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Show LAW OF MINING SURVEYS. T. L., Georgetown. Kindly give the provisions of the Brooks-Teller bill relative to incorrect surveys of mining claims, which has just become a law Answer: The proper title of the act is the Teller-Brooks, it having been originally introduced in the senate and passed by Senator Henry M. -Teller. In the house, at the suggestion of Representative Rep-resentative Brooks, a few verbal changes were made, after which tli-j bill passed both houses, without oppo- : sition, and was signed by the president. presi-dent. It amends the present mining law by adding section 2,327, which reads: "The description of Vein or lode claims upon surveyed- lands shall designate the location of the claims with reference to the lines of the public pub-lic survey, but need not conform therewith; there-with; but where patents have been or shall be issued for claims upon surveyed sur-veyed lands, the surveyors general, in extending the public survey, shall ad-' ad-' just the same- to the boundaries of said patented claims so as in no case to interfere with or change the true location of such claims as they are officially established upon the ground. I Where patents have issued for min-I min-I eral lands, those lands only shall be segregated and shall be deemed to bo patented which are bounded by the lines actually marked, defined and established es-tablished upon the ground by the monuments of the official survey upon which the patent grant is based, and surveyors general in executing subsequent subse-quent patent surveys, whether upon surveyed or unsurveyed lands, shall be governed accordingly. The said monuments monu-ments shall at all times constitute the highest authority as to what land is patented, and in case of any conflict between the. said monuments of such patented claims and the description of j said claims in. the patents issued there- ! for. the monuments on the ground shall govern, and erroneous or inconsistent incon-sistent descriptions or calls in the pat- , ent descriptions shall give way thereto." there-to." Heretofore numerous instances ' have been found where surveyors have 1 I made mistakes in then-, descriptions and maps sent to the land office. In one case in this state it was discovered discov-ered after a mine had bem in operation opera-tion several years that the records of the land office located it a quarter of a mile away. Under the ruling that has prevailed that the land office records rec-ords must be -assumed to be correct the owners of this mine had no right to the land upon which they were operating, operat-ing, although it was the land upon which they had made their original discovery and upon which they had filed application for a patent. Denver I ,.ews- |