Weekly journal-miner., 1918-01-09


 to the issuance of patent. If proof is had that patent to agricultural land va sissucd to a claimant who had prior knowledge of the existence of valuable mineral deposits therein, such agricultural patent can be set aside. The government will not issut patent to agricultural lands in which valuable mineral deposits arc known to exist.
 The record of receivers receipt can not be accepted as conclusive cvi dence of title in the absence of a patent, although assessment for State and county taxes is as a rule made on such showing. Many tax titles based on these assessments are bitter dis appointments to purchasers who finu rc-locators with valid title in posses sion of their purchased property; the rule of "caveat cmptor" applying in such cases.
 \ complete abstract of title must be filed in the district land office before patent is issued; this is accepted as evidence of title being vested in ap' plicantS. Until a few years ago these abstracts were required to be ccrti- fed by the county recorder as the custodian of the records. On account of the incompctcncy and careless ness of the officials preparing much of this work, many patents have been issued to wrong parties, while the names of others having actual title have been many times omitted cn tircly.
 The most careful attorneys in cX- amining title of patented mining property at this time insist on com pletc abstract from date of original location in order to fully investigate every condition existing prior to is suancc of patent, and it is sometimes found necessary that action be brought to quiet and determine title in the parties securing patent, due to errors in the abstracts above men tioncd, as well as from other cause;
 When a patent is issued to two or more oo-owncrs, their various inter csts are not set out and 1t Is thct customary, and in fact necessary, that an abstract of title for merchant able purposes relates back to date of original location in order to deter mine such interests.
 It is impossible to determine from the records whether any claim has been relocated or not, even though all the requirements arc strictly com piled with: For illustration, a claim is stated in the original location to be situated about five miles in a southwcstcrly direction from a well known mountain and the relocation certificate as definitely describes the identical ground under another nanr ed claim as being situated about two miles northeast of generally known spring of watcr-both descriptions are, of course, equally correct. How ever, where placer claims are located upon surveyed ground and the de- scription Is properly given, there IS no difiicultysin making a correct dc termination fropl the records on this point, for the reason that the dcscrip- ton is always according 10 govern ment survey.
 The rule appears to be pretty well established that location to be cf- fcctual must be good at the time II is madc, and that uncurcd defects m the location, recording, monumcntlng or discovery may be taken advantage of at any time within the period oi limitation as prescribed in the various States. by subsequent locatorS; the burden of proof being always upon them. Yet the court records show that however abundant this proof may be. the element of good faith Is so inherent and the idea of claim jumping is so greatly in disiavor that the rc-locator Is but seldom upheld in his title
 The owner may file an amended location notice al any time for the purpose of correcting errors in the description oi the original notice, but there k no effective manner by which defects may be rcmcdicd as to record ing. mpnumcnting or discovery; these defects cannot be discovered by the abstractor from the records teXccpt as to rccordingl. All other condi- tions must be found from an cNamin- atiCn of the physical property, and even .hc report oi d reliable expert cannot always be relied upon. He examines a mining claim and reports that the ground shows no evidence of work donc for number of year and that it has every appearance oi abandonment, while the annual as scSsmcnt work may have been faith fully and regularly performed in running a tunnel a mile away that is planned 10 tap the orc body at great | depth.
 The records may disclose per