118 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
rapid. If New Orleans should become an inland town, and the course of the 
Mississippi be changed, we believe it v/ould be better for St. Louis and the whole 
of this great valley. — St. Louis Railway Register. 
THE LAW AS AFFECTING MINING AND METALLURGICAL 
INTERESTS. 
{^Recent Rulings of the Commissioner.') 
By a recent ruling, the claimants of mill-sites are permitted to cut and remove 
timber thereon for the purpose of constructing mills, reduction-works, tramways, 
or other accessory required in developing their mining interests. In permitting 
the removal of timber from a mill-site or tract of non-mineral land, prior to the 
issuance of a patent therefor, it is strictly forbidden to make such timber an article 
of sale for private gain or speculation. 
The law recognizes two ways by which title to a placer claim may be shown 
one by a duly certified abstract ; and the other, under the statute of limitations. 
A final certificate received at the General Land Office is made out to John 
Doe et al. The commissioner advises the local offices that et al. is altogether too- 
loose and indefinite a basis upon which to issue a mineral patent. 
A local attorney asked the commissioner to dismiss an application for patent 
because no appearance had been entered here on behalf of the party. The com- 
missioner says : Should the motion come properly before me for consideration, I 
require advice as to the rule which makes a failure to employ resident counsel 
sufficient ground for dismissing an appeal without considering the merits of a 
case. 
Concerning the right to order a hearing, the commissioner considers it proper 
in the exercise of his discretion to order a hearing upon whatever question of fact 
arising in a case and at whatever stage of the proceedings he pleases. When 
entry is made of a mining claim and the money paid for the land, the receiver of 
the local land office in which the claim is entered fills out two receipts for the 
amount paid : one of these is transmitted with the final certificate of entry and 
the papers and the appUcation for patent to the General Land Office. The other 
receipt is given to the purchaser. When patent is issued, it is delivered to the 
party holding the duplicate receipt, who surrenders the same. An attorney for 
the owner or any one else holding the duplicate receipt can obtain possession of 
the patent. Usually this receipt is held by the attorney attending to the business- 
of the claimant. 
Application for patent and publication of notice thereof, as required by law,. 
do not exempt a lode claimant from making the annual expenditures thereafter 
upon his claim. That requirement ceases only after payment of the purchase- 
money and entry in the local land office. 
"A" filed an application, and due publication was made. He failed to. 
prosecute his claim, and the case rested, when "B" appeared at the local office 
