Volume 26 (1873) (431 pages)

MINING AND. SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [April 19, 1873, CAY W.B. EWER...DEWEY & Co., Publishers. A. T. DEWEY, GEO. H. STRONG. WwW. B. EWER, JNO. L. BOONE. Office, No. 388 Montgomery St., S. E. Corner of California St., diagonally across from Wella, Fargo & Co.'s. SvBSCRIPTIONs payable in advance—For one year, $4: six months, $2.50; three montha, $125. Clnbs of ten names or more, $8 each per annum, $65, in advance. will pay for 1 year. Remittancea by registered letters or P. O. orders at our risk. ADVEETISDNG RaTEs.—] week. Limonth. 3 months, 1 year. 25 +e.-. SENIOR Enrron Per line.. 5 -80 $2.00 $5.00 One-half in: -$1.00 $3.00 7.50 24.00 One inoh... « 2.00 5.00 14.00 40.00 Large advertisements at favorable rates. Special or reading notices, legal advertisements, notices appearing in extraordinary type or in partioular parts of the paper, inserted at special rates. San Francisco: Saturday Morning, April 19, 1878. Legal Tender Rates.—S. F., Thurs., April 17buying 86; selling 87. Table of Contents. GENERAL EDITORIALS.—Death of an Inventor; Mining Suits; Utilizing Water Power, 241. Decisions of Interest tr Miners; Geology of the Stara, 248. Narrow Gaugn; Patents and Iuventions, 249. ILLUSTRATIONS.—First View of the Sierras, 241, The Garrya, 246. Improved Door and Gate Hinges, 249. OCORRESPONDENCE,—A Rambler’a Ride Over Rough Roads; The New York Money Market—Threatened Trouble Ahead, 242. ‘ MECHANICAL PROGRESS. —Air Power; Novaculite; High Pressure Steam and Compound En. gines; American Machinery in Europe; Interesting and Valuable Discovery; Early Saws; Car wheels and Axles, 243. SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.—Progress in Chemistry; Synthesis of Acetic Acid; The Polar Exploring Expedition; Impact of Balls; Wood and Coal Ashes: A New Fuel; Scientific Assoclation; The Temperature above the Olonds; Volatilization of Iron; To Detect Cotton in Silk Fabrics, 243. ~ MINING SUMMARY trom varions counties in California, Nevada, Montana and Utah, 245. MINING STOCK MARKET.—Tabie of Daily Sales and Prices and Comparative Prices for the Week; Notices of Assessments; Meetings and Dividends; Review of Stock Market for the Week, 244. 2 S: UL INFORMATION.— Magic Paintings; How Gas was First Introduced; New Method of Making Hydrogen Gas; Amount of Water in the Atmosphere; To Detect Adulteration in Indie-Rubber: East Indian Method of Cleaning Silver; A Perfect Waterproof; Killing Animals with Chloroform; Artificial Organisms, 24:7. GOOD HEALT4A.— Health of Women; Curing Withont Medicine; Milk as a Medicine; Avoid Fermented Food, 247. MISCELLANEOUS.—4An English View of Our iron Trade; Westinghouse Brake on Driving Wheels, 242. Iron and Coal inthe North of Earope; Diving Armor for Miners; Stockholders as Creditors; The Gold and S:lver Yield of Montana; Rich Specimens, 246. Cieaning Feathers; Cooking Vegetables; Cooking Peas; Rank Flavor in Mutton; Lemon Cheexe Cake; An Artificial Oyater, 24'7. The Disilverization of Lead; Diamonds in the Hydraulic Washings of Cualifornia; The Gold Places of the Plains, 250. Patent Decision, 253. Si Lazos ScHoois.—As we go to press, a meeting of the gentlemen selected by the Mechanics’ State Conncil, to organize a Deliberative Assembly, is being held. They will effect an organization and elect au Executive Assemhly. The question of labor schools ia 2 very important one, and discussions of the subject by ths geutlemen seleoted will be a great benefit, Coprer.—Five or aix copper ledgea are reported as disoovered on Churoh Ialaud, in the midst of Salt Lake, Assayarun up to 42 per oent. There is considerablsexcitemeut in mining circlea. Patent ExrTenalon.—The commissiouer of patents has granted the application for the extension of a patent to Fraucis aud John Stock, of Sau José, Santa Clara County, for pump boxes, Trn, in large quantities, is said to have been found at Walla-Walla. A diapatoh from Portland, Oregon, ststea that twenty-six pounds of metal have been brought in. Curnuse Lisos tx Mines.—It is stated that the Reed quicksilver mine in Napa Connty is employing a gang of Chiuamen as miners, dice oharging whites in order to do ao, Ricu.