Weekly Trinity journal., 1870-07-30
Sale OF Mining Ground.

We publish herewith the bill as it passed hotl
houses of Congress which allows the sale o
placer mines 10y the Uuited States:
an Act tc amend San Act granting the rlgh
of way to ditch and canal owners over the pub
lie lands, and for other pufposer.'
Be it enacted by the Senate and House OF Rep
resentatiYes Of America in Congrss assembled
! That the act granting the right of way to ditch
and canal owners over the public lands, and for
other purposes, approved July %, sec, be, and
the same is hereby amended by adding theretU
the following additional sections, numbered ~
10, Il, 10, IL and II respectively, which shall
hereafter constitute ard form part Of the afofe-
said act.
Sec. II. Ana BE it further enacted, That
claims usually called "placers,h including all
forms of deposit, excepting all veins of quartz,
or Other rock in place, shall be subject to entry
or patent under this act, under like circumst tan
ces and conditions, and upon similar proceed
ings as are provided for vein or lode claims
Provided, That where the lands have been pre-
vously surveyed by the United States, the en-
try in its exterior limits shall conform to the
legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further
survey plat in such case being required and
the lands may be paid for at the rate Of two dol
lars snd fifty cents per acre: Provided further,
That legal subdivisions of forty acres may be
subdivded into ten-acre tracts and that two or
more persons, or association of persons, having
contiguous claims, OF any size, although such
claims may be less than ten acre each may
make Joint entry thereof: Aud provided fur
ther, THAT no location of placer claim here
after made shall exceed one hundred ana sixty
acres for any one person, or association of per-
sons, whose location shall conform to the United
States surveys and nothing in this section CON
tanned shall defeat or impair any bona fGe pre-
emptiOn or homestead claim upon agricultural
lands, or authorize the sale Of Improvements of
any bona fde settler to any person.
Sec. -. And be it further enacted, That
where said person or association, they and their
grautors, 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 work
ing Of claims for such period shall be sufficient
TO establish right to patent thereto under
this act, in the presence of any adverse claim
Provided, howeye, That nothing in this act shall
be deemed to impair any lien which may have
attached in any way whatever for any mining
claim or property thereto attached prior to the
issuance Of patent.
Sec. II. And be it further enacted, That all
exparte afidayits 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
DEC. ID. AUu DC III iuftDer enacted Inat reg
isters and receivers shall receive the same fees
for services under this act as are provided by
law for the services under other acts of Congress
and that effect shall be given to the foregoing
act according to such regulations as may be pre-
scrbed 10y the Commissioner Of the General
Land Office.
Sec. 10. And he it further enacted That so
much of the act of March third, eighteen hun
dred and ftty-three, entitled " An act to provide
for tse survey Of The public lands in California,
the granting OF preempuou rights, and for other
purposes" as provides that none other than
township lines shall be surveyed where the lands
are mineral, is hereby repealed aud the public
surveys are extended over all such lands Pro-
Yided, That all subdiyiding Of surveyed lands
into lots less than one hundred and sixty acres
may be done by county ard local surveyors at
the expense Of the claimants And provided
further, That nothing herein contained shall au-
thorze the survey of waste or useless lands.
Sec. z. And be it further enacted That
none of the rights conferred by sections, 3, s
and of the act to which this act is amendatorv
shall be abrogated by this act, and the same are
hereby extended to all public lands affected by
this act and all patents granted preempton
or homesteads allowed, shall be subject TO any
vested and accrued water rights, or rights to
bitches 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.