Leedy

On the trial of an action of ejectment, brought by the defendant in error to recover the possession of a mining claim known as “Claim No. 9 on Otter Creek,” Alaska, the question at issue was whether the defendant in error located the claim prior to the location thereof made by the plaintiffs in error, Leedy and Hannan. It was not disputed that the latter staked and located the claim at 10:30 a. m. on January 1, 1906; but the defendant in error claimed to have located it at about 1 o’clock in the morning of that day. He testified that he had previously staked the claim, but that through his failure to do the assessment work thereon the location was to expire at the end of the year 1905; that at about 9 o’clock p. m. on December 31, 1905, he left Nome in the company of one Olson for the purpose of making the location immediately after midnight, and that he and Olson, carrying their stakes, went out to the claim, which was four miles distant from Nome; that they arrived there at about 11 o’clock, and after midnight staked the claim and posted on the initial stake a location notice, after which they returned to Nome. It was proven that on February 12, 1906, the location notice was…