required and supported by an European or American community Suppose
gueh a ratio of railway construction extended over China, central and western
Asia and Siberia, it would be only one mile for every 9,000 people ; while in
the United States there are 36,000 milea for 36.000,000 people, or a mile to
every 'thousand ; and yet the Asiatic ratio, moderate as it is, presents the start-
ling result of 66.000 miles of railroad constructed by the expenditure of
$5,676,000,000. Such a disbursement of European accumulations in Asia
would go far to diffuse not only the blessings of civilization, but any excess of
production from the gold and silver mines of the world.
In Australia a railway has been constructed from Melbourne to the Ballarat
gold fields, 380 miles, at a cost of $175,000 per mile, which pays a net profit
nearly equal to the interest on the immense investment. It is difficult to esti-
mate the amounts destined to be absorbed for railways in all the continents,
under the direction of the great powers of the world projected, constructed,
and administered by the wealth and intelligence of America, Russia, England,
Germany, and France. But the railway system is but an instance, among many
other causes, conducing, in the language of an eminent English writer,* " to
augment the real wealth and resources of the world ; to stimulate and foster
trade, enterprise, and production, and, therefore, conducing, with greater and
greater force, to neutralize by extension of the surface to be covered, and by
multiplying indefinitely the number and magnitude of the dealings to be car-
ried on, the a priori tendency of an increase of metallic money to raise prices
by mere force of enlarged volume. Already the boundaries within which capi-
tal and enterprise can be applied, with the assurance and knowledge alone com-
patible with durable success, have been extended over limits which ten or even
five years ago would have been regarded as unattainable. There have come
into play influences by which it seems to be the special purpose to contribute,
by the aid of the concurrent advance of knowledge, to tho removal or mitiga-
tion of many chronic evils against which past generations have striven almost
in vain."
TRANSPORTATION FROM THE MISSOURI RIVER TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
While postponing'a detailed consideration of the character and extent 'of trade
and transportation from the Missouri river to the mining' territories of the inte-
rior since 1848, some idea of the westward movement of merchandise and the
cost of its transportation, may be obtained from the Quartermaster General's
report to the Secretary of War for the year ending June 30, 1866, which ex-
hibits the transportation on account of .government, and the rates paid per hun-
dred pounds per hundred miles The rates from the Missouri river to northern
Colorado, Nebraska, Dakota, Idaho, and Utah were $1 45 ; to southern Colo-
rado, Kansas, and New Mexico, $1 38, with an addition from Fort Union in
New Mexico to posts in that Territory, in Arizona, and western Texas of $1 79
per hundred pounds per hundred miles. The total number of pounds trans-
ported was 81,489,321 or 40,774 6-10 tons, at a cost of $3,314^495. Parties
familiar with the course of this inland trade, estimate that the transportation on
account of government is one-ninth the total amount of transportation. At thi^
rate the whole amount paid in 1866 for freights from the Missouri river west-
ward was $30,830,055 According to a statement recently made by the ofiicers
* Tooke's History of Prices, rol. vi, p. 230, published iu 1857.
350 GOLD MINES EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
of the California division of the Union Pacific railroad $13,000,000 in gold was
paid in 1863 for transportation eastward from San Francisco to the State of Ne-
vada and Territories east of the Sierra Nevada. The details of return freights
and the amount paid for the movement of passengers are, as yet, too incomplete
for publication. Not less than $50,000,000 per annum is expended on or near
the line of the Union Pacific railroad for the transportation of travellers and
merchandise.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
I beg leave to close this communication with a few observations of a general
nature :
1. There are two indispensable requisites to the development of the western
mines security from Indian hostilities, and the establishment of railway com-
munication to the Pacific coast on the parallels of 35, 40, and 45. Of these,
the completion of the " Union Central " on the average latitude of the fortieth
parallel may be anticipated in 1870 and will unquestionably give a great
impulse to the communities which it will traverse, probably in such a degree as
to warrant the immediate construction of a northern line central to Minnesota,
Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and a southern line equally
indispensable to the Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and south-
ern California.
2. Great results of a social* no less than a material character may be antici-
pated from the act of July 26, 1866, extending facilities for acquiring title to
mineral lands. By that act, freedom of exploration, free occupation of govern-
ment lands for placer mining, a right to pre-empt quartz lodes previously held
and improved according to local customs or codes ' of mining, the right of way
for aqueducts or canals, not less essential to agriculture than to mining, and the
extension of the homestead and other beneficient provisions of the public land
system in favor of settlers upon agricultural lands in mineral districts, have been
established as most important elements for the attraction of population, and the
encouragement of mining enterprises. The Commissioner of the Land Qflice
has carefully analyzed this enactment, and greatly facilitated its execution by
a circular recently issued. The spirit of the legislation under consideration is
in the interest of actual settlement and occupation, and adverse to absentee
ownership for merely speculative purposes, of mining properties. It will pro-
bably be necessary to supplement the act in question by some general revision
of the local mining customs, which, although generally founded on the Spanish
code so long in use in Mexico, are often incongruous and obscure.
