SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse claimants to any mine, located and claimed as aforesaid, shall appear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until final settlement and adjudication, in the courts of competent jurisdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases. [Repealed.]

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and is hereby authorized to establish additional land districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this act.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

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SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed. Provided, however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty

acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of Congress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to secure homestead to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the

same.

APPROVED July 26th, 1866.

AN ACT

To amend "An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

That the act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes, approved July twenty-six, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, be and the same is hereby amended by adding thereto the following additional sections, numbered twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, respectively, which shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the aforesaid act:

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That claims, usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under this act, under like circumstances and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims. Provided, That where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further survey or plat in such case being required, and the lands may be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre. Provided further, That legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into ten acre

tracts; and that two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof: And provided further, That no location or placerclaim, hereafter made, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide pre-emption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to any purchaser.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That where said person or association, they and their grantors, shall have held and worked their said claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this act, in the absence of any adverse claim. Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining-claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all ex parte affidavits required to be made under this act, or the act of which it is amendatory, may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That registers and receivers shall receive the same fees for services under this act as are provided by law for like services under other acts of Congress; and that effect shall be given to the foregoing act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land-Office.

SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, entitled "An act to provide for the survey of the public lands in California, the granting of pre-emption rights, and for other purposes," as provides that none other than township lines shall be surveyed where the lands are mineral, is hereby repealed. And the public surveys are hereby extended over all such lands. Provided, That all subdividing of surveyed lands into lots less than one hundred and sixty acres may be done by

county and local surveyors at the expense of the claimants: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall require the survey of waste and useless lands.

SEO. 17. And be it further enacted, That none of the rights conferred by sections five, eight, and nine as the act to which this act is amendatory shall be abrogated by this act, and the same are hereby extended to all public lands affected by this act; and all patents granted, or pre-emption or homesteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may have been acquired under or recognized by the ninth section of the act of which this act is amendatory. But nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal, impair, or in any way affect the provisions of the "Act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada," approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six.

APPROVED July 9th, 1870.

AN ACT

To promote the development of the mining resources of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled :

That all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such, under regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or rules of miners, in the several mining-districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States.

SEC. 2. That mining-claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits heretofore located, shall be governed as to length along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force at the date of their location. A

mining-claim located after the passage of this act, whether located by one or more persons, may equal, but shall not exceed, one thousand five hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of a mining-claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall extend more than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to less than twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights existing at the passage of this act shall render such limitation necessary. The end-lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other.

SEC. 3. That the locators of all mining locations heretofore made, or which shall hereafter be made, on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge, situated on the public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no adverse claim exists at the passage of this act, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and the State, Territorial, and local regulations not in conflict with said laws of the United States governing their possessory title, shall have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, and ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies inside of such surface-lines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side-lines of said surface locations. Provided, That their right of possession to such outside parts of such veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as aforesaid, through the end-lines of their locations, so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of said veins or ledges. And provided further, That nothing in this section shall authorize the locator or possessor of a vein or lode which extends in its downward course beyond the vertical lines of his claim to enter upon the surface of a claim owned or possessed by another.

SEC. 4. That where a tunnel is run for the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from the face of such tunnel on the line thereof, not previously known to exist, discovered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if discovered from the surface; and locations on the line of such tunnel of veins or lodes not appearing on the surface, made by other parties after