The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-18

ture, and thus has grown up that curious
mixture of phrases, half scientific, half popu-
lar, and wholly expressive, which distin-
guishes the laws Of mining states. For the
placer mines ordinary real estate law was
good enough, except that one bought
feet instead of acres For pockets
there was no need to Law out
metes and bounds, for nature herself
strictly limited ga pocket that is to say, a
hole in the rock containing nuggets. For
gulch and bar mining the common sense of
miners soon established n law of titles, and in
general 4 was idle to go to law, for the gold
was all tillen from the bar before the case
could be ended Fumes and water rights,
bitches and timber rights were of course more
permanent, and in this department grew up
the third body of law, curious mixture of
Old real estate law, old Spanish custom,
ulias-s' custom, the principles of common
sense and public utility. By and by, how
ever, the placers were worked out and deep
lode mining came in, and with it change
came oyer the spirit of their legal dream
- MINING Law.
Title was everything then. One began to
hear much of first locations, rift, strike"
choppers" angles spurs" variations"
and "sinuosities," and real estate law was
not worth a cent To make it of any value
you had to set the law on edge, as it were;
that is TO say, in getting land you bought
square feet; in lode mining, linear feet.
No one mentioned width; they flung that in.
When you got title to so many feet along the
vein you got all the width of the vein,
whether it was six inches or six hundred feet,
and room on each side to work it. And you
rot it free 1t was the feet along the vein
that you had to buy.
Another old rule was nullified If there
was one thing the common mind had consid-
cred fixed, it was this: The land owner owns
all above and all below. It is his to the earth's
center; but in lode mining it is not You
must follow your crevice-go with the ore
wherever it goes. Have you a true tissure
vein? Does it dip into the hill, say at as
low an angle as 45l Then you may be soon
work i, directly under man or his land,
above you on the hill But he has 10 rights
unless he can trace connection. If he does
happen to trace connection, then in ninety
nine cases out of a hundred there IS a lawsuit.
Suppose you find that the ore dips at an
angle of, let US say, twenty degrees from the
perpendicular, and there appears to be
fault or slide and some other mans crevice
dipping the other way joins on to yours In
the bowels of the earth (roclll, something like
q V, who owns the main crevice from there
down9 Ali there's the question which has
made law business so profitable in many min
ing regions. That has been the issueinvolved
in trials of such magnitude that in a single
case 100000 was paid as lawyers fees, and
even then it was whispered that there was
bribery to get final settlement. Let US
roughly illustrate by a Y. Smith goes down
the right branch, finding ore all the way;
Jones down the left, finding ore all the way;
who owns the main stem!
First location is the other great ISSUE and
on the determination of these two hang nearly
all the law and the profits of silver mining.
There is a regular graduation provided for,
from the pre-emptor's sign on some adjacent
rock OF tree to the district recorders books,
and so on up through all the grades Of in
creasingly perfect title to the United States
patent; there are pending anywhere from
three TO thirty law suits at each successive
step. and instances have occurred where the
supreme court has come in ct the very last
and set aside United States patent There
is nothing SO uncertain as what is under the
ground out of sight; one man knows it as
swell rs another" is a common saying among
those miners who have contempt for, pro-
Tortioned TO their ignorance of, scientific geo
Iogy. But if there is anything more I'M
certain than the variations Of a silver mine
in tho earth. it is the sinuositieS Of the courts
above the earth in dealing with the titles of
mines.
Besides paying enormous dividends, several
of the large mines in Colorado kept half
dozen lawyers in good pay for years, and IN
af least one instance dubbed together and
moved the powers at Washington so far as to
cot a Judge removed. 1 am afraid to say
how much actual cash was paid out on the
celebrated Dives and Pelican suit. The low
est guess ever heard was 100000 Nor
was the suit finally terminated until an Ohio
Judge resigned his place and went to George
town and made it the business of his life to
Sight for his party's interests; nor even then
s1ntil United States judge or two had been
worn out. numerous fights had taken .Dlsca..