—It is stated that ‘ '49-diggings” have been fonnd at Duck Creek, Montana, and there is a rush there from Diamond City and elsewhere. Tue Procue Record, one of onr most valued interior exchanges, has come to na in an improved and enlarged form. Coax haa been found on the ranch of Thomas Guinean, iu Napa Co. The mine promises to be valuable, the deposit being large, In the coal mines of Amador a vetn of coal twelve feet in thickness hus been struck in an incline lately run in the ridge between Ione and Jackson valleys, Decisions of Interest to Miners. In the issue of the Mryixe axp Screnriric Press of the 5th inst., we gave the recent Act of Congress which extended the time for the first annual expenditure on claims located prior to the passage of the Act of May 10th 1872, to Jnne 10th, 1874, and now have several other matters of interest to ths mining community. The first ise rather interesting and important qnestiou coming before the Com"missioner of the General Land Office from the Carson Clty Land Office, which was decided on the 11th inst. The Dardanelles Mining Company having applied for a patent for certain mining property alleged to be a continnation of the Bosphorus lode, the Overman Company made an adverse claim to the same mine as 2 continuation of the Comstock lode, The Dardanelles Company moved to dismiss this adverse claim, and Commissioner Drummond now decides the motion canuot be granted, holding that there is no law orinstructions of the department authorizing such motions to be made or granted; that the only mode of hringing a matter of this kind before the General Land Office is to take an appeal from the decision of the Register and Receiver when made. Another decisiou of the Commissiouer of the General Land Office is of interest as showing that the provisions of the law of May 10th, 1872, are to be strictly adhered to. The case is in reference to the Lady Morehead mine in Little Cottonwood Cation, Utah. The title of the case is A.G, Paddock vs. John P. Taggart. Paddock’s adverse claim to the mine, as a contiuuatiou of the Elmer lode, was rejected by the Commissioner on the ground that no survey had been made of the Elmer claim withiu the sixty days required by law. It will be remembered that the Mining Lew states that after application for patent has been made, the notices posted, ete., the Register of the Land Office, upon the filing of the application, plat, field-notes, notices and affidavits, shall publish a notice of the application for the period of 60 days in the newspaper which is published nearest to the particular claim. The claimant at the time of filing this application or at any time thereafter, within the 60 days of the publication, must file with the United States Surveyor General a certificate that $500 worth of work has been done upou the ciaim; that the plat is correct, with a description accurate enough to identify the claim, etc, Atthe expiration of the 60 days of publication he mnst file his affidavit that the plat and notice have been posted in a couspicuous place on the claim during ssid publication. Tf no adverse claim is filed duriug the 60 days of publication the patentis granted, on proper paymeuta, The importance of attending to these detaila iu the mattar of location, laborand expenditnre, is illustrated by this decision, and will ba readily perceived when it is understood that a failnre to give the subject proper attention, may invalidate the claim. It has been also decided by the Commissioner that borax deposits may be located under the provisions of the new law, and aa cousiderable interest is beiug taken in miuing and prospecting for this substance it is well to bear in mind the restrictions as to the size of locations, which come nnder the provisious of the sections referring to placer claims. The twelfth section of the Act of Jnly 9th, 1870, provides that no location of a placer claim shall hereafter exceed 160 acres for any one person, or associatiou of persona, which lovation shall oonform to U. §. Surveya. The tenth section of the Act of May 10th, 1872, (the new law) provides that allplacer claims, hereafter lucated, shall conform aa near aa practicable to the United States syetem of Land Surveys, and no snch locations shall include more than 20 acres for each invidual claimant. The Commissioner’s construction put upou these two sections is aa follows: The foregoing provisions of law ara construed to mean that after the 9th day of July, 1870, no location ofa placer claim can be made to exceed one bnndred and sixty acres. whatever may be the number of locators associa‘ead together, or whatever the local regulations of the district may allow; avd that from and after the passage of raid Act of May 20, 1872, no location made by an individual can exceed twenty acres, and no location made by an association of individuals can exceed one hundred and Fixty acres, which location of one hundred and sixty acres cannot be made by a less number than eight bona fide locators. but that whether as much as twenty acres can be located by an individual, or one hundred and aixty-acres by an asso. ciation, depends entirely upon the mining regulations in force in the respective districts at the date of the location; it being held that such mining regulations are in no Way enlarged by said acts of Congress, bnt remain intact and in full force with regard to the size of locations, in so far as they do not permit locations in excess of the limits fixed by Congrese, but that where 5uch regulations permit losations in excess of the max mums fixed by Congress as aforesald, they are restrict:d accordingly. A case is now pending on appeal before the