82 
ALASKA. 
said district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Sec¬ 
retary of the Interior and approved by the President. * * * Parties who 
have located mines or mining privileges therein, under the United States law 
applicable to the public domain, or have occupied or improved or exercised acts 
of ownership over such claims, shall not be disturbed therein, but shall be 
allowed to perfect title by payment so provided for. 
Commissioner Hermann says that the patenting of mineral 
_ lands in Alaska has been going on since 1884. 
UNITED STATES MINING LAWS. 
As the mining laws of the United States apply to Alaska, they 
are printed here in full: 
UNITED STATES MINING LAWS AND REGULATIONS THEREUNDER.* 
Department of the Interior, 
General Land Office, 
December 10 , 1891. 
Gentlemen: Your attention is invited to the Revised Statutes of the United 
States and the amendments thereto in regard to 
MINING LAWS AND MINING RESOURCES. 
Title xxxii. Chapter 6. 
Section 2318. In all cases lands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from 
sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law. 
Sec. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United 
States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open 
to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupa¬ 
tion and purchase, by citizens of the United States and those who have declared 
their intention to become such, under regulations prescribed by law, and accord¬ 
ing to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far 
as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United 
States. 
Sec. 2320. Mining-claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place 
bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, here- 
* Department of the Interior, General Land Office, Washington, May 16, 1893.— 
I his circular is reissued for the information and benefit of those concerned._S. W. 
Lamoreux, Commissioner. 
