purington.] LEGAL CONDITIONS LN 1904. 257 
districts of Seward Peninsula. Although the investigation of the 
legal conditions pertaining to gold mining was not called for by my 
instructions, certain facts regarding these conditions were impressed 
upon me. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer, impartially dis- 
posed, to go about the mining districts of Seward Peninsula and 
not seriously question the applicability of the present location law to 
Alaska conditions. 
It is true that $100 worth of work is by law actually required on 
each 20 acres, but the statute is so loosely framed that the $100 worth 
of work is now done universally on each L60 acres, not only in Alaska 
but in all parts of the United States where placer mining is conducted. 
Moreover 1 have observed that this $100 worth of assessment work in 
all mining territory is little more than a farce. The suggestion that 
$100 on each 20-acre tract be used in making survey and plat of the 
claim the first year is worthy of consideration. 
APPLICATION OF THE PRESENT MINING LAW TO ALASKA. 
The following order of the Secretary of the Interior, dated ,)u\y 
28, 1885 (Land Office Decisions, vol. 1, p. 128) extended the regula- 
tions of the General Land Office to Alaska. 
In pursuance of the eighth section of the act of Congress, approved May 17, 1SS4, 
entitled "An act to provide a civil government for Alaska" (23 Stat., 24), it is hereby 
prescribed that the rules and regulations of the (General Land Office and Department 
of the Interior governing the administration of the mining laws of the United States 
he adopted for and extended to the district of Alaska, so far as the same maybe 
applicable. 
It is evident that the various provisions in Revised Statutes, Title 
XXXII, chapter 6, defining the United States mining laws, apply 
fully to Alaska. . 
Sec. 2329. Claims usually called placers, including all forms of deposit, except 
veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under 
like circumstances and conditions as are provided for vein or lode claims. 
Lindley on Mines says (vol. 1, sec. 432) that this has been construed 
to mean: 
(1) That there must be a discovery upon which to base the location. 
(2) The location must be marked upon the ground so that its boundaries can be 
readily traced. 
DISCOVERY. 
According to the accepted interpretation of the law in the mining 
States of the United States, gold must be found on the ground in a 
discovery shaft before the claim can be validly held by Location. 
That many of the Alaska locations are illegal may he judged from 
the fact that very often three men have staked from ton to twenty 
160-acre tracts of placer ground within periods varying from twenty- 
Bull. 263—05 17 
