LA W AFFECTING MINING AND METALL URGICAL INTERESTS. 119 
and made a motion to dismiss the proceedings, in order to make application for 
patent, basing such motion upon a certificate of subsequent relocation and a 
•decree of court in an action commenced by "B" against "A" to quiet title, 
which decree was rendered through the default in appearance of " A." The 
Commissioner of the General Land Office refused to dismiss " A's" application 
upon such a showing, holding that the courts had no jurisdiction at that stage of 
the proceedings; that the question of abandonment after the period of publication 
prescribed by law is one which must be determined by the Executive Depart- 
ment after an investigation. "B" appealed from this ruling to the secretary, 
who ordered a hearing to determine the question of abandonment before reloca- 
tion. 
The question of a disputed mining title is always one for judicial investigation, 
and can in no instance be determined by the General Land Office. 
Application for patent cannot be received at a local land office for a lode 
claim embracing a portion of the surface ground of a claim for which an application 
has been previously filed and is still pending; but when an application has been 
properly refused a filing, the subsequent application for a patent for another lode 
should be received, although including part of the surface claimed adversely by 
others. 
Where non-mineral lands have been fraudulently entered under the mining 
laws, disinterested parties may, at any time before patent issue, lay the facts 
before the General Land-Office, supported by affidavits of reliable persons; and, 
if sufficient to establish a. prima facie case of fraud or illegality, a hearing will be 
•directed to be held by the local land-offices for the purpose of determining the 
truth of the charges made, and, if substantiated, the entry will be canceled. 
The rule which forbids the reception of an application for patent to a mining 
claim which conflicts with a claim embracing a prior pending application is 
derived from that provision of the statute which prescribes the rnethod of filing 
adverse claims. Where the statute prescribes one way in which a thing shall be 
done, it precludes every other. It is easy to see that this rule is a salutary one ; 
for were it otherwise, application after application might be accumulated in the 
local office, all ^elating to the same land, thus nullifying the law which requires 
adverse claims to be filed and prosecuted. A suit upon an adverse claim, com- 
menced after the period prescribed by law has expired, does not justify the sus- 
pension of proceedings for patent. 
Coal lands were never subject to location with Sioux or California University 
scrip. — Engineering and Mining Journal. 
Advices from the Cariso mining district, in Western Texas, state that an 
immense deposit of chloride and horn-silver has been discovered in the neck of 
country lying between the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers. The surface croppings 
of horn-silver are said to be very rich. 