Secretary of the Interior which is of preat interest to miners, especially to those who are occupants of grounds on sixteenth and thirty sixth sections. Adispatch from Washington to the Call gives the snhstance of the whole mafter. It apnears that nnusual professional and lobby influences are being brought to bear on the Secretary of the Interior, in the important case of the Keystone Consolidated Miuing Company, the Origiual Amador Mining Company, the Bunker Hill Quartz Company, and the town site of Amador against the State of California. The purpose is to secure a reversal of the decision of the General Land Office so as to turn overto A. H. Rose and his assnciates proper y worth millions of dollars for which the nominal aum of $400, was partly paid hy Henry Casey, the alleged grantee from the State. The case, according to the Call's dispatches, involves extraordinary features of apparent fraud, as well as a principle of utmost importance to thousands of mine owners. The mines in controversy are situated ou the mother lede of California, and have heen worked since 1850. A dozen years ago, Rose sold for $130,000the Keystone mine, which he now seeks to reoover in the name of Casey and the town of Amador. The town was founded in 1850. Its site and all these mines are situated upon the east half of section 36, townsbip 7 north, range 10 east, Mount Diahlo meridian. In 1870 certain parties procured a United States survey of that township, and itis alleged that they induoed the Deputy Surveyor, by fraudulent field notes, to represent the mines and town as located upon the west half of the section. The purpose was to dec:ive the occupants, so as to induce th«m 'o apply for the wrong tract, while the speculators conld, without opposition, purchase from the State for $400 and receive a patent for, the tract on which these properties are actually located. The fraud was discovered and exposed by abundant proofs, demonstrating unquestionably the surveyor’s infidelity iu returning as agricultural land the richest half section of mineral land ever discovered. The patents having been issued, the bona fide miuing claimants and town authorities immediately applied to the Land Department for patents under the mineral and town site laws, bnt the would-be purchaser from the State then boldly claimed that the School Lsnd Act of March 3d, 1858, was a graut,in prosente, of both the surveyed and uusurveyed and both the miueral aud agricultural lands comprised in the aixteenth and thirty-aixth sections of every township and consequently that the m‘neral Jands in controversy, situated in the thirtysixth section, passed to the State immediately on the passage of the Act of 1863. To this it is replied that mineral lands were excluded from the grant to the State; that the State title did not rest in any lands until snrveyed, there being piior thereto no sectiona sisteeu and thirty-six; that the Act of 1853 provided as to mineral lands: only township lines shonld be the rule, which provision was not repealed unti) July 9, 1870; that it was competent for Congress, before vested iuteresta had been attached, to make a different appropriation of the lands; that hefore the survey, Congress did, by Act of July 26, 1866, make a different appropriation of the mineral lands. That if this were so, yet the particular tract in controversy was expressly excepted from the State grant, by the seventh section of the Act of 1853, by reason of its settlement and the erectiou of dwelling-houses there prior to the survey. The local land officers and the Commissioner of the General Land Office decided against the pretevisions cf the pr.vate c'aimants, who use the State’s name, and the case is now pending on appeal hefore the Secretary of the Iuterior. The danger grows out of the fact that the Snpreme Court of California has decided that the Act of 1853 did vest title to all sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in the State prior to their survey; and though it is believed that the Court will grant a rehearing and reverse that decision, its actiou nevertheless lends color and support to the attempt now making to obtain possession of the Amador mines, and to estahlish a princinle franght with immense danger to thousauds of other intereats, Several well known California lawyera are in Washington to assist in the prosecution. It-is probable that dilatory tactics will he employed to postpone a decision outhis tainted claim unti] the Benjamin Sellingcase from the Maryaville District can be preaented to the Secretary for a decision of the naked question of the right of the State to the sixteenth and thirtysixth aections of mineral lands; so that if the right of the State is affirmed, it will he comparatively easy to find a pretext for deciding Rose’a case in his favor. The question has a vital importance to all mineral occupants of sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. If the