3. Great loss and disappointment have resulted from the unique geological
and mineralogical development of auriferous and argentiferous lodes of the
Rocky mountains and the Alleghanies. Metallurgical machinery and methods
which had been successful in Europe, and even in California, have proved inap-
plicable or met with unexpected obstacles in the reduction of ores. There is
no subject of greater importance than a scientific analysis of the situation arid
combinations of the precious metals and the best methods for their treatment.
How far Congress or any executive department can judiciously co-operate in the
solution of the mechanical and chemical problem which now confronts the skill
and experience of all interested in the economical reduction of the ores of gold
and silver, it is not within the province of this report to determine ; but the
great utility of the geological survey of Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi,
in 1847, under the direction of Professor D. D Owen, may properly be referred
to as suggesting the expediency of a similar exploration under national auspices
of the mineral districts of the western States and Territories, and which might
be appropriately extended to include the metalliferous localities of the Al!e-
ghanies.
JAMES W. TAYLOR.
Hon. HUGH McCuLLOCH, Secretary of the Treasury.
CIECULAE
IN RELATION TO
. M I 1ST I N G- CLAIMS
UNDER
THE ACT OF CONGRESS APPEOVED JULY 26, 1866. U. S. STATUTES, PAGE
251, CHAPTEE CCLXIL
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
General Land Office, January 14, 1867.
GENTLEMEN : Herewith will be found the act of Congress approved 26th
July, 1866, " granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the pub-
lic lands, and for other purposes."
By the first section of this act all the mineral lands of the United States, sur-
veyed and unsurveyed, are laid open to " all citizens of the United States, and
to those who have declared their intention to become such, subject to statutory
regulations," and also " to the local customs or rules of miners in the several
mining districts not in conflict with the laws of the United States."
It therefore becomes your duty, in limine, to acquaint yourselves with the
local mining customs and usages in the district in which you may be called upon
to do those official acts which are required by law, whether the same are re-
duced to authentic written form, or are to be ascertained by the testimony of
intelligent miners, which you are to obtain as occasion may require and justify,
in acting upon individual claims, a perfect record whereof is to be carefully
taken and preserved by the register and receiver, and to be accompanied by a
diagram or plat fixing the out- boundaries of the district in which such customs
and usages exist.
The .second section of the act declares that " whenever any person or asso-
ciation of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place, bearing
gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the
same according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district where the
same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements there-
on an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose pos-
session there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be lawful
for said claimant, or association of claimants, to file in the local land office a di-
agram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the
local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a
patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to follow such vein
or lode, with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter
the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition."
Mining claims may be entered at any district land office in the United State*
under this law, by any person, or association of persons, corporate or incorpo-
rate. In making the entry, however, such a description of the tract must be
filed as will indicate the vein or lode, or part or portion thereof claimed, to-
gether with a diagram representing, by reference to some natural or artificial
monument, the position and location of the claim and the boundaries thereof, so
far as such boundaries can be ascertained.
First. In all cases th number of feet in length claimed on the vein or lode
352 CIRCULAR RELATING TO MINING CLAIMS.
shall be stated in the application filed as aforesaid, and the lines limiting the
length of the claim shall, also, in all cases be exhibited on the diagram, and the
course or direction of such end lines, when not fixed by agreement with the ad-
joining claimants, nor by the local customs or rules of the miners of the district,
shall be drawn at right angles to the ascertained or apparent general course of the
vein or lode.
Second. Where, by the local laws, customs, or rules of miners of the district,
no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining purposes except the
surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vein or lode are unascertained,
and the lateral extent of such vein or lode unknown, it shall be sufficient, after
giving the description and diagram aforesaid, to state the fact that the extent of
such vein or lode cannot be ascertained by actual measurement, but that the
said vein or lode is bounded on each side by the wall of the same, and to esti-
mate the amount of ground contained between the given end lines and the un-
ascertained walls of the vein or lode ; and in such case the patent will issue for
all the land contained between such end lines and side walls, with the right to
foMow such vein or lode, with all its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth,
although it may enter the land adjoining : Provided, The estimated quantity
shall be equal to a horizontal plane bounded by the given end lines, and the
walls on the sides of such vein or lode.
