Mining Law—Assessment Work—Forfeiture of Bights of Co-owners-—Construction of Federal Statute.—Section 2324 of the Be-vised Statutes of the United- States, which provides for a proceeding for the forfeiture of the rights of co-owners of a mining claim who have failed and refused to contribute to the assessment work required thereby, must be strictly construed, as imposing a forfeiture.

Id.—Sufficiency of Notice to Co-owners—Good Faith-Ignorance of Unrecorded Deed.—The service of notice, under the terms of the statute, by the co-owners who have done the whole of the assessment work upon the mine, upon those who had for a long time been co-owners with them, and who were believed in good faith to be still such co-owners, requiring them to contribute thereto, without knowledge of anything to the contrary of their ownership, or of the existence of an unrecorded deed made by them, is sufficient. They were not required to serve notice upon anyone not known to be an owner.

Id.—Knowledge by Grantee of Deed—Delivery of Notice by Co-owners Notified—Bights Concluded.—Where a corporation was the grantee of part of the co-owners under an unrecorded deed, and upon service of notice upon such co-owners such corporation received immediate knowledge of the same by the delivery of such notice by such co-owners served to its president, such corporation had thereby an opportunity to protect itself from forfeiture by contributing under such notice, and it cannot now be heard to complain of consequences produced by its own neglect.

Id.—Insufficient Work by Go-owners Notified — Unwatering of Mine for Inspection by Proposed Purchaser.—Where the only work attempted to be done by co-owners notified to contribute to the assessment work during the assessment year, consisted of the unwatering of the mine for inspection by a proposed purchaser, such work constituted no improvement upon the mine, and was no contribution to the assessment work contemplated by the Eevised Statutes of the United States.