mineral claimantsin either the Keystone or the Selling ciaea are defeated, then all minea npou similarly numbered subdivisions or which, upon future survey, may prove to be so numhered, are at the mercy of the first applicant to purchase from the State at $1.25 per acre. It is represented in Waahington that the partiea who initiated this speculation have al ready taken the requisite ateps to file first applicatious for all similar sections thronghout the State of California, The same dangers threateu mining occupants in every other mineral State, “The Geology of the Stars.” The above sentenoe, which is the title of a little pamphlet before us, is eminently sugges. tive, and could not possibly have beeu thus used with propriety, nntil within the past ten or fifteen years. The telescope long siuce gave — us a very correct idea of the grandeur and Immensity of space, and of the fact that it was occupied by an innumerable number of suns and worlds, more or Jess resembling onr own, The researches of the geologist and the chemist have given usa very correct idea of oomposition and geology of the globs which we inhabit. Aided by such researches, improved telescopes have also been able to show that tha moon is mads up of elements similar in appearance, at least, to what we find on ths earth, and that its surface is divided iuto valJeys, plains and mountains. But what of the sun and what of the stars? The telesoope fails to satisfy onr enqniry as to them. True, the formsr appears to the telesoopia view to bs a vast globe of fire; but asto what supports that comhustion or what may be the elements composing the sun and stars, ittells ns nothing— aud any such thing as a study of the ‘geology of the stars’’ has until quite recently been considered utterly beyond human power—one of the mysteries of nature, closed forever to ths knowledge of man. Such was the condition of astronomioal scieuce, when, that most wonderful of all scientific instruments —the spectroscope — was brought to the aid of the astronomer and geologist, This iustrument developed the fact that light was capable not only of being separated into its primitive colors; but also, that under proper manipulation, it could be made to mark or superimpose upon those colors certain hands and lines, by which the identity of the elemeut or substance which sends forth the light may be readily detected. These facts having been learned by experimenting with vatious substances in the laboratory, the light from the sun and stars, and from nebule and comets was also submitted to its test with re} sults equally satisfactory; and it is by this means that astronomers have oflate years been actually stndying the geology of the snn and stars. The progreas of this study has demoustrated the fact, not ouly that the whole family of planetsiu our solar system has had a common experience or history; but that every body in the visible universe nndoubtedly belongs to one syatem of matter, Itis definitely proven by the apectroscope that the mineral constitution of all the stara, oomets and nehnlw is similar to that of the earth. We have learned by it enough of the phasea of matter to feel certaiu that onr own system represents all the various progressive stages in the natural evolution of matter from its gaseous condition, a3 observed iu the faintest cometa or nebulz, to the completed, worn out, planetary condition exemplified in the moon. The spectroscops has fully verified the nebular theory that all matter was once diffused through space iu the form of a vapor or firemist of a most attenuated state, which. nnder some special condition or creative act, beoame detached and divided into fragmentary portions, the contraction of which inaugurated rotation, which waa inevitubly accellerated nntil peripheral rings were thrown off, broken, and aggregated iuto planets, Our snn, near ‘the begining,’’ occupied a sphere in space, whose boundary exceeded that circumscribed by the revolution about the sun of the most distant plauet of our systsm—perhaps one even yet nndiscovered. It has o2utinued to throw off periphery rings nntil onr whole family of planets has been produced, and theaun by such successive offshoots and oontraotiona has at last como to occupy its present oondensed form Inthe center of the system. Most of the plaueta, in their turn, followiug the same law, have thrown off smaller rings forming secondary planets or moona, The most striking and instruotive feature in our syatem is Saturn with its eight moons and grand system of rings. The first thonght that was snggested by those ringa, when their char acter first became known, was the nehular theory of planetary origiu. And now that the spectroscope haa demonstrated beyond doubt the ahsolute identity, in composition, of aun, planets and stars, this visible instance of the ring-condition of a planet fnrnishes 2 demonstration eveu more convincing thau writteu hiatory or Iaboratory experimeuts, of the ahsoa

