Manual of Instructions for the Survey of the Public Lands of the United States

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ...(See example 2.) The area in acres of quarter sections adjoining north and west township boundaries (excluding NW. i sec. 6), may be obtained by multiplying the sum of their parallel boundaries (taken in chains and decimals of a chain), by 2; e. g., the area of SW. i sec. 6 (fig. 6), is 37.87+37.81 X 2=151.36 acres. The area in acres of any section along the north and west boundaries of regular townships (except sec. 6) may be had by multiplying the sum of its parallel boundaries (expressed in chains and decimals of a chain) by 4; e. g., the area of sec. 1 (Plate llI) is 80.00+79.77X4= 639.08 acres. Subdivisions closing irregularly to the south or east exterior boundary are to be computed by similar methods. EXPLANATIONS OF ARTICLES ON PAGES 80 to 86, WITH GENERAL DEFINITIONS OF A "RETRACEMENT" AND A "RESURVEY." 24(i. When new surveys are to be initiated or closed upon the lines of old surveys, which although reported to have been executed correctly, are found to be actually defective in alinement, measurement, or position, it is manifest that the employment of the regular methods prescribed for surveying normal township exteriors and subdivisions would result in extending the imperfections of the old surveys into the new, thereby producing irregular townships bounded by exterior lines not in conformity with true meridians or parallels of latitude, and containing trapezium-shaped sections which may or may not contain 640 acres each, as required by law. 247. Therefore, in order to extend such new.surveys without incorporating therein the defects of prior erroneous work, special methods, in harmony as far as practicable with the following requirements, should be employed, viz: The establishment of township boundaries...