Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/130

 section mentioned is vacant, and will pay the locator his fee — only to learn, too late, that he has been cheated.

A man should insist on being: shown the posts and witness trees placed by the Government surveyors at the corner of each section, and should not pay a locating^ fee until a filing is secured at the land office. The corner post in our forests is a piece of timber, about five or six inches square, set firmly in the ground, with stones—when they can be easily obtained—piled around the base. The faces of the post are turned to the four sections cornering the spot, and on each face are cut the township, rang^e and section numbers. On each section a tree is blazed, facing: the post, and cut with the same figures. The entryman should also have the locator g^o with him over each subdivision — forty acres — of the claim, and furnish him with an estimate of the timber. Then he will be assured that the claim for which he proposes to apply at the land office is the one he has seen, and will be in possession of all facts required for making: final proof. It is not sufficient merely to go on some part of the land, as has so often been done, and take the locator's word that all is alike. This may be true, but the law requires a personal examination of each smallest subdivision.

Many persons. have taken the initial steps to secure timber claims without knowing: the requirements of the law.

A IMCTURK THAT SIMCAKS TOR ITSKLF Photo by P. L. Itcgg. \c"u U'luitcom, Wash.