ALASKA. 



TUNNEL RIGHTS. 



io3 



20. Section 2323 provides that where a tunnel is run for the development of 

 a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, the owners of such tunnels shall 

 have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from 

 the face of such tunnel on the line thereof, not oreviously known to exist, dis- 

 covered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if discovered from the surface; 

 and locations on the line of such tunnel or veins or lodes not appearing on the 

 surface, made by other parties after the commencement of the tunnel, and while 

 the same is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence, shall be invalid; but 

 failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be considered 

 as an abandonment ot the right to all undiscovered veins or lodes on the line of 

 said tunnel. 



The effect of this is simply to give the proprietors of a mining tunnel run in 

 good faith the possessory right to fifteen hundred feet of any blind lodes cut, dis- 

 covered, or intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known to 

 exist, within three thousand feet from the face or point of commencement of 

 such tunnel, and to prohibit other parties, after the commencement of the tun- 

 nel, from prospecting for and making locations of lodes on the line thereof and 

 within said distance of three thousand feet, unless such lodes appear upon the 

 surface or were previously known to exist. 



22. The term "face," as used in said section, is construed and held to mean 

 the first working-face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at which the 

 tunnel actually enters cover; it being from this point that the three thousand 

 feet are to be counted, upon which prospecting is prohibited as aforesaid. 



23. To avail themselves of the benefits of this provision 0/ law, the proprie- 

 tors of a mining tunnel will be required, at the time they enter cover as afore- 

 said, to give proper notice of their tunnel location by erecting a substantial 

 post, board, or monument at the face or point of commencement thereof, upon 

 which should be posted a good and sufficient notice, giving the names of the 

 parties or company claiming the tunnel-right; the actual or proposed course or 

 direction of the tunnel; the height and width thereof, and the course and dis- 

 tance from such face or point of commencement to some permanent well-known 

 objects in the vicinity by which to fix and determine the locus in manner here- 

 tofore set forth applicable to locations of veins or lodes, and at the time of 

 posting such notice they shall, in order that miners or prospectors may be 

 enabled to determine whether or not they are within the lines of the tunnel, 

 establish the boundary lines thereof, by stakes or monuments placed along such 

 lines at proper intervals, to the terminus of the three thousand feet from the 

 face or point of commencement of the tunnel, and the lines so marked will 



