Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-06-15

a FropOsei ReIse3y for ell Failure
lueStiOps.

The New York Mining Joura1lha found
a universal panacea for the cure Of mining
litigation. It would do away with all the
dips, spurs and angles, the courses, trends
and strikes Of a lode, and reduce eli claims
to a square location, to be worked inside
the planes of its boundaries, and not fol-
lowed beyond. 1t says even the most lin
tied acquaintance with mining matters is
sufficient to convince any one that litiga-
ton is probably the most fruitful cause of
loss in vein mining. 1t seems, indeed, as
If it were almost impossible for any profit
able gold or silver mine to escape the blight
Of a lawsuit,an and certainly no greater bless
ing could be brought to mining interests
generally than the enactment Of a law that
would make it impossible TO misinterpret
the limits of mining claims. The questions,
'What is a vein % "What are the limits
of mining claims ?" are the bottom of the
lawsuits which have ruined so many good
mines.
The first Of these questions has been SO
enlarged by the Eureka-Richmond decis-
ion that an equally perplexing question is
now likely to arise in the form Of What
is not a vein 2" And, no doubt. efforts
will be made to show that any mineral
bearing belt may be thus elassed. What
the limits of a lode are viii probably be-
come more and more obscure as our knOwl-
edge of the ramiications of tie ore be-
comes more and more perfect, unit! in a
system Of assures such as those in the vi
cinity of Central Colorado, where the ore
is disseminated in the altered country
~,..f- :. I'LL L., ,-N.arn,111 e. 1y+a-,,s.,
which location should hold a number of
intersecting veins.
We believe it is absolutely impossible to
50 define the meaning Of the term ''lode"
or " vein 3" as to prevent these endless liti-
cations, and even the rights which are ac-
quired by a patent are very uncertain by
reason OF our ignorance at times of what
constitutes the outcrOp or "apeX" of 2
vein. With the experience of countless
lawsuits before us, it seems almost incred-
IDLE that laws which make such a state Of
things possible should not have been
changed long ago, and especially when the
remedy is so simple and 50 apparent as
it is.
Had cur laws been based on the old
Spanish mining code, with such modifca-
tions only as were necessary from the fact
that under Spanish law all minerals belong
to the crown, no conflict in titles could
possibly have occurred. There seems in
fact no way of preventing conflicts Of this
kind, except by making the boundaries OF
a claim the limits in every direction to
which a mineral deposit may be followed.
Il will necessarily follow from this that the
area taken up must be larger than at pres
ent. We would suggest l ,500X900 feet as q
sufficient area. The corners should be
marked with permanent stone monuments,
and the pateutee would be entitled to all
the minerals found within the lines, to any
depth, but could not follow them beyond
the same limits. He should be obliged to
do a certain amount Of bona tde work m
in default Of which his rights would cease,
and any one else could re-enter the claim.
The anomaly Of local laws and customs in
every district should be abolished, and this
one simple and comprehensive law govern
i'll all cases, Of coarse, it would be i'm
possible to change established locations,
but claims located subsequent to the pas
sage of the law, and especially all new min
ing districts. should be governed by it. 1t
would be impossible to have any conflict of
title, and this most fruitful source of mis-
fortune in mining enterprises would cease.
1t would then be of no consequence what
meaning should be applied to the term
vein or lode, nor would the difficult prob
lem Of which lode holds, at intersections
and unions of veins, the united vein. any
loncer trouble anxious mine owners. The
problem would be as simple as determine
ing the ownership of a town lot, and the
change, though it might he objected to by
the LAWYERS, would be a blessing to miners
and mine owners.