narrow to be applied to the term as used in American mining law, and the manner in which it is disposed of in the case cited is too indefinite for practical purposes. Another definition, or rather description of a quartz lode," is given as a fissure or seam in the country rock, filled with quartz matter bearing gold or silver. This fissure may be wide or narrow," etc. This is also open to objections, as being applicable only to a limited class of such ore deposits as were doubtless intended to be included. The term receives a somewhat broader signification in a later Nevada case, where it is applied to ore deposits, in a succession of chambers connected by a seam of varying width, and more or less barren of mineral, and where the boundaries or walls of such deposits were of different material.4 These deposits would not conform to the description of a "fissure." But probably the best, and most practical explanation of what this word means, is given in a case decided in the United States Circuit Court, for the Ninth Circuit.5 The opinion was delivered by Mr. Justice FIELD,6 eminently qualified, not only by his acknowledged ability as a judge, but by intimate knowledge of mining interests, gathered from years of experience. In the course of the opinion the learned judge, after remarking that the term is always used in the statutes in connection with the word "vein," goes on to say: "Any definition of the term should, therefore, be sufficiently broad to embrace deposits of * * * "The the several metals or ores here mentioned. In the construction of statutes, general terms must receive the interpretation which will include all the instances enumerated as comprehended by them. Cinnabar is not found in any fissure of the earth's crust, or in any lode as defined by geologists; yet the acts of Congress speak, as already seen, of lodes of quartz, or rock in place, bearing cinnabar. * * * We are of opinion, therefore, that the term as used in the acts of Congress is applicable to any zone or belt of mineralized rock, lying within boundaries clearly separating it from the neighboring rock." After noticing the geological definition above given, he makes, with approval, the following quotation from the testimony of Dr. Raymond, a witness in the case: miners made the definition first. As used by miners before being defined by any authority, the term lode simply meant that formation by which the miners could be led or guided. It is an alteration of the verb lead; and whatever the miner could follow expecting to find ore was his lode." If anything were needed to fortify the logical conclusion reached in this case, it might be said that many of the extensive mineral deposits discovered since the acts of Congress were passed were of a character not then known to exist. And while they vary widely from the character of fissures, they are still further removed from what were then known as placer diggings. It was necessary for purposes of location and working that they should be classified, as either lode claims or placer claims, and the fact that they were universally taken up in conformity to the law governing the former class of locations, was an unmistakable indication of what meaning was conveyed to the minds of the miners by the use of this familiar term in the acts of Congress. 1 See Van Cotta's Treatise on Ore Deposits, Prince's transla. tion, 26. 2 Bullion M. Co. vs. Crœsus G. & S. M. Co., 2 Nev. 168. |