ay be located and claimed from the government
either as "iron ores" or as "bog ores and yellow ochers." Some of the
important ores of eastern Cuba, now being extensively used in the United
States, came into litigation because rival claimants had overlapping
claims under the two classifications. The wording of the law is of
course ambiguous, and suggests that geologists did not have a hand in
its framing. To establish title to these claims it was necessary to show
whether these ores had been rightfully located as iron ores, or whether
they should have been located as bog ores and yellow ochers. This
involved an analysis of the geological conditions, to show that the ores
are the result of normal weathering and concentration in place of the
underlying rocks--an origin common to many iron ore deposits,--and that
they do not have the characteristic origin of bog ores. In short, the
question was settled on the scientific principles of origin of ores and
of metamorphic geology.

The efforts of our federal government to frame and apply mining laws to
public lands have involved extensive geological and mining surveys by
the United States Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines. The land
classification work for this purpose by the Geological Survey has been
of wide scope. The recently enacted leasing law, which opens up
government lands for exploration of coal, oil, potash, and phosphate,
requires carefully prepared geologic data for its proper administration.

State governments also have initiated surveys of an exploring nature for
taxing and other public purposes (see pp. 306, 311).

In the United States there is a wide use of geologists as witnesses in
litigation affecting "extralateral rights." The federal mining law gives
the owner of the claim containing the "apex" or top of a mineral vein
or lode the right to follow the vein down the dip, with certain
limitations, even though this takes him on to adjacent properties under
other ownership. Where two branches of a vein are followed down from
separate claims, the owner of the oldest claim is entitled to the vein
below the point of junction. The law was framed to validate a procedure
more or less established by mining custom. It was obviously framed with
a very simple and precise conception in mind--namely, a simple vein
definitely and easily followed, without much interruption or contortion.

In nature, however, veins or lodes have a most astonishing variety of
form and