The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-10-07
MINING LOCATION.

Last evening several of the more prominent
miners and business men of Butte assembled
at the office Of A. j. Davis there to meet Mr..
Donaldson, of the Land Commission, and
exchange views on divers topics connected
with the presumption and the subseqent title
to mineral bearing lodes. The subject prin-
cipally entered into was a discussion of the
comparative merits of the apex location as
made under the present law-that is, the To-
cation made along the groupings of a lode
with privilege of following that lode wherever
it may go-with the I" square location" advo-
Gated, it is said, by the miners of Leadville and
Nevada, and of which system Mr.. Donaldson
himself appears to be an earnest supporter.
That the square location would find favor in
Nevada, or in any other "one LEDGE country is
very reasonable, as it is unquestionably the
best system that can be adopted where only
one ledge is acknowledged to exist, as we'll
as in camps where the ore appears to exist in
independent bodies interspersed through a
limstone or other gangue, without the form or
shape of a ledge. The square locations, as
explained by Mr.. Donaldson is as follows ,
The miner, under this system when he finds
a lode locates 1900 feet along its length and
600 feet in breadth, the width of the plat be-
ing measured from ,the foot-wal; out in the
direction in which the lodge is pitching. This
plat 600x1 500 feet constitutes his claim, the
outer boundsbeing vertical planes passingdown
toward the center of the earth, through the
| c;5a and and l;,,ae Df h;e n1o;,, n, - ,,or
be more readily understood if we say that a
plumb line dropped anywhere from the end
or side lines of his claim will establish the
limit beyond which he is not allowed to fol-
low the ore, unless he Owns the ground into
which it pitches. 1t will be readily seen that
a ledge having a large angle with the per-
p%endicular will very soon run beyond the
side line of the ground first located, when
the original locator is in danger of los
ing the mine he discovered. To answer this
objection it is provided that the own
er of such square location has the right
to make a second or a third location simllarin
size to the first, as soon as the ore passes be-
yond the lateral boundary of the first plat ia
ken up. 1t may be asked what is to prevent
any other party besides the original locator
from taking up claims Nos. two, three, or
more, as the lode pitches, and here will be
understood how well adapted the system is to
a ''one ledge" country like that of the Com
stock. To take up a claim the locator must
have ore, but since the original locator is fol-
lowing his lode down on the pitch. of so or
60 he of course will be the one first to 'get
ore" on the adjoining claim, and consequent
ly he alone will be privileged to take up such
location. And SO with the next. There is no
other ledge to locate on the surface, and un-
less some one, noticing the dip of the lode,
chooses to start on the third or fourth claim
toward the hanging wall, and take chances on
sinking through 1900 Or 1000 feet of granite
so as to reach ore on that claim before the
original discoverer arrives there, then the
original discoverer can uninterruptecly fol-
low his lode to the centre of the earth, or as
much farther as he may see fit. '1"
But for much the same reason it will be
understood at once by every one acquainted
with Montana that such a system will no
work here. Suppose the Alice had been taken
f-FF"E
up as a square location. The ledge is pitch
ing north. Having measured its dip, an en-
gineer could estimate the exact depth at
OF which it would pass into the next claim
six hundred by fifteen hundred feet alongside.
To locate that ground it would Be necessary
for the owners of the Alice either to follow
down on their own lode until it crossed over
into tba ~poiohhorinU uround or oIeo N d;s-
cover a separate lode within the ~neighboring
claim, proof of whose existence would enable
them to locate it. But the ground, while UNI
claimed, would be open to all. prospeeters
alike, and the first man to find a quartz seam
Of the necessary dimensions would be the
n entitled to the privilege Of fling upon
that claim. Suppose that the claim adjoining
the Alice IN the north was thus located, then
: the owners Of the latter claim could look for