104 ALASKA. 



define and govern as to the specific boundaries within which prospecting tor 

 lodes not previously known to exist is prohibited while work on the tunnel is 

 being prosecuted with reasonable diligence. 



24. At the time of posting notice and marking out the lines of the tunnel as 

 aforesaid, a full and correct copy of such notice of location defining the tunnel 

 claim must be filed tor record with the mining recorder of the district, to which 

 notice must be attached the sworn statement or declaration of the owners, claim- 

 ants, or projectors of such tunnel, setting forth the facts in the case; stating the 

 amount expended by themselves and their predecessors in interest in prosecuting 

 work thereon; the extent of the work performed, and that it is bona Jide their 

 intention to prosecute work on the tunnel so located and described with reason- 

 able diligence for the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of 

 mines, or both, as the case may be. This notice of location must be duly 

 recorded, and, with the said sworn statement attached, kept on the recorder's 

 files for future reference. 



25. By a compliance with the foregoing much needless difiiculty will be 

 avoided, and the way for the adjustment of legal rights acquired in virtue of 

 said section 2323 will be made much more easy and certain. 



26. This office will take particular care that no improper advantage is taken 

 of this provision of law by parties making or professing to make tunnel locations, 

 ostensibly for the purposes named in the statute, but really for the purpose of 

 monopolizing the lands lying in front of their tunnels to the detriment of the 

 mining interests and to the exclusion of bona fide prospectors or miners, but 

 will hold such tunnel claimants to a strict compliance with the terms of the 

 statutes; and a reasonable diligence on their part in prosecuting the work is 

 one of the essential conditions of their implied contract. Negligence or want 

 of due diligence will be construed as working a forfeiture of their right to all 

 undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel. 



MANNER OF PROCEEDING TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT TITLE TO VEIN OR LODE CLAIMS. 



27. By section 2325 authority is given for granting titles for mines by patent 

 from the Government to any person, association, or corporation having the 

 necessary qualifications as to citizenship and holding the right of possession to a 

 claim in compliance with law. 



28. The claimant is required in the first place to have a correct survey of 

 his claim made under authority of the surveyor-general of the State or Terri- 

 tory in which the claim lies; such survey to show with accuracy the exterior 

 surface boundaries of the claim, which boundaries are required to be distinctly 

 marked by monuments on the ground. Four plats and one copy of the original 

 field notes, in each case, will be prepared by the surveyor-general; one plat and 



I 



