Section 421. GOVERNMENT SURVEYS.-It is important for the land owner, when he believes or is informed that others are encroaching upon the lines of his land as originally surveyed and established, to know what the law is as to Government surveys. For private surveys, made by County Surveyors or other surveyors at the request of individual owners, can have but one object, and that is to find where the lines were originally established by the Government survey. For the purpose of giving such information as may be of value to the landowner, the following sections under the head of "Surveys of Land" have been prepared.