Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/535

 KOEXH NOONDAÎ MINING 00. ». OEIENT MINING 00. 527 �question of fact for you to determine from the evidence. Ail persons born or naturalized in the United States, ani subject to the jurisdiction thereof, and none others, are eitizens of the United States. A person born in a foreign country, out of the jurisdiction of the United States, whose father is not a citizen of the United States, can only become a citizen by naturalization. The foreign born son becomes a citizen by being himself naturalized, or by the naturalization of his father during the mjnority of the son. li, therefore, Smith was alien born, it was necessary that he should be natural- ized, or that his father should be naturalized, during his minority, in order to make him a citizen. The statute, for the purpose of acquiring a mining location, makes the affi- davit of the party himself competent evidence of his natur- alization. It is for you to determine the sufficieney of the evidence to establish the fact. �Ail the locations under which plaintiff claims were made since May 10, 1872 ; and, at the time they were respectively made, the statute authorized a claim to be 1,500 feet in length along the vein or Iode, and it was provided that "no claim shall extend more than 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface; nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to less than 25 feet on eaeh side of the middle of the vein at the surface." �In the absence, then, of any mining rule or oustom in force at the time of the location, at the place where it is made, the location may extend to the distance of 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface ; that is to say, the claim may be 1,500 feet in length along the vein, by 600 feet wide, including 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein. �As I construe the statute, however, and so instruct you, by implication, the miners, by a rule, regulation, or custom established and in force at the time and place of the location, may limit the width of the claim to 25 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface. But such limitation to 25 feet on each side, to be valid, must be by virtue of a rule, regulation, or custom which bas not only been estab- ��� �