The Nome nugget., 1901-11-23
Mining Law A:as 5s;,.:s 1s 4% By Judge WiCkerSham

the first of the great miping statutes
 It gave no recognition, however, l. ! placer deposits but was confined exclu' slvely tol de and quartz mines. AS the real wealth of California had up to that tine been extracted from her placer de- posits. it was not long befQSe Congress passed the Act of July 9, 1870. Section lS.of this Act first fixed a statutory linn 1t upon the quantity of laMl which might be embraced in | placer claim in the following language:
 I 'that no location Of c. placer claim,
 hereafter made, shall eHe4oa one hun dred and sixty acres for any enc person or associution cf pcrs' TX, which locatio 1 shall conform to lho United a:atcs sur
 vey-."
 l6 Stat. l.. Chap. 23j, D. 2l,.
 See Ser. 23,I0. U. ;. Rev. .:tat. lSIs.
 Again we quote from Judge Field in
 Smelt :ng Co. V. Kemp:
 "Prevluusly 10 the Act of July g. lS.o Congress lmpJ,Gd nJ linitaLit to th-
 area which might be included in tht location Ut piaccr tlaIin. Ihis, d.
 well aS every other lhln9 relating ut
 the acqulsltlO and cont ttnued possession
 oi minlnG claim. Was determined bI
 rules aud reg l.;tt.onS c~tabliohcd bl
 inlners them, elve-. :" 'f PiactI
 cams first became the subject of rcyu-
 ations by the inning Act ot July 9.
 lo,O. C. 23p ,6 Sat. .i ,), wh ch p,1-
 vide,i that paleLt, for them might bc
 lssued under ike csrcuus an .eS an
 conditions as for veln CT lode claim,
 and that person, havtnL contagious ci;l!ns of any slze might make joint en- try thereof. l} .t IT. also prorldt d
 that no location of Il p.acerclalu there alter n ale should ex eed one hundred and sixty acres for oi.e person or a, C ciatlun Of le. son. , uelt.ng Co Y. Kemp, lJ4, U. ;. b.'j-630.
 As to the U. 5. Surveys. Prior, then, to 1870 there was no any pr vision fixing th ,ir itrin except such as was imposed ty the mine by l their local rules and regulations; the act of 1870 lin itel the area to- Q acres in each location, and also rovided that each "looation shall conform to the United States suryeys.' This lat ter provision is important in the con s!dera ion of the question at bar, for it prov .ded new aud unyItl ing rule in fixing bot h the area an l form of placer claims; they could not exceed l6D acres in extent, as thcretD!Ore they might, and nAlst C inform to the rectangular system of the pnbli: surveys. The law of lS;O however, was so unsatisfactory and so widely at variance with the methods ther. tofore lTeva' ling in To- eating placels that congress was speedily prevaileI Mpon to change the law in these respe is.
 The act of May 10, 1872. was then passed very largely to relieve the ob- jections raised to the act of 1870 in re. Quiring each placer location to ':con- form to the Unted States surveys" The act of 1872 re-enacted the old rule--it again gave freedom to the miner in locating his mine according as the ground was valuable Tor mineral or not. To le more accurate. it recog- nizcd two rules, which will be more apparent upon quoting the law. See tion 10 of the act of May lG, 1872, k now section 2.33l Of the Rev sel Stat ut es of he United State, of 1878, and that clause in question reads:
 Sec. 2233l, Where placer claims arc upon surveyed lands, and confnim lo legal subdivisions, nO turi her survey or pat shall be required, and all p:acer inlnirE csNims lOcL, ed dai.er he lUth day of May. 1872, shal ,olt' nm a, Tear a practicable with the Uni cd Stat ;, sys- tem oi pubic land surveys and the rec tHngulur sui,d vls ous O1 such st.rNeNs. and no such lCCatiCn shall include moi c than twenty acres for each individual claimant, but where placer cuims can not be coniOrfi ed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat sha.l Le made as on un- surveyed lands.
 Twenty.Acre Claims. Two rules are thus recognized in To. eating and fixing the exterior bout diaries of p,a CT claims under the act of 1872. Tie first one,proviaes that all cl ns located after May 10, 1872 "s al conf rsn d, near as piacticab e with tue United States survey system