26 CLASSIFICATION OP IHE PUBLIC LANDS. 



subsequent extensions of the placer law, however, it is specifically 

 stated that the lands must be chiefly valuable for the mineral upon 

 whose discovery the claim is based. 



This extension of the placer law to cover building stone neither 

 repealed nor conflicts with the timber and stone act of June 3, 1878 

 (20 Stat., 89), already discussed. Thus lands chiefly valuable for 

 building stone may be purchased at an appraised value not less than 

 $2.50 per acre or may be entered under the placer law and patented 

 after the completion of the required amount of assessment work, on 

 payment of $2.50 per acre. 



Oil. — About a quarter of a century after the passage of the placer 

 law valuable deposits of petroleum were discovered on public lands. 

 The discoverers, finding themselves without an appropriate law un- 

 der which to apply for a patent, made application under the placer 

 law — ^not because it was fitted to the needs of the situation but be- 

 cause of its general provision that all forms of deposit, excepting 

 veins of quartz or other rock in place should be entered thereunder. 

 The Department of the Interior, recognizing the undesirability of 

 applying the placer law to oil and gas, refused to allow the applica- 

 tions. On an appeal to Congress for relief, the act of February 11, 

 1897 (29 Stat., 626) , was passed, providing that lands chiefly valuable 

 for petroleum and other mineral oils should be enterable under the 

 placer law. On February 12, 1903 (32 Stat., 825), specific authority 

 was granted for doing assessment work on any one of a group of oil 

 claims lying contiguous and owned by the same person or corpora- 

 tion, not exceeding five claims in all, provided that such assessment 

 work tends to develop or determine the oil-bearing character of all 

 the claims. The requirement of discovery of valuable minerals as a 

 prerequisite to location — a requirement reasonable enough when ap- 

 plied to veins outcropping at the surface or to gold placers — is 

 applied as rigidly to deposits of oil and gas, which, as a rule, can be 

 discovered only after long and expensive exploration, as to other 

 minerals. Lands included in petroleum placers, like those entered 

 for building stone, must be chiefly valuable for the purpose for which 

 they are claimed. 



SaliTies.—The act of January 31, 1901 (31 Stat., 745), extends 

 the placer law to cover lands that contain salt springs or deposits 

 of salt in any form and that are chiefly valuable therefor. This has 

 been interpreted as including only sodium chloride, no specific pro- 

 vision having been made for other soluble salts. The requirements as 

 to area, assessment work, and price are those contained in the original 

 placer law, except that the same person may not locate or enter more 

 than one claim. The consideration of relative worth is again intro- 

 duced. 



