Betsch

■ The court below entered a decree quieting the appellees’ title to a certain placer mining claim. The claim was originally located on July 4, 1914, and from that'time until the relocation of the claim by the appellees on April 1, 1917, the annual assessment work was duly performed. The assessment work for 1916 had been duly performed by the appellants, but they had failed to file within 90 days from the close of that year the affidavit required by section 7, c. 10, of the 1915 Session Laws of the Territory of Alaska, which requires in substance that, in order to hold a claim after the annual assessment work has been done, an affidavit containing certain specified statements must be filed with the recorder of the district not later than 90 days after the close of the calendar year, and further provides that the-failure to file the same — “shall be deemed an abandonment of the location and the claim shall be subject to relocation by any other person; provided, however, that a compliance with the provisions of this section before any relocation, shall operate to save the rights of the original locator.”

In the present case the affidavit was filed 3 days after the relocation, and 4…