Outline for Preliminary Report on Mineral Claims 99 



of deeply interested but unscrupulous persons to "salt u or 

 "high grade" your samples. The writer regrets that it is 

 necessary to dwell even briefly upon this point, but a number 

 of years experience in examining mining properties has con- 

 vinced him that the highly honored moral precept "believe 

 all men honest until proven dishonest" is not a highly practical 

 one to follow unless applied with a judicious amount of 

 skepticism. The popular slogan ''safety first" is more to 

 the point and should be practiced assiduously by the mining 

 engineer, geologist or others, in collecting samples for analysis 

 and keeping them intact until they are delivered to the chemist. 

 It is a simple matter to mark coal cans or ore specimens 

 with some system of coinciding lines in such a manner that the 

 collector can detect at a glance those samples which have been 

 molested. 



X. NUMBERING 



Number all samples for analysis as soon as collected, 

 recording the number and description of the samples at once. 

 A convenient method of numbering is to give the specimen a 

 serial number with the date on which it was collected, giving 

 the serial number first, then the day, month and year as 

 1-26-4-15. If fifty specimens are collected on the date given, 

 they would be numbered 1 to 50 inclusive with the added date 

 numerals 26-4-15. 



Such a system often enables the collector to identify 

 specimens, or at least recall the locality where collected, with- 

 out reference to his notes and is especially convenient in case 

 the collector should lose his notebook. Frequently a part of 

 the specimens collected are kept for future reference and it 

 is sometimes necessary that the inspector know the date on 

 which the specimen was collected. The system of numbering 

 just described gives this information immediately without re- 

 ference to notes. 



XI. MINE AND PROSPECT HOLES 



State specifically whether the entry is a shaft, slope, adit or 

 tunnel and give complete dimensions. In measuring the length 

 of an adit or tunnel, as it is frequently called, record only one 

 half the length of the open cut. The claimant in filing his 

 statement of improvements naturally wishes to make a complete 

 and comprehensive report and in his enthusiasm will fre- 

 quently add to the length of his adit, by recording twenty feet 

 of open cut, whereas the miner in his excavating bill has 



