LODE. A body of mineral or mineral bearing rock located within defined bounda ries within the general mass of the moun tain. Stevens v. Williams, 1 McCrary, 480, Fed. Cas. No. 13,413 ; Buttalo Zinc & Copper Co. v. Crump, 70 Ark. 525, 69. S. W. 572, 91 Am. St. Rep. 87.
A body of mineral or mineral-bearing rock in the general mass, so far as it may con tinue unbroken and without interruption, whatever the boundaries may be. Iron Silver Min. Co. v. Mining Co., 143 U. S. 394, 12 Sup. Ct. 543, 36 L. Ed. 201; Iron Silver Min. Co. v. Cheesman, 116 U. S. 529, 6 Sup. Ct. 481, 29 L. Ed. 712.
A lode must be held "in place" by the ad joining country rock and must be impregnat ed with some of the minerals or valuable de posits mentioned in the act of congress; Mey denbauer v. Stevens, 78 Fed. 787; to an ex tent sufficient to warrant a prudent man in spending money on it, though it may not contain ore in payhig quantities; Muldrick v. Brown, 37 Or. 185, 61 Pac. 428. The min eralized matter must be separated from the neighboring rock by well-defined boundaries; Hayes v. Lavagnino, 17 Utah 185, 53 Pac. 1029.
If the mineral-bearing rock be' present, very slight evidence of the boundaries will be accepted; Grand Central Min. Co. v. Min ing Co., 29 Utah 490, 83 Pac. 648; but in such case the value of the material must be so in excess of the country rock as to differenti ate it therefrom ; id:; it must depend on the characteristics of the district; id. In the absence of well-defined walls, broken and stained, etc., matter characteristic of the district is not a vein; id.
Veins or lodes as used in the statutes mean lines or aggregations of metal em bedded in quartz or other rock in place; U. S. v. Mining Co., 128 U. S. 679, 9 Sup. Ct. 195, 32 L. Ed. 571.
"It is difficult to give any definition of the term, as understood and used in the acts of congress, which will not be subject to criticism. A fissure in the earth's crust,
an opening in its rocks, a strata made by some force of nature, in which a mineral is deposited, was said to be essential to a lode in the judgment of geologists. But to the practical miner, the assure and its walls are only of importance as indicating the boundaries within which he may look for and reasonably expect to find the ore he seeks. A continuous body of mineralized rock lying within any other well defined boundaries on the earth's surface and under it, would equally constitute in his eyes a lode. We are of the opinion, therefore, that the term as used in the acts of congress is applicable to any zone or belt of mineralized rock lying within boundaries clearly separat ing it from the neighboring rock." Iron Silver Min. Co. v. Cheesman, 116 U. S. 529, 6 Sup. Ct. 481, 29 L. Ed. 712, citing Eureka Consol. Min. Co. v. Mining Co., 4 Sawy. 302, Fed. Cas. No. 4,548.
By act of congress the owner of a mineral vein or lode is entitled not only to that which is covered by the surface lines of his established claim, as those lines are ex tended vertically, but also to the right to possess and enjoy that lode or vein by fol lowing it when it passes outside of those vertical lines laterally ; Iron Silver Mining Co. v. Cheesman, 116 U. S. 529, 6 Sup. Ct. 481, 29 L. Ed. 712; but this right is depend ent upon its being the same vein as that within those limits; and for its exercise, it must appear that the vein outside is identi cal with and a continuation of the one with in these lines; id. See Book v. Mining Co., 58 Fed. 106 ; LANDS, PUBLIC.