MINING AND. SCIENTIFIC PRESS. [April 19, 1873, CAY W.B. EWER......DEWEY & Co., Publishers. A. T. DEWEY, GEO. H. STRONG. WwW. B. EWER, JNO. L. BOONE. Office, No. 388 Montgomery St., S. E. Corner of California St., diagonally across from Wella, Fargo & Co.'s. SvBSCRIPTIONs payable in advance—For one year, $4: six months, $2.50; three montha, $125. Clnbs of ten names or more, $8 each per annum, $65, in advance. will pay for 1 year. Remittancea by registered letters or P. O. orders at our risk. ADVEETISDNG RaTEs.—] week. Limonth. 3 months, 1 year. 25 +e.-. SENIOR Enrron Per line.... 5 -80 $2.00 $5.00 One-half in: -$1.00 $3.00 7.50 24.00 One inoh..... « 2.00 5.00 14.00 40.00 Large advertisements at favorable rates. Special or reading notices, legal advertisements, notices appearing in extraordinary type or in partioular parts of the paper, inserted at special rates. San Francisco: Saturday Morning, April 19, 1878. Legal Tender Rates.—S. F., Thurs., April 17buying 86; selling 87. Table of Contents. GENERAL EDITORIALS.—Death of an Inventor; Mining Suits; Utilizing Water Power, 241. Decisions of Interest tr Miners; Geology of the Stara, 248. Narrow Gaugn; Patents and Iuventions, 249. ILLUSTRATIONS.—First View of the Sierras, 241, The Garrya, 246. Improved Door and Gate Hinges, 249. OCORRESPONDENCE,—A Rambler’a Ride Over Rough Roads; The New York Money Market—Threatened Trouble Ahead, 242. ‘ MECHANICAL PROGRESS. —Air Power; Novaculite; High Pressure Steam and Compound En. gines; American Machinery in Europe; Interesting and Valuable Discovery; Early Saws; Car wheels and Axles, 243. SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.—Progress in Chemistry; Synthesis of Acetic Acid; The Polar Exploring Expedition; Impact of Balls; Wood and Coal Ashes: A New Fuel; Scientific Assoclation; The Temperature above the Olonds; Volatilization of Iron; To Detect Cotton in Silk Fabrics, 243. ~ MINING SUMMARY trom varions counties in California, Nevada, Montana and Utah, 245. MINING STOCK MARKET.—Tabie of Daily Sales and Prices and Comparative Prices for the Week; Notices of Assessments; Meetings and Dividends; Review of Stock Market for the Week, 244. 2 S: UL INFORMATION.— Magic Paintings; How Gas was First Introduced; New Method of Making Hydrogen Gas; Amount of Water in the Atmosphere; To Detect Adulteration in Indie-Rubber: East Indian Method of Cleaning Silver; A Perfect Waterproof; Killing Animals with Chloroform; Artificial Organisms, 24:7. GOOD HEALT4A.— Health of Women; Curing Withont Medicine; Milk as a Medicine; Avoid Fermented Food, 247. MISCELLANEOUS.—4An English View of Our iron Trade; Westinghouse Brake on Driving Wheels, 242. Iron and Coal inthe North of Earope; Diving Armor for Miners; Stockholders as Creditors; The Gold and S:lver Yield of Montana; Rich Specimens, 246. Cieaning Feathers; Cooking Vegetables; Cooking Peas; Rank Flavor in Mutton; Lemon Cheexe Cake; An Artificial Oyater, 24'7. The Disilverization of Lead; Diamonds in the Hydraulic Washings of Cualifornia; The Gold Places of the Plains, 250. Patent Decision, 253. Si Lazos ScHoois.—As we go to press, a meeting of the gentlemen selected by the Mechanics’ State Conncil, to organize a Deliberative Assembly, is being held. They will effect an organization and elect au Executive Assemhly. The question of labor schools ia 2 very important one, and discussions of the subject by ths geutlemen seleoted will be a great benefit, Coprer.—Five or aix copper ledgea are reported as disoovered on Churoh Ialaud, in the midst of Salt Lake, Assayarun up to 42 per oent. There is considerablsexcitemeut in mining circlea. Patent ExrTenalon.—The commissiouer of patents has granted the application for the extension of a patent to Fraucis aud John Stock, of Sau José, Santa Clara County, for pump boxes, Trn, in large quantities, is said to have been found at Walla-Walla. A diapatoh from Portland, Oregon, ststea that twenty-six pounds of metal have been brought in. Curnuse Lisos tx Mines.—It is stated that the Reed quicksilver mine in Napa Connty is employing a gang of Chiuamen as miners, dice oharging whites in order to do ao, Ricu.—It is stated that ‘ '49-diggings” have been fonnd at Duck Creek, Montana, and there is a rush there from Diamond City and elsewhere. Tue Procue Record, one of onr most valued interior exchanges, has come to na in an improved and enlarged form. Coax haa been found on the ranch of Thomas Guinean, iu Napa Co. The mine promises to be valuable, the deposit being large, In the coal mines of Amador a vetn of coal twelve feet in thickness hus been struck in an incline lately run in the ridge between Ione and Jackson valleys, Decisions of Interest to Miners. In the issue of the Mryixe axp Screnriric Press of the 5th inst., we gave the recent Act of Congress which extended the time for the first annual expenditure on claims located prior to the passage of the Act of May 