CONSTITUTION AND LAWS... 855 
Quartz claims are usually two hundred feet long, following ithé 
course of the lode. In some districts the miner holds::qne 
hundred feet of ground on each side of his lode, so that, he can: 
not be disturbed by other persons in his vicinity ; in othersshe 
holds only the width of his lode, and if another lode,- or placer 
diggings, be found within a few feet of his place of working} 
other claimants may come -so near as to interfere greatly with: 
his convenience. Placer claims vary in size, according: tothe 
nature of the ground. On bars, a claim usually has a front‘of- 
fifty, a hundred, or two hundred feet on the river, and runs. 
back across the whole width of the bar. Tunnel claims!have. 
a front of fifty, a hundred, or two hundred feet on a hill-side,: 
and run transversely to the middle of the hill, or entitély! 
across it, parallel with the direction in which the tunnel is 
commenced. Ravine claims include the bed of a ravine for 
distance of not more than three hundred feet. Placer claims: 
not on bars or ravines, or in hills that must be tunnelled;are 
usually rectangular, containing as much as one hundred or‘twe: 
hundred feet square. Persons who discover new placers or 
auriferous quartz veins are entitled to two claims. Pai 
The method of getting a claim is very simple. The miner: 
finds a piece of unoccupied ground that suits him; drives stakes: 
at the corners ; fastens on one of these stakes a piece of paper} 
containing a written notice similar to the following: uf 
“T hereby lay claim, for mining purposes, to a piece "of 
ground a hundred feet square, of which this is the northeast- 
ern corner, the other corners being marked by stakes. : 
“Joun Smirn.” 
He then goes to the mining recorder of the district, requests 
him to record the claim in his book, and pays a fee of half a 
dollar. In some districts the recorder must go out and look 
at the claim, to see that it is not on ground previously claimed. 
In other districts one of the stakes must have apiece of tin on’ 
it, marked with the number which the claim has on the record- 
er’s hooks. In ether districts it is necessary to mark the 
