COXSTITITTIOX AND LAWS. 357 



his tailings, and until such removal the title is not subject to 

 forfeiture. And the prior occupant is under no obligation to 

 be in haste : he can take the same time to remove the tailino-s 

 that he would have taken if no claim for mining purposes had 

 been made to the land. It is not necessary that the owner of 

 a claim should work upon it in person ; the labor of a hired 

 man is as good to maintain occupation and secure title as any 

 other labor. In the Esmeralda silver district, work to the 

 value of seventy-five dollars secures the title forever, according 

 to the mining regulations. 



A company of miners may take up as much ground as the 

 aggregate amount which they could take up separately ; and 

 when a company takes a claim, every member has an equal 

 and undivided interest in every part of it. When a claim is 

 to be taken for a company, it is sufficient that one member of 

 the company should appear at the recorder's office, demand 

 that the claim be recorded, and offer to pay the fees. The re- 

 corder has no right to make any preliminary inquiries as to 

 who the people are, or where they live, or whether they live 

 at all. One man, finding a good tract of rich ground, may 

 write down the names of a dozen persons living at a distance, 

 and, without consulting them, have their names recorded as 

 members of a company owning a large and valuable claim, 

 and by such record their title becomes good. 



In most districts a miner may hold only one claim by his 

 own original location, but an unlimited number by purchase. 

 In districts where there are both dry ravine and bar-claims, he 

 may at the same time hold one bar-claim and one ravine-claim 

 by original location, the former being workable in summer and 

 the latter in the winter. After having exhausted or abandoned 

 one claim, the miner may always take up another. 



The manner of taking up claims in the argentiferous and 

 quicksilver districts, is the same as in the gold districts. 



The water in the mineral districts is also subject to claim. 

 The streams may be diverted from their courses and used for 

 washing dirt, driving saw-mills, grist-mills, and quartz-mills, or 