10th 1872, to Jnne 10th, 1874, and now have several other matters of interest to ths mining community. The first ise rather interesting and important qnestiou coming before the Com"missioner of the General Land Office from the Carson Clty Land Office, which was decided on the 11th inst. The Dardanelles Mining Company having applied for a patent for certain mining property alleged to be a continnation of the Bosphorus lode, the Overman Company made an adverse claim to the same mine as 2 continuation of the Comstock lode, The Dardanelles Company moved to dismiss this adverse claim, and Commissioner Drummond now decides the motion canuot be granted, holding that there is no law orinstructions of the department authorizing such motions to be made or granted; that the only mode of hringing a matter of this kind before the General Land Office is to take an appeal from the decision of the Register and Receiver when made. Another decisiou of the Commissiouer of the General Land Office is of interest as showing that the provisions of the law of May 10th, 1872, are to be strictly adhered to. The case is in reference to the Lady Morehead mine in Little Cottonwood Cation, Utah. The title of the case is A.G, Paddock vs. John P. Taggart. Paddock’s adverse claim to the mine, as a contiuuatiou of the Elmer lode, was rejected by the Commissioner on the ground that no survey had been made of the Elmer claim withiu the sixty days required by law. It will be remembered that the Mining Lew states that after application for patent has been made, the notices posted, ete., the Register of the Land Office, upon the filing of the application, plat, field-notes, notices and affidavits, shall publish a notice of the application for the period of 60 days in the newspaper which is published nearest to the particular claim. The claimant at the time of filing this application or at any time thereafter, within the 60 days of the publication, must file with the United States Surveyor General a certificate that $500 worth of work has been done upou the ciaim; that the plat is correct, with a description accurate enough to identify the claim, etc, Atthe expiration of the 60 days of publication he mnst file his affidavit that the plat and notice have been posted in a couspicuous place on the claim during ssid publication. Tf no adverse claim is filed duriug the 60 days of publication the patentis granted, on proper paymeuta, The importance of attending to these detaila iu the mattar of location, laborand expenditnre, is illustrated by this decision, and will ba readily perceived when it is understood that a failnre to give the subject proper attention, may invalidate the claim. It has been also decided by the Commissioner that borax deposits may be located under the provisions of the new law, and aa cousiderable interest is beiug taken in miuing and prospecting for this substance it is well to bear in mind the restrictions as to the size of locations, which come nnder the provisious of the sections referring to placer claims. The twelfth section of the Act of Jnly 9th, 1870, provides that no location of a placer claim shall hereafter exceed 160 acres for any one person, or associatiou of persona, which lovation shall oonform to U. §. Surveya. The tenth section of the Act of May 10th, 1872, (the new law) provides that allplacer claims, hereafter lucated, shall conform aa near aa practicable to the United States syetem of Land Surveys, and no snch locations shall include more than 20 acres for each invidual claimant. The Commissioner’s construction put upou these two sections is aa follows: The foregoing provisions of law ara construed to mean that after the 9th day of July, 1870, no location ofa placer claim can be made to exceed one bnndred and sixty acres. whatever may be the number of locators associa‘ead together, or whatever the local regulations of the district may allow; avd that from and after the passage of raid Act of May 20, 1872, no location made by an individual can exceed twenty acres, and no location made by an association of individuals can exceed one hundred and Fixty acres, which location of one hundred and sixty acres cannot be made by a less number than eight bona fide locators. but that whether as much as twenty acres can be located by an individual, or one hundred and aixty-acres by an asso. ciation, depends entirely upon the mining regulations in force in the respective districts at the date of the location; it being held that such mining regulations are in no Way enlarged by said acts of Congress, bnt remain intact and in full force with regard to the size of locations, in so far as they do not permit locations in excess of the limits fixed by Congrese, but that

