The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-07-27
PLACER aINlNa IN MoNrANA.-III.

~ btS hAAssb NeS SHoSA
is demonstrated to be an actual fact, up to
the setting in of the resulting stampede the
stanpeders being left midway on the road to
the new find. When stampeders once set
out and have a fair idea of the locality in
which gold has been found, the march be-
comes a go-as-you-please race to the common
destination. If the district was organized
by the discovery party it is not at all likely,
unless the discovery has been made In a very
short gulch, that the discoveries have been
able, under miners law, to locate more than
a very small fraction of the paying ground.
In that case claims, already measured and
numbered, are awaiting owners. and the first
to reach the recorders - I flee y has his pick
OF the INDICATED claims, for it is a recognized
principle in miners jurisprudence that no
claims can he located for abscntees. The
locator in person must order his name entered
on the records, and designate the number Of
the claim he selects. This operation some
times furnishes occasion for an ottcrop of
the superstltious belief in lucky and unlucky
numbers. Instances have been known in
WHICH Tie lDCdttE U u CltlIl lc itu ICNtI
seen would offer Il handsome I" boot in the
trade for another, which he had not seen
either, but which he considered as more likely
to be rich from the lucky number it bore. In
at least one case that we know of the belief
in the taiismanic influence of No. Is cost the
one indulglng in ii a handsome fortune, for
number thirteen proved to be worthless,
whereas the less luckily numbered claim, he
had exchanged fori!, poured out its treasure
in most generous yield. But if the district
has not been organized, to do so becomes the
first duty of the stamped-Is upon reaching
the scene of the new strike. As soon as a
number sufficient for the purpose find them
selves assembled together they imnIed iately
and "court OF las, appeal " of the W lderuess,
to-wit the miners meeting, ard proceed to
daft Il code of law tor The district about to
be formed. The district usually embraces
the .u!ch in which gold has been discovered
together with all its bars and tributaries, al
though sometimes, as in the case Of Alder,
and again i'll Confederate, one 9uicll may he
divided into several districts. Laws in diiler-
ent districts may differ on points of MINOR
detail, but there are certain principles recng-
nizrd as fundamental in which they must all
agree. Thus a claim can never exceed "
hundred feet, measured up and down the
sulcll, or along the bar in the direction of its
channel. In short g~ulches the length of claims
has sometimes been fixed at 100 feet in
order that there might be enough TO 60
around, giving one apiece 10 eacli
of The prrty framing the laws, but Usage es
t.blished 200 feet as the length in no case to
b. exceeded. In forming a new district if the
Organizers we've to establish 300 or 40O-fout
claims, the second influx of stampeders as
soon as they found themselves in the maior-
ity would l~eadjust matters by cutting the
claims down to the recognized limit, and ap-
propriating the surplus Of unclaimed ground
brought about by the shrinkage. Claims,
then, must not exceed 200 feet in length, and
no one is allowed to locate more than one
claim. The man who has made the discpv-
cry is entitled TO one claim by location, and
one additional. the discovery Claim" which
is given him as the reward for his skill and
energy in prospecting. From the cutting in
which gold has been found a hundre! feet
is measured of each way, up and down the
gulch, fixing the bounds of the discovery
claim which then serves as the initial point
being designated as Nos. one, two, three, etc,
above discovery. or Nos. one, two, three, etc,
below discovery, according as they may be
situated higher up the cullen, or lower down
than the discovery claim. We say gulch,
because it is very rarely that bar ~lisgings are
sufficiently extensive to justify the oreaniza-
ton of district for their working, although
this happened in the case of the FAN weather
district, formed 10 woIk the bars Of Alder
gulcl, the first paying ground struck in Moll-
tala. Bars arr sometimes enormously rich,
as in the case Of Montana bar on Confederate
Gulch in Meaeller county, or Pilgrim Bar lii
Deer Lodge county, but the opening Of such
bars usually follows the discovery of gold in
the gulcl on the banks of which they stand
when laws are framed to apply to the ''gu!ch
with all its bars and tributaries"
Every claim must be represented" by one
days labor performed on it each week, as evil
dence of ownership, but, where two or more
claims are owned by one individual, lie is
usually permitted to perform all necessary
work Of representation upon one claim, pro
viled his claims are contiguous. forming one
unbroken piece of ground. No one is al,
lowed to hold mere than one claim by leca'
ton, but by purchase . mar may hold
as many claims as he buys in bono
fde transactions and properly Yep
reseMts. These are the e~sseniia'
points upon which The Laws. Of different dis
t,;o,, ,i,-,u. ,,,, AJtt,rI e detail s,ol