The Placer herald., 1870-07-30

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 right Of pre-
emption thereto, and shall be entitled to pur-
chase 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 thmselves of the pro-
visions of the act of Congress approved May
20, 1862, entitled can act to secure home
steads to actual settlers on the public do
main, and acts amendatory thereof.
SEC. IL. And be ii 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 ap-
plicabe to the same.
Approved July 26, 1866.
The following are the amendatory and sup
Elemental Sections passed at the session of
Congress just closed. We publish the two
together, so that our readers can have the ell
tire law complete, as it now stands in the U.
S. Statutes.
BE ii enacted by Tie Senate and House Of
Representatives Of the United States Of Ame-
rica 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 26, 1866, be, and
the same is hereby, amended by adding
thereto the following additional sections,
numbered II, 13, IA, 15, 16 and II, re-
spectively, which shall hereafter constitute
and form part Of the aforesaid act.
SEC. II. Aad be 1t further enacted, That
claims, usually called "placers,' including
all forms of deposit, excepting quartz, or
other rock in place, shall be subject to entry
and patent under this act, under like
circumstances and conditions, and upon simi-
lar proceedings, as are provided for vein or
lode claims Prorjdcd, 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 pub
lie 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: Prorided further, That le-
gal subdivisions Of forty acres may be subdi-
vided into ten acre-tracts; and that two or
more persons, or associations of persons, hav-
ing contiguous claims of any size, although
such claims may be less than ten acres each,
may make Joint entry thereof: And prorided
| further, That no location of placer claim
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 fde pre-emption or homestead
claim upon agricultural land, or authorize the
sale Of the improvements of any bona fde
settler to any purchaser.
Sec. 13. And be Il further enacted, That
where said person, or association, they and
their grantors, shall have held and worked
their said claims for 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 estab-
lish right to a patent thereto under this act
in the absence of any adverse claim: Prorid-
ed, hopeuer, 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 patent.
SEC. IA. and be II further enacted, That
all er pa,Te afiidavits required to be made
under this act, or the act Of which it is amen
datory, may be verified before an officer au-
thorized to administer oaths within the land
district where the claims may be situated.
Sec. Is. And be u further enacted, That
registers and receivers shall receive the same
fees for service under this act as are provided
ty law for like services under other acts of
Congress; and that effect shall be given to
the fore ,9ing act according to such regulations
as may be prescribed by the Commissioner Ct
the General Laud Office.
Sec. 1G. and Re it further enacted, That
SO much of the act Of March third, eighteen
hundred and fifty-three, entitled can Act to
provide for the survey of the public lands of
California, the granting of pre-emrtion rights,
and for other purposes, as provides that
none other than township lines shall be sur
veyed where the lands are mineral, is hereby
repealed. And the public surveys are here
by extended over all such lands: Prorided,
That all subdividing of surveyed lands into
lots less than one hundred and sixty acres
my be done by county and local surveyors at
the expense of the claimants. And, procid-
ed further, That nothing herein contained
shall require the survey of waste or useless
lands.
Sec. II. And be ii further enacted, That
none of the rights conferred by sections five,
eight and nine of the Act to which this act is
amendatory, shall be abrogated by this act,
and the same are hereby extended to all pub
lie lands affected by this act; and all patents
granted or pre-empton of homesteads allow
ed, shall be subject to any vested and accru
ed water rights, or rights to bitches and res
ervors used in connection with such water
rights, as may have been acquired under or
recognized by the ninth section of the sct of
which this act is amendatory; but nothing in
this act shall be construed to repeal, impair,
or in anv way affect the provisions of the