The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-04-13

master; if he is a freeman the warden
shall connscate his goods and he shall
be forbidden all mining districts for
ever
OD All shafts must be carefully
stayed and supported. and the owner
OF each shaft must replace any decayed
material by such as is new and suita-
BILE
O2) II is forbidden to touch or injure
the pillars or supports left for the sake
OF strength or to do anything with
evil intent whereby these pillars or
supports may be Weakened and less
easy to traverse.
O9 Whosoever shall be convicted
of damaging a shaft causing il to cave,
or destroying the upper part on doing
anything with evil intent whereby the
shaft may be rendered less firm. shall,
il slave, be logged as the warden
may determine. and be sold by his
master subject to the condition that he
shall not be allowed to dwell in any
mines; if a freeman, the warden shall
cOntscate his goods to the treasury
and he shall be forbidden mining dis
tricts ior ever.
cd Whosoever works copper shafts
shall keep away from the drift that
carries the water away from the mine
and shall leave not less than 10 feet on
either side thereof.
O5) 1t is forbidden to damage the
drift The warden may give permis-
sion to work trial hole from this
lift for the sake of seeking for a new
mine so that such trial shall not be
more than 4 feet high and wide. On
this clause there is a word "ternagus"
which appears to be new, and is not
found in the dictionaries; Professor
Louis translates it as a trial work
ing" which is evidently from the CON
text what it is intended for but there
is no clue to the way in which this
meaning is derived)
O6) 1t is forbidden to seek for or to
cut ore within Is feet of either side
of the drift. WhosOever is convicted Of
doing otherwise in the trial holes shall,
if a slave, be flogged as the warden
may determine, and be sold by his
master under the condition that he
shall not be allowed to dwell in any
mines; if a freeman, his goods shall
be taken by the treasury and lac shall
be forbidden mining districts for ever.
90 Whosoever works silver shafts
shall keep away from the drift thar
carries the water away from the mine.
and shall leave not less than 60 feet on
either side thereof, and he shall keep
in work those shafts which he possess
es or which have been assigned to him
as their boundaries shall have been
set, nor shall he go beyond those, nor
shall he collect waste nor make trial
holes beyond the limits of the shaft
assigned to him in such a way as to
1t is evident that this fragment con-
tains a summary of a number of gem
eral laws governing the ownership of
mines and the conditions under which
they might be worked. 1t is clear in
the first place that the ownership of
the minerals was vested in the state;
the state allowed any
would-be miner to sink shafts for the
sake of extracting the ore, at his own
expense, subject to the condition that,
when he raised ore, one-half thereof
was to belong to the treasury. Prob
ably the tribute of ore was taken in
kind and smelted on account of the
treasury; this provision would make it
luite ineligible why it should be for
hidden to remove any ore after dark
when the representatives of the treas
Try would be unable to see the guam
ity or the ore thus removed. 1t would
'urther seem that if any owner of
shaft abandoned it for a certain time
Dr. did not comply with all the condi-
ions as to payment etc, his owner
hip was forthwith determined, and the
ntre shaft fell into the hands of the
reasuIy; it was then apparently put
10 to auction or otherwise sold, and
he purchaser apparently purchased
ubject to the same condition, namely.
hat one half of the ores extracted be-
)nged to the treasury. In other
Words, the owner of the mine was the
wner only as long as he complied with
he conditions laid down and paid roy
lty to the state, the royalty i'm this
ase amounting to so per cent of the
reduce 1t would appear that the
tate claimed the absolute ownership
f the mineral, but allowed it to be
'orked under certain conditions, most
f which are unfortunately missing
rom the tablet that has come down to
5.
RADIUM IN MONTANA.