Mineral Location—Placer Claim—Location Perfected by Discovery —Assessment Work—Actual Possession.—An actual discovery of minerals in paying quantities on a placer mining location on the public domain of the United States subject to mineral location, perfects the location, obviates the necessity of any further work thereon except the assessment work required annually on a claim after discovery and before patent, and dispenses with the necessity of further actual possession.

Id.—Development of Several Locations Through Agency of Corporation.—No statute, rule, or policy relating to the disposition of mineral lands, and limiting the quantity of placer mineral land which may be located by one person, forbids a number of persons, who had made tona fide locations of placer mining claims in their individual names, the aggregate area of which was within the limit of the amount allowed them by law, from conveying their respective claims to a corporation, organized by them as an agency by means of which their joint interests might be regulated and handled, and in which they became stockholders in equal shares.

Id.—Actual Discovery—Assessment Work—Forfeiture.—Until a sufficient actual discovery of mineral is made on a placer mining claim, a location is not perfected, and no question of the doing of annual assessment work is involved. It is only after such discovery, when actual possession is no longer necessary to protect the location against subsequent locators, that annual assessment work is essential to prevent a forfeiture.

Id.—Bights of Locator Prior to Discovery—Oil Claim—Possession —Prosecution of Discovery Work.—The locator of an oil claim, after the posting of notice of location, etc., acquires no vested right which Congress is obliged to recognize, until the inchoate location is perfected by discovery. But where his location is made in good faith, he has the right, as against third persons, which is transferable, to be protected against all forms of foreeable, fraudulent, surreptitious, or clandestine entries and intrusions upon his possession, so long as he remains in possession and with due diligence prosecutes his work toward a discovery. While such a condition continues, no one without his consent can make the actual entry of the land essential to legally initiate a new location.

Id.—Necessity of Actual Possession—Diligent Prosecution of Discovery Work.—Actual possession of the land by such locator, ° coupled with continued diligent prosecution of discovery work, with the expenditure of whatever money may be necessary to the end in view, are essential to his protection, and it is only one so actually possessed and so engaged in the diligent prosecution of the work of discovery, who is protected, by reason of his attempted location, against an entry by another.

Ib.—Insufficient Evidence of Discovery Work—Placing Men in Charge of Claim—Efforts to Hire Persons to do Work.—In an action to quiet title to oil lands claimed by the respective parties under different locations, a finding that the plaintiffs were engaged in the prosecution of discovery work at a time when the defendant entered the land and.commenced its own discovery work, is not sustained by evidence merely to the effect that the plaintiffs had placed men in a cabin on an adjoining tract of land, with directions simply to watch their location and walk over it once or twice a day, and the mere fact that the plaintiffs, during the interval between their location and the entry of the defendant, were engaged in negotiations with other persons as to what they would charge for doing the work of discovery, or were making an effort to find someone who would do such work at a satisfactory price, is insufficient to constitute a diligent prosecution of the work of discovery.

Id.—Reasonable Time to Commence Discovery Work not Allowed. The attempting locator is protected in his possession only while he may fairly be held to be actually engaged in such work as may reasonably be held to be discovery work. He is not protected in Ms possession without commencing such work for a reasonable time after making his location.

Id.—Locator Prior to Discovery may Commence Work at Any Time Before Rights of Others have Attached.—A prior locator of a placer mining claim, the location of which had never been perfected by discovery, and which he had not voluntarily abandoned, did not forfeit Ms location by the mere failure to prosecute development work, and had the right to subsequently enter into possession of the land and do discovery work thereon at any time he could do so without transgressing any right obtained by another.

Id.—Subsequent Location—Discovery Work First Initiated by Prior Locator.—Such a prior locator, by again going into possession and commencing discovery work, did not violate any right of a subsequent locator, who was not at the time in the actual possession of the land, engaged in the diligent prosecution of discovery work thereon.

Id.—Evidence of Discovery of Oil—Passing Through Oil Sands to Reach Lower Depths—Well Rendered Useless by Flow of Water.—The locator of an oil claim, immediately following his location, proceeded with the work of development, with the result that a well was drilled to the depth of about one thousand one hun-' dred feet. At a depth of some seven hundred and seventy-five feet, twenty-five feet of rich oil sands were discovered, capable of producing forty barrels of oil per day. No oil was in fact produced, the locator endeavoring to pass through and reach a greater production at a lower depth. ■ Finally an immense flow of artesian water was struck, which prevented further operations in that well. Held, that a sufficient discovery of oil was made to perfect the location.