Third. Where, by the local laws, customs, or rules of miners of the district,
no surface ground is permitted to be occupied for mining purposes, except the
surface of the vein or lode, and the walls of such vein or lode are ascertained
and well known, such wall shall be named in the description, and marked on the
diagram, in connection with the end lines of such claims.
Fourth. Where, by the laws, customs, or rules of miners of the district, a given
quantity of surface ground is fixed for the purpose of mining or milling the ore,
the aforesaid diagram and description in the entry shall correspond with and in-
clude so much of the surface as shall be allowed by such laws, customs, or rules
for the purpose aforesaid.
Filth. In the absence of uniform rules in any mining district limiting the amount
of surface to be used for mining purposes, actual and peaceable use and occupa-
tion for mining and milling purposes shall be regarded as evidence of a custom
of miners authorizing the same, and the ground so occupied and used in connec-
tion with the vein or lode, and being adjacent thereto, may be included within
the entry aforesaid, and the diagram shall embrace the same as appurtenant to
the mine.
Where the claimant or claimants desire to include within their entry and dia-
gram any surface ground beyond the surface of the vein, it shall be necessary,
upon filing the application, to furnish the register of the land office with proof of
the usage, law, or custom under which he or they claim such surface ground, and
such evidence may consist either of the written rules of the miners of the district,
or the testimony of two credible witnesses to the uniform custom or the actual
use and occupation as aforesaid, which testimony shall be reduced to writing by
the register and receiver, and filed in the register's office, with the application, a
record thereof to be made as contemplated under the first head in the foregoing.
By the third section of the act it is required that upon the filing of the diagram
as provided in the second section, and posting the same in a conspicuous place
c!h the claim, with notice of intention to apply for a patent, the register shall
publish a notice of the same in a newspaper nearest the location of said claim,
which notice shall state name of the claimant, name of mine, names of adjoining
claimants on each end of the claim, the district and county in which the mine is
situated, informing the public that application has been made for a patent for
same, the register also to post such notice in his office for ninety days.
Thereafter should no adverse claim have been filed, and satisfactory proof
should be produced that the diagram and notice have been posted in the manner
CIRCULAR RELATING TO MINING CLAIMS, 353
and for the period stipulated in the statute, it will become the duty of the sur-
veyor general, upon application of the party, to survey the premises and make
plat thereof, indorsed with his approval, designating the number and description
of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of
the vein exposed. As preliminary to the survey, however, the surveyor general
must estimate the expense of surveying, platting, and ascertain from the register
the cost of the publication of notice, the amount of all which must be depos-
ited by the applicant for survey with any assistant United States treasurer or
designated depositary in favor of the United States Teasurer, to be passed to
the credit of the fund created by individual depositors for the surveys of the
public lands. Duplicate certificates of'such deposits must be filed with the sur-
veyor general for transmission to this office, as in the case of deposits for sur-
veys of public lands under the 10th section of the act of Congress approved
May 30, 1862, and joint resolution of July 1, 1864.
After the survey thus paid for shall have been duly executed and the plat
thereof approved by the surveyor general designating the number and the de-
scription of the location, accompanied by his official certificate of the value of the
labor and improvements and character of the vein exposed, with the tesimony
of two or more reliable persons cognizant of the facts on which his certificate may
be founded as to the value of the labor and improvements, the party claiming shall
file the same with the register and receiver, and thereupon pay to the said re-
ceiver five dollars per acre for the premises embraced in the survey, and shall
file with those officers a triplicate certificate of deposit showing the payment of
the cost of survey, plat, and notice, with satisfactory evidence, which shall be the
testimony of at least two credible witnesses, that the diagram and notice were
posted on the claim for a period of ninety days, as required by law and as con-
templated in the foregoing. Thereupon it snail be the duty of the register to
transmit to the General Land Office said plat, survey, and description, with the
proof indorsed as satisfactory by the register and receiver, so that a patent may
issue if the proceedings are found regular, but neither the plat, survey, descrip-
tion, nor patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode.
The unity of the surveying system is to be maintained by extending over the
mining districts the rectangular method, at least so far as township lines are
concerned.
The contemplated surveys of the mineral lands will be made by district dep-
uties, under contracts, according to the mode adopted in the survey of the pub-
lic lands and private laud claims, embracing in them all such veins or lodes a
will be called for by claimants entitled to have them surveyed.
In consideration of the very limited scope of surveying involved in each mi-
ning claim, the per mileage allowed by law may not be adequate to secure the-
services of scientific surveyors, and hence the necessity of resorting to a per
diem principle, it being the most equitable under the circumstances.
