H.R. 365.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

JULY 19, 1866.

Ordered to be printed.

                                                                                  AMENDMENT

                                    Reported by Mr. STEWART. from the Committee on Public Lands,

                                    to the act (H. R. 365) granting the right of way to ditch and

                                    canal owners over the public lands in the States of California,

                                    Oregon, and Nevada, viz: Strike out all after the enacting

                                    clause, and insert as follows:

3         That the mineral lands of the public domain, both surveyed

4         and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to

5         exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United

6         States, and those who have declared their intention to become

7         citizens, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by

8         law, and subject also to the local custom or rules of miners

9         in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not be

10       in conflict with the laws of the United States.

1     SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any

2         person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz,

3         or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or cop-

4         per, having previously occupied and improved the same

5         according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district

6         where the same is situated, and having expended in actual

7         labor and improvements thereon an amount of not less than

8         one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose possession there

9         is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be law-

10       ful for said claimant or association of claimants to file in the

11       local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally

12       or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and

13       rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent

14       therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to fol-

15       low such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to

16       any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which
17       land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition.

1     SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon the filing

2         of the diagram as provided in the second section of this act,

3         and posting the same in a conspicuous place on the claim,

4         together with a notice of intention to apply for a patent, the

5         register of the land office shall publish a notice of the same

6         in a newspaper published nearest to the location of said claim,

7         and shall also post such notice in his office for the period of

8         ninety days; and after the expiration of said period, if no

9         adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the duty of

10       the surveyor general, upon application of the party, to survey

11       the premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his ap-

12       proval, designating the number and description of the loca-

33       tion, the value of the labor and improvements, and the

14       character of the vein exposed; and upon the payment to the

15       proper officer of five dollars per acre, together with the cost

16       of such survey, plat, and notice, and giving satisfactory evi-

17       dence that said diagram and notice have been posted on the

18       claim during said period of ninety days, the register of the

19       land office shall transmit to the General Land Office said plat,

20       survey, and description; and a patent shall issue for the same

21       thereupon. But said plat, survey, or description shall in no

22       case cover more than one vein or lode, and no patent shall

23       issue for more than one vein or lode, which shall be expressed

24       in the patent issued.

1     SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That when such
2         location and entry of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands,
3         it shall and may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the
4         public surveys, to adjust the surveys to the limits of the
5         premises according to the location and possession and plat
6         aforesaid, and the surveyor general may, in extending the
7         surveys, vary the same from a rectangular form to suit the
8         circumstances of the country and the local rules, laws, and
9         customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter
10       made shall exceed two hundred feet in length along the vein
11       for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the
12       discoverer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to
13       any depth, with all its dips, variations, and angles, together
14       with a reasonable quantity of surface for the convenient
15       working of the same as fixed by local rules : And provided
16       further, That no person may make more than one location
17       on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall
18       be taken in any one claim by any association of persons.

1     SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further
2         condition of sale, in. the absence of necessary legislation by
3         Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory may
4         provide rules for working mines involving casements, drain-
5         age, and other necessary means to their complete develop-
6         ment; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the
7         patent.

1     SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any
2         adverse claimants to any mine located and claimed as afore-
3         said, shall appear before the approval of the survey, as pro-
4         vided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be
5         stayed until a final settlement and adjudication in the courts
6         of competent jurisdiction of the rights of possession to such
7         claim, when a patent may issue as in other cases.

1     SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President
2         of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to establish
3         additional land districts and to appoint the necessary officers
4         under existing laws, wherever he may deem the same neces-
5         sary for the public convenience in executing the provisions
6         of this act.

1     SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of
2         way for the construction of highways over public lands, not
3         reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

1     SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever, by
2         priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining,
3         agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested
4         and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged
5         by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the
6         possessors and owners of such vested rights, shall be main-
7         tained and protected in the same; and the right of way for
8         the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes afore-
9         said is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, how-
10       ever, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person
11       or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal,
12       injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public
13       domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be
14       liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

1     SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior
2         to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated
3         as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and
4         sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the
5         United States, or persons who have declared their intention
6         to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, im-
7         proved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which
8         there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar
9         or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural
10       lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall
11       have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall he entitled to
12       purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five
13       cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and
14       sixty-acres ; or said parties may avail themselves of the pro-
15       visions of the act of Congress approved May twenty, eigh-
16       teen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to secure
17       homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts
18       amendatory thereof.

1     SEC. II. And be it further enacted, That upon the sur-
2         vey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may
3         designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are
4         clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be sub-
5         ject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United
6         States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable
7         to the same.