The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-03-11

the applicant, the date of notice, a
description of the land and the num-
Der of acres covered thereby. This
gives him a 30-day preference right
over everyone else in which to apply
to the local land office for a permit
to prospect. The bill does not pro-
vide for the amount of land office
fees to be paid at the time of the
filing of the application, this being
left to be fixed by the secretary. The
land covered by the notice and for
which a permit is requested should
be in as compact form as possible,
the length of which is not to exceed
two and one-half times it's width.
For 20 Year Lease
After the permit is granted the
permitee must begin drilling opera
lions within six months and, within
one year from the date of the permit
he must have at least one we'll down
to a depth of not less than 500 feet
and within two years of the date of
the permit he must have at least one
well down to a depth of at least 1000
feet, unless. in either case, valuable
deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner
discovered. The secretary may, how
ever, extend such permit for an ad-
ditional period of not to exceed two
years. When it is established to the
satisfaction of the secretary of the
interior that there has been a dis
covery of valuable deposits of either
oil or gas the permitee is entitled to
a 20-year lease on one-fourth of the
acreage covered by <his permit, pro-
vided that in any event he shall have
a lease overing 160 acres if there be
that much acreage covered by the
permit, and he shall pay to the gov
eminent a royalty of five per cent
of the amount or value of the pro-
duction and the payment in advance
of a rental of 81 per acre, the rem
tai for any one year to be credited
against the royalties as they accrue
for that year. The permitee is also
entitled to a preference right to a
lease of the balance of the land COW
cred by his permit at a royalty of
not less than IL IL per cent, the
amount of this royalty to be deter
mined by competitive bidding.
There are different provisions as
to acreage, royalties and preference
rights covering leases granted on I'M
appropriated government land stu
ated within the known geologic struc-
ture of a producing oil or gas field
but at the present time the people
of this section are not especially in
terested in this character of lease.
Qualifications of Applicant
The qualifications of an applicant
for a permit or lease of coal lands,
classified or unclassified, owned by
the United States, are the same as
those for oil lease or permit, except
that no company or corporation oper-
ating a common carrier railroad can
be given or hold a lease or permit I'M
der the provisions of this act except
for its own use for railroad purposes
and then only to a limited extent.
In land where prospecting or explor-
atory work is necessary to determine
the existence or workability of coal
deposits the secretary may issue a
prospecting permit for a term of two
years for not exceeding 1850 acres
and if within the two years the per-
mitee Is able to show that the land
contains coal in commercial quanti-
ties he is entitled to a lease under
this act for all or a part of the land
covered by his permit but no lease
can be given until after notice of the