where 5uch regulations permit losations in excess of the max mums fixed by Congress as aforesald, they are restrict:d accordingly. A case is now pending on appeal before the Secretary of the Interior which is of preat interest to miners, especially to those who are occupants of grounds on sixteenth and thirty sixth sections. Adispatch from Washington to the Call gives the snhstance of the whole mafter. It apnears that nnusual professional and lobby influences are being brought to bear on the Secretary of the Interior, in the important case of the Keystone Consolidated Miuing Company, the Origiual Amador Mining Company, the Bunker Hill Quartz Company, and the town site of Amador against the State of California. The purpose is to secure a reversal of the decision of the General Land Office so as to turn overto A. H. Rose and his assnciates proper y worth millions of dollars for which the nominal aum of $400, was partly paid hy Henry Casey, the alleged grantee from the State. The case, according to the Call's dispatches, involves extraordinary features of apparent fraud, as well as a principle of utmost importance to thousands of mine owners. The mines in controversy are situated ou the mother lede of California, and have heen worked since 1850. A dozen years ago, Rose sold for $130,000the Keystone mine, which he now seeks to reoover in the name of Casey and the town of Amador. The town was founded in 1850. Its site and all these mines are situated upon the east half of section 36, townsbip 7 north, range 10 east, Mount Diahlo meridian. In 1870 certain parties procured a United States survey of that township, and itis alleged that they induoed the Deputy Surveyor, by fraudulent field notes, to represent the mines and town as located upon the west half of the section. The purpose was to dec:ive the occupants, so as to induce th«m 'o apply for the wrong tract, while the speculators conld, without opposition, purchase from the State for $400 and receive a patent for, the tract on which these properties are actually located. The fraud was discovered and exposed by abundant proofs, demonstrating unquestionably the surveyor’s infidelity iu returning as agricultural land the richest half section of mineral land ever discovered. The patents having been issued, the bona fide miuing claimants and town authorities immediately applied to the Land Department for patents under the mineral and town site laws, bnt the would-be purchaser from the State then boldly claimed that the School Lsnd Act of March 3d, 1858, was a graut,in prosente, of both the surveyed and uusurveyed and both the miueral aud agricultural lands comprised in the aixteenth and thirty-aixth sections of every township and consequently that the m‘neral Jands in controversy, situated in the thirtysixth section, passed to the State immediately on the passage of the Act of 1863. To this it is replied that mineral lands were excluded from the grant to the State; that the State title did not rest in any lands until snrveyed, there being piior thereto no sectiona sisteeu and thirty-six; that the Act of 1853 provided as to mineral lands: only township lines shonld be the rule, which provision was not repealed unti) July 9, 1870; that it was competent for Congress, before vested iuteresta had been attached, to make a different appropriation of the lands; that hefore the survey, Congress did, by Act of July 26, 1866, make a different appropriation of the mineral lands. That if this were so, yet the particular tract in controversy was expressly excepted from the State grant, by the seventh section of the Act of 1853, by reason of its settlement and the erectiou of dwelling-houses there prior to the survey. The local land officers and the Commissioner of the General Land Office decided against the pretevisions cf the pr.vate c'aimants, who use the State’s name, and the case is now pending on appeal hefore the Secretary of the Iuterior. The danger grows out of the fact that the Snpreme Court of California has decided that the Act of 1853 did vest title to all sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in the State prior to their survey; and though it is believed that the Court will grant a rehearing and reverse that decision, its actiou nevertheless lends color and support to the attempt now making to obtain possession of the Amador mines, and to estahlish a princinle franght with immense danger to thousauds of other intereats, Several well known California lawyera are in Washington to assist in the prosecution. It-is probable that dilatory tactics will he employed to postpone a decision outhis tainted claim unti] the Benjamin Sellingcase from the Maryaville District can be preaented to the Secretary for a decision of the naked question of the right of the State to the sixteenth and thirtysixth aections of mineral lands; so that if the right of the State is affirmed, it will he comparatively easy to find a pretext for deciding Rose’a case in his favor. The question has a vital importance to all mineral occupants of sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. If the mineral claimantsin either the Keystone or the Selling ciaea are defeated, then all minea npou similarly numbered subdivisions or which, upon future survey, may prove to be so numhered, are at the mercy of the first applicant to purchase from the State at $1.25 per acre. It is represented in Waahington that the partiea who initiated this speculation have al ready taken the requisite ateps to file first applicatious for all similar sections thronghout the State of California, The same dangers threateu mining occupants in every other mineral State, “The Geology of the Stars.” The above sentenoe, which is the title of a little pamphlet before us, is eminently sugges. tive, and could not possibly have beeu thus used with propriety, nntil within the past ten or fifteen years. The telescope long siuce gave — us a very correct idea of the grandeur and Immensity of space, and of the fact that it was occupied by an innumerable number of suns and worlds, more or Jess resembling onr own, The researches of the geologist and the chemist have given usa very correct idea of oomposition and geology of the globs which we inhabit. Aided by such researches, improved telescopes have also been able to show that tha moon is mads up of elements similar in appearance, at least, to what we find on ths earth, and that its surface is divided iuto valJeys, plains and mountains. But what of the sun and what of the stars? The telesoope fails to satisfy onr enqniry as to them. True, the formsr appears to the telesoopia view to bs a vast globe of fire; but asto what supports that comhustion or what may be the elements composing the sun and stars, ittells ns nothing— aud any such thing as a study of the ‘geology of the stars’’ has until quite recently been considered utterly beyond human power—one of the mysteries of nature, closed forever to ths knowledge of man. Such was the condition of astronomioal scieuce, when, that most wonderful of all scientific instruments —the spectroscope — was brought to the aid of the astronomer and geologist, This iustrument developed the fact that light was capable not only of being separated into its primitive colors; but also, that under proper manipulation, it could be made to mark or superimpose upon those colors certain hands and lines, by which the identity of the elemeut or substance which sends forth the light may be readily detected. These facts having been learned by experimenting with vatious substances in the laboratory, the light from the sun and stars, and from nebule and comets was also submitted to its test with re} sults equally satisfactory; and it is by this means that astronomers have oflate years been actually stndying the geology of the snn and stars. The progreas of this study has demoustrated the fact, not ouly that the whole family of planetsiu our solar system has had a common experience or history; but that every body in the visible universe nndoubtedly belongs to one syatem of matter, Itis definitely proven by the apectroscope that the mineral constitution of all the stara, oomets and nehnlw is similar to that of the earth. We have learned by it enough of the phasea of matter to feel certaiu that onr own system represents all the various progressive stages in the natural evolution of matter from its gaseous condition, a3 observed iu the faintest cometa or nebulz, to the completed, worn out, planetary condition exemplified in the moon. The spectroscops has fully verified the nebular theory that all matter was once diffused through space iu the form of a vapor or firemist of a most attenuated state, which. nnder some special condition or creative act, beoame detached and divided into fragmentary portions, the contraction of which inaugurated rotation, which waa inevitubly accellerated nntil peripheral rings were thrown off, broken, and aggregated iuto planets, Our snn, near ‘the begining,’’ occupied a sphere in space, whose boundary exceeded that circumscribed by the revolution about the sun of the most distant plauet of our systsm—perhaps one even yet nndiscovered. It has o2utinued to throw off periphery rings nntil onr whole family of planets has been produced, and theaun by such successive offshoots and oontraotiona has at last como to occupy its present oondensed form Inthe center of the system. Most of the plaueta, in their turn, followiug the same law, have thrown off smaller rings forming secondary planets or moona, The most striking and instruotive feature in our syatem is Saturn with its eight moons and grand system of rings. The first thonght that was snggested by those ringa, when their char acter first became known, was the nehular theory of planetary origiu. And now that the spectroscope haa demonstrated beyond doubt the ahsolute identity, in composition, of aun, planets and stars, this visible instance of the ring-condition of a planet fnrnishes 2 demonstration eveu more convincing thau writteu hiatory or Iaboratory experimeuts, of the ahsoa