The surveyor general is therefore hereby authorized to commission resident
mineral surveyors for different districts, where isolated from each other and abso-
lutely inconvenient for one surveyor promptly to attend to the several calls for
surveying in such localities ; the compensation not to exceed ten dollars per diem>
including all expenses incident thereto. Such surveyors shall enter into bonds -
of $10,000 for the faithful performance of their duties in the survey of suchr
claims as the surveyor general may be required to execute in pursuance of the-
aforesaid law and these instructions.
The fourth section contemplates the location and entry of a mine upon un-
surveyed lands, stipulating for the surveys of public lands to be adjusted to the
lines of the claims, according to the location and possession and plat thereof
In surveying such claims, the surveyor general is authorized to vary from the
rectangular form to suit the circumstances of the country, local rules, laws>,
and customs of miners. The extent of the locations made from and after the
H. Ex. Doc. 29 23
354 CIRCULAR RELATING TO MINING CLAIMS.
passage of the act shall, however, not exceed two hundred feet in length along
the vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discov-
erer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its
dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for
the convenient working of the same as fixed by local rules : Provided, No
person may make more than one location on the same lode, and no more than
three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any association of per-
sons.
The deputy surveyors should be scientific men, capable of examining and re-
porting fully on every lode they will survey, and to bring in duplicate specimens
of the ore, one of which you will send to this office, and the other the surveyor
general will keep, to be ultimately turned over with the surveying archives to
the State authorities.
The surveyors of mineral claims, whether on surveyed or unsurveycd lands,
must designate those claims by a progressive series of numbers, beginning with
No 37, so as to avoid interference in that respect with the regular sectional
series of numbers in each township ; and shall designate the four corners of
each claim, where the side lines of the same are known, so that such corners
can be given by either trees, if any are found standing in place, or any corner
rocks exist in place, or posts may be set diagonally and deeply imbedded, with
four sides facing adjoining claims, sufficiently flattened to admit of inscriptions
thereon ; but where the corners are unknown, it will be sufficient to place a well-
built solid mound at each end of the claim. The beginning corner of the claim
nearest to any corners of the public surveys is to be connected by course and
distance, so as to ascertain the relative position of each claim in reference to
township and range when the same have been surveyed ; but in those parts of
the surveying district where no such lines have as yet been extended, it will be
the duty of surveyors general to have the same surveyed and marked, at
least so far as standard and township lines are concerned, at the per mileage al-
lowed, so as to embrace the mineral region, and to connect the nearest corners
of the mineral claims with the corners of the public surveys.
Should it, however, be found impracticable to establish independent base and
meridian lines, or to extend township lines over the region containing mineral
claims required to be surveyed under the law, then, and in that case, you will
cause to be surveyed in the first instance such a claim, the iriitial point of which
will start either from a confluence of waters or such natural and permanent ob-
jects as will unmistakably identify the point of the beginning of the survey of
the claim, upon which other surveys will depend.
Section 5 provides that in cases where the laws of Congress are silent upon
the subject of rules for working mines, respecting easements, drainage, and other
necessary means to the complete development of the same, the local legislature
of any State or Territory may provide them, and in order to embody such en-
actments into patents, you are directed to communicate any such laws to this
office.
SEC. 6. Should adverse claimants to any mine appear before the approval of
the survey, all further proceedings shall be stayed until a final settlement and
adjudication are had in the courts of the rights of possession to such claim, ex-
cept where the parties agree to settlement, or a portion of the premises is not in
dispute, when a patent rnajr issue as in other cases.
Section 7 provides for such additional land districts as may be necessary.
Section 8 for the right of way.
Section 9 for the protection of rights to the use of water for mining, agricul-
tural, manufacturing, or other purposes, for the right of way for the construction
of ditches and canals ; and makes parties constructing such work (after the pas-
sage of this act) to the injury of settlers liable in damages.
SEC. 10. Homesteads made prior to the passage of this act by citizens of the
CIRCULAR RELATING TO MINING CLAIMS. 355
United States, or persons who have declared their intentions to become citizens,
but on which lands no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper have
been discovered, are protected, so that settlers or owners of such homesteads
shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, in quantity not to exceed one hundred
and sixty acres, at $1 25 per acre, or to avail themselves of the homestead act
and acts amendatory thereof
Section 11 stipulates that, upon the survey of the lands in question, the Secre-
tary of the Interior may set apart such portions as are clearly agricultural, and
thereafter subjects such agricultural tracts to pre-emption and sale as other pub-
lic lands.
In order to enable the department properly to give effect to this section of
the law, you will cause your deputy surveyors to describe in their field-notes of
surveys, in addition to the data required to be noted in the printed manual of
surveying instructions, on pages 17 and 18, the agricultural lands, and represent
the same on township plats by the designation of " agricultural lauds."
It is to be understood that there is nothing obligatory on claimants to pro-