Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 17.djvu/133

 FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 152. 1872. 93 complied with the terms of this act, may file in the proper land-office an 1PM8pt  lag? application for a patent, under oath, showing such compliance, together S,;?;;];, d€'gS_ with a plat and field-notes of the claim or claims in common, made by or its, how to he under the direction of the United States surveyor-general, showing accu- °b*“m€d· rately the boundaries of the claim or claims, which shall be distinctly marked by monuments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, together with a notice of such application for a patent, in a conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat previous to the filing of the application for a patent, and shall file an affidavit of at least two persons that such notice has been duly posted as aforesaid, and shall file a copy of said notice in such land-office, and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent for said land, in the manner following : The register of the land-office, upon the filing of such application, plat, field—notes, notices,and affidavits, shall publish a notice that such application has been made, for the period of sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him designated as published nearest to said claim ; and he shall also post such notice in his office for the same period. The claimant at the time of filing this application, or at any time thereafter, within the sixty days of publication, shall file with the register a certificate of the United States surveyor-general that five hundred dollars’ worth of labor has been expended or improvements made. upon the claim by himself or grantors; that the plat is correct, with such further description by such reference to natural objects or permanent monuments as shall identify the claim, and furnish an accurate description, to be incorporated in the patent. At the expiration of the sixty days of publication the claimant shall file his affidavit, showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicue ous place on the claim during said period of publication. If no adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and the receiver of the proper land-office at the expiration of the sixty days of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent, upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, and that no adverse claim exists; and thereafter no objection from third parties to the issuance of a patent shall be heard, except it be shown that the applicant has failed to comply with this act. Sec. 7. That where an adverse claim shall be filed during the period proceedings of publication, it shall be upon oath of the person or persons making the if ¤<lV¤FS<= daim same, and shall show the nature, boundaries, and extent of such adverse IS med' claim, and all proceedings, except the publication of notice and making and filing of the affidavit thereof, shall be stayed until the controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of competent jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the duty of the adverse claimant, Judgment of within thirty days after Bling his claim, to commence proceedings in a. €°P"d*° bs °l" court of competent jurisdiction, to determine the question of the right of me ' possession, and prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final juclg- ` ment; and a failure so to do shall be a waiver of his adverse claim. After Aim- judgsuch judgment shall have been rendered, the party entitled to the posses- ¥¤€¤*» Patefrm sion of the claim, or any portion thereof, may, without giving further EEE;,t§,l;;§€;n` notice, file a certified copy of the judgment-roll with the register of the sion upon, &c. land-oflice, together with the certificate of the surveyor—general that the requisite amount of labor has been expended, or improvements made thereon, and the description required in other cases, and shall pay to the receiver five dollars per acre for his claim, together with the proper fees, whereupon the whole proceedings and the judgment-roll shall be certified by the register to the commissioner of the general land office, and a patent shall issue thereon for the claim, or such portion thereof as the applicant shall appear, from the decision of the court, to rightly possess. If it shall appear from the decision of the court that several parties are Where.there entitled to separate and different portions of the claim, each party may Z; ;‘$?;;ldpg' pay for his portion of the claim, with the proper fees, and file the certifi- dlgemntpo,-don, cate and description by the surveyorgeneral, whereupon the register shall of c1¤im·