HISTORY AKD LEGAL BASIS, 25 



!as an abandonment of the right to veins which may subsequently be 

 encountered. 



The number of claims which may be entered by one person under 

 the lode law is unlimited, provided he does the necessary assessment 

 [work and otherwise complies with the law for each claim. More- 

 over, the owner of a group of claims may concentrate his assessment 

 jwork on one claim of the group if such work tends to the develop- 

 ment of every claim in the group. 



Placers. — The placer law, which was approved July 9, 1870 (16 

 Stat., 217), was intended to apply to gold and silver distributed 

 through deposits of sand and gravel. As at that date there were no 

 known important mineral deposits except veins and placers, the law 

 provides (Eev. Stat., 2329) that "placer" claims shall include "all 

 forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz or other rock in place." 

 These placer claims are subject to entry and patent in a manner 

 similar to- lode claims, but where the lands have been surveyed the 

 claim must conform to the legal subdivisions of the survey. The 

 purchase price is $2.50 an acre. The maximum area that may be 

 included in one claim by an individual is 20 acres, although, as in 

 lode claims, there is no limit to the number of claims that may be 

 entered. An association may enter in one claim an area equal to 20 

 acres for each member but not more than 160 acres. Only one dis- 

 covery of mineral is required to support a placer location, whether 

 it be of 20 acres by an individual or of 160 acres by an association. 

 The applicant for a placer claim must make affidavit that there is 

 not within the limits of the claim any valuable vein or lode and also 

 that title is not sought in order to control watercourses or to obtain 

 valuable timber. The assessment work on each claim, whether of 

 ;20 or 160 acres, must amount to $100 a year and to $500 before patent 

 Jmay be issued. On placer as on lode claims annual assessment work 

 to the amount of $100 for each claim in a group may be done on any 

 one of the claims in the group, provided it tends to the exploration 

 or de^'elopment of all. 



Building stone.— &j the act of August 4, 1892 (27 Stat., 348), the 

 -placer law was extended to apply to lands chiefly valuable for build- 

 ino' stone. The requirements as to discovery, assessment work, area, 

 and price are the same as for other placers. It is to be noted that 

 in this act the factor of relative value was for the first time specifically 

 introduced into mineral-land law. The earlier laws provide for 

 mineral entry on lands which are valuable for their mineral deposits. 

 It has been argued that only lands whose mineral value is greater 

 than their agricultural value are properly enterable as mineral land, 

 and the decisions of the department and the courts can not be said 

 to have settled the matter conclusively. In the building-stone and 



