Weekly journal-miner., 1913-08-27

any application for the land during such period of preferential right rests alone upon departmental regulations.
 Such applications have been per mitted in order to prevent, as far as possible, any attempted disposition of the preference right accorded to the statute. It follows, however, that any such suspended application only springs into existence upon the failure of the successful contestant to avail himself of the preference right
 Desert.
 The field notes, maps and plats of the General Land Office approved by the Commissioner are conclusive evi- dence of surveys of public lands, and when they show that land is not surveyed, no other evidence is com petent to approve a survey. Land cannot be patented until survey is made and approved.
 The maps and plats on fife in the General Land Office are conclusive upon oil persons as to the proper de scription of public lands. In case of a resurvey, the final plating and de- signation of portions of sections must be conformed. Whatever may have been the description given in the original entry before resurvey. the position on the ground of a desert land entry can be conformed to resurvey, at least approximately.
 The patent when issued must fol- low the lines of survey as finally settled. By no othsr means can certainty of description and title be attained.
 The fourth section of the act of March 3. 1891, requires the exnibi- ion of a plan of irrigation. The light to the water and its quantity md permanency must also be shown. While the plan adopted may be un- lsual, yet if it is productive of rec amation it meets the essence of the equirement.
 Until further notice, lands will not ,e considered as barred from desx Iation under the enlarged homestead cts simply because they may be in desert land entries If he lands be in all other respects ubject to such designation. :
 Mining.
 The decision in the Alaska Copper ase (32 L. D. 12S) as far as it re- ltes to the location of a mill site -ithin 60 feet of the shore line to a avigable water, is modified and will .. e no longer followed in that re- 'ect. In the Alaska Copper Com any, supra, the Department held lat in Alaska, the boundary line of mill site location could not be law lily laid within 60 feet of the shore ne of a navigable body of water. his expression is now contrary to ! e late view of the Department ex- 'essed in the regulation of June 8, oS and particularly January 13, O4.
 The main purpose of the require ent of publication and posting is
 advise the public generally and y possible conflicting claimants d the officers of the Government at application has been filed When coal claim has been of record and nding for a number of years and
 adverse claim has been presented
 suggested, and during that time B. , possession of the claimant has en continuous and notorious, the in yulations with regard to posting To | publication may, with propriety tv l due safety, be waived. H \ legal discovery made either be- an e or after posting and monument di on the ground. is sufficient to tn tain a location. A locator is not ot uired at the peril of losing his nj i'm to ascertain and determine the an lct strike of the discovery vein. an he fails to lay his claim along the ho Ike of the vein, he subjects him tig to the possibility of losing pa stantial portion of the vein or e which he might have included BE his location. But this does not alidate his location as laid and -ked by him By here is nothing inherently wrong permitting a mineral surveyor to COT ley a mining claim with which ma as an employee of the owner of bill ! claim, had been so connected. enc either does such action violate ica
 law or departmental regulation cag my published ruling of the Com ban