Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-12-25
MINING INTELLIGENCE.
SOmt Interesting DOinSS la inc Various
 Districts Surrounding This City.
What Old Producers ara Doing and EdtsS
 From keT Discoveries.

Articles of incorporation of the Emmett Mining company have been
 filed for record and will be found in this issue.
 Frank Kuhne has just completed assessment work on his Sunny South mine, on Little Copper creek. This Is a silver property, and from one aud a half tons of orc taken out, he realized 8 net profit of $9600.
 Geo. Waddell and partner are re- ported to have some fine ore in the property, which they are develop ing in the vicinity of Copper Basin.
 A party of eastern capitalists have been visiting the Big Bug onyx mines and for about the 400th time the sale of these properties IS again announced.
 Captain Anderson, of Lynx creek, reports a great scarcity of water this season for placer mining. He says that placer miners have a great amount of gravel ready to wash just as soon as a sufficient amount of water IS obtained. While there was heavy snow fali in the mountains during the recent storm the cold weather since has prevented 1t from melting. He states that he only got water enough from it for two days run but during that time he | secured quite a respectable sized sack of placer gold. With plenty of water later m the season as he expects he thinks the output of placer gold will exceed that of any I previous year for some time.
 The Globe Silver Belt says that one of the furnaces of the Old ! Dominion Company has been started up again and that two others will be started up iu few days. At the mine work Is progressing we'll under the experienced direction of Super intendent A. D. Mclean. A force of 100 men are employed in develop ment work. The three compart- ment shaft is down about fifty feet below the eighth level, and the work of sinking goes on day and night. The stopes on nearly Y all the l levels look well, and can easily SUD- | ply ore to keep three furnaces run ming. The prospect for large out l put Of copper next year by the Old Dominion Company is certainly en- couraging.
 Our contemporary has recently been discussing the use of crude [ petroleum, for ore smelling purposes ! in a manner as though he had struck an original idea. It may be piece of information to it, to know that that this question has been under consideration, by the United Verde ! people, of Jerome, for several months. The problem in Los Ar gelas is very simple one, being a question only of paying from Sl O0 ! to Sl.50. for an amount of oil equal to a ton of coal, which costs Sl0l50 The cost of transportation of the oil from Los Angeles to Prescott makes the problem here entirely different. If this section of country had oil at DO cents per barrel it could be util- ized, not only in connection with mining enterprises, but for various other purposes.
 The Secretary of the Interior has rendered an important decision, of especial interest to locators of min ing claims, involving an interpreta. tiop of the statute requiring the location notice to be placed in a conspicious place on the claim. The case originated in Montana over the ownership of three mining claims north of the Big Butte, claimed by Thomas Ferguson ct al. and Mangus Hansen ct al. The Ferguson party entered a protest against the entry of Hansen and partners, alleging that the law in regard to posting notices had not been fully complied with. The local office at Helena sustained the protest, whereupon an appeal was taken to the Commis- sioner. The latter reversed the land office decision. and the case was again appealed to the Secretary of the Interior. It was shown that the plats and notices required to be posted were tackled in opsn boxes placed on the ground, with rocks around and on top of them to keep them in place, and on the ground round about were scattered large boulders, some of which obscured the boxes. They were located in out of the way places, at some dis | tance from the discovery shafts and l not on high ground, nor near either of the travelled roads. The Secre- | tary says: "I am strongly impressed | with the belief that there was a | studied effort on the part of the ap- plicants to avoid compliance with the law Ia posting the notices in a conspicuous place on the land. In | fact, there are several incidents dis closed the testimony, which were probably not properly at issue, but which were, nevertheless, brought out, and which the government may avail itself of in proceeding like tnis, which is calculated to impress one with with the belief that those applicants were anxious to avoid publicity in making their entry as much as was consistent with a colorable compliance with the law. 1t is difficult, perhaps, to lay any general rule as to what should be construed to be a conspicuous place on mining claim. It is matter of common knowledge that they are generally located in mountainous regions, where from any gwen point but com paratively small portion of the claim may be seen. But there must, from the very nature of things be an initial point, both physical aud local, in every mining claim, and that is the discovery shaft. Without this there can be no legal location, as all rights of every na- ture are based upon discovery of mineral. In the absence of all other as in this case, it would seem perfectly natural that any one going upon a mining claim for any purpose for which the gov