Fickett

(after stating the facts as above). The defendant contends that the facts stated in the indictment do not constitute a public offense against the United- States, for the reason that the five certain unpatented mining claims therein named and described, being claimed and owned by the Old Pueblo Copper Company, a corporation, are not public lands of the United States, within the meaning of section 2412 of the Revised Statutes. That section is as follows:

Section 2325 of the Revised Statutes, which prescribes the method by which a patent for a mining claim may be obtained, is as follows:

By section 453 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 257) full jurisdiction over the survey and sale of the public lands of the United States is vested in the Commissioner of the General Land Office, subject to the direction of the Secretary of the'inferior.

This question has been before the Supreme Court and the Circuit Courts of the United States frequently, in criminal actions brought under section 2461 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1527), prohibiting the cutting of timber on lands of the United States; and the courts have .uniformly held that, prior to the…