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Show PROSPECTING AND MINING. 565 vides that the end boundaries must be parallel to each other and at right angles to the central line ; so a full claim, outside of the above counties, is a perfect parallelogram three hundred by fifteen hundred feet, or ten acres and about a fifth; and for this the Government charges five dollars per acre. The Surveyor- General must then make a complete plat of the claim. We go next to the Register of the Land Office of our State or Ter-ritory. We post one copy of the surveyor's plat on a post or rock, conspicuously, on the ground we claim ; another copy we file with the Register, with the field- notes, and the affidavits of two competent per-sons that we have posted notice on the claim. The Register then enters the case for record, and publishes notice of the application as often as once a week for at least sixty days, in the newspaper nearest to such claim. He must also post notice of our application in his office; and, by the way, we must also pay him some fees, and pay for the adver-tising. If no adverse claimant appears in response to this advertising, all such are barred ; it is assumed that our claim is first class, and wr e go higher. But if there is one chance in ten, some fellow will be certain to claim that our mine belongs to him. He may file his claim under oath, and, within thirty days after so doing, begin suit in any court with real estate jurisdiction. If he fails to do so within the time, he is forever barred ; if he acts promptly, the case goes to trial the same as any other. If we gain it, we file a copy of the judgment with the Register of the Land Office, and proceed as before. But all this time we retain possession of the mine, and take out pay ore if there is any. Having gotten rid of the man who tried to " jump" our mine, we pay some more fees, you observe, and the Register certifies all the papers to the Commissioner- General of the Land Office, at Washington, who thereupon issues to us a patent, and we are owners in fee simple of the claim therein described. We, or our assigns, can then hold it for all time, no matter whether we work it or let it lie idle. A patent costs from $ 125 to $ 175, all the fees in mining districts being very heavy. The holder can follow his vein downward wherever it goes, but he / must not go outside of his end lines. The following general princi-ples of mining law, either as laid down in the statutes of Congress and the Territories or decided by the Land Office Department and courts, are worth noting : All lands of the United States containing gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, or cinnabar, in workable quantities, are mineral lands, and |
