Section 7
SEC. 7. A patent for land claimed and located for valuable coal deposits may be obtained in the following manner: Any person or association authorized to locate a coal claim under this Act having claimed and located a piece of land for such purposes, who or which has complied with the terms of this Act, shall file with the Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands an application for a patent, under oath, showing such compliance, together with a plat and field notes of the claim made by or under the direction of the Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands, and at applicant's expense, showing accurately the boundaries of the claim, 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 described 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 plat and notice have been duly posted. Upon the filing of said application, plat, held notes, notices, and affidavits, it shall be the duty of the Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands to publish once a week a notice that such application has been made, for the period of nine consecutive weeks, in a newspaper to be by him designated; also to post a copy of the application in his office, and to require such further publication as he, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, may deem advisable. At the expiration of the period of publication the claimant shall file his affidavit, showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicuous place on the claim during such period of publication. If no adverse claim shall have been filed in the Bureau of Public Lands during the said period of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent, upon payment to the Chief of the Bureau of Public Lands of fifty pesos per hectare where the land shall be situated more than fifteen miles from any completed railroad, available harbor, or navigable stream, and one hundred pesos per hectare for such lands as shall be within fifteen miles of such road, harbor, or stream, and that no adverse claim exists: Provided, That where the claimant for a patent is not a resident of or within the province wherein the land sought to be purchased is located, the application for patent and the affidavits required to be made in this section by the claimant for such patent may be made by his, her, or its authorized agent, where said agent is conversant with the facts sought to be established by said affidavits.