1665 918 Calif. (State): Separate Laws The Bureau of Mines, in carrying out one of the provisions of its organic act--to disseminate information concerning investigations made-prints a limited free edition of each of its publications. When this edition is exhausted, copies may be obtained at cost price only through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The Superintendent of Documents is not an official of the Bureau of Mines. His is an entirely separate office and he should be addressed: SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, The general law under which publications are distributed prohibits the giving of more than one copy of a publication to one person. The price of this publication is 20 cents. D First edition. August, 1918. MAY 10 1919 PREFACE. The Bureau of Mines since its establishment has been collecting and publishing the laws relating to mining. The purpose of such publication is to point out the laws and regulations best adapted to increase safety and efficiency in the mineral industry of the United States and to aid legislative bodies in framing uniform mining laws. In 1915 the bureau published, in two volumes, Bulletin 94, "United States Mining Statutes Annotated." That bulletin includes every section of the United States Revised Statutes and every statute enacted by Congress relating to mines and mining. Following each section and statute, abstracts of decisions of all courts and executive officers construing such sections or statutes were collected and arranged with appropriate title lines and headings in logical order. The bulletin thus shows the status of every Federal mining law by pointing out the defects and uncertainties that were eliminated by the courts and the aid of the courts in the practical application of the mining statutes. The bulletin was published in the hope that it would serve as a guide in the location of claims and in the determination of mining rights and assist the miner in adopting measures that would insure greater safety and efficiency in mining operations. The purpose of the bureau is to follow Bulletin 94 with others that will contain complete collections of the mining statutes of the several States with appropriate and explanatory annotations consisting of abstracts of the decisions of the State courts, construing and otherwise illuminating such State statutes. These State bulletins will be published successively, either as individual State bulletins or by groups of States, with a view to uniformity in size, and all in style and manner similar to Bulletin 94. The magnitude of the work and the time necessarily involved in collecting the statutes and abstracting the decisions prevent the work being issued as a single publication. The plan adopted will result in giving preference to some States, but as a major part of all of the preparation of the work has been performed, the successive volumes will follow without great delay. The publication of the bulletins in an alphabetical order of the States has not been adopted, as this would not permit desirable grouping of two or more States. The State of California, by reason of its historic interest in mining and by reason of its great extent of mineral land and its vast mineral deposits, has been selected for the first bulletin of the State series. This bulletin is submitted to the miners and operators and all persons interested in the mining exterprises in California and in those of other States in the hope that it will be accorded the same generous reception as was given Bulletin 94. VAN. H. MANNING, Director. |