Photo from Leonard Davis 



A PAIR OF SALMON, ONE WEIGHING 65 POUNDS AND THE OTHER 82 POUNDS, CAUGHT 

 AT KETCHIKAN : THE PORPOISE SHOWS THE COMPARATIVE SIZE OE THE SALMON 



risk of the loss of his investment prior to 

 discovery. 



PRESENT MINING LAWS DO NOT SUFFI- 

 CIENTLY REWARD PETROLEUM 

 PIONEERS 



An objection of equal force to the 

 -placer law as applied to petroleum arises 

 from the fact that the mineral is fluid. 

 It moves underground. A well on one 

 tract is likely to draw from a neighboring 

 tract. Thus it becomes necessary for 

 each operator to drill wells along his 

 boundary lines before his neighbors do 

 so. Otherwise, they will draw off a part 

 of his oil. He is therefore forced to drill 

 whether it is otherwise to his advantage 

 or not, in order to protect his oil deposits 

 from exhaustion through adjacent wells. 



We should, I believe, stimulate the 

 search for oil and protect the prospector. 

 The government is withholding from 

 entry certain considerable bodies of land 

 in the belief that they contain oil, when 

 -this has not been demonstrated. It is our 



practice as soon as there has been a pro- 

 ducing well discovered, and sometimes 

 earlier, to withdraw all lands in the 

 neighborhood which, in the opinion of 

 experts, are of similar geological forma- 

 tion. The lands on which the discovery 

 has been made or upon which exploration 

 has been begun may or may not be 

 included in the withdrawal. If they are, 

 the law offers to protect the rights so 

 acquired. 



I feel, however, that we are not suffi- 

 ciently rewarding the pioneer. A plan 

 could readily be evolved by which any one 

 wishing to prospect for oil on the public 

 lands could obtain a license from the 

 government to prospect exclusively a 

 large tract of land for a period of time — 

 perhaps two years — and in the event that 

 oil is found in commercial quantities the 

 government should be paid a royalty 

 fixed in advance. 



This method is similar to that by which 

 the Indian lands in Oklahoma have been 

 developed and which has proved of the 

 highest value in bringing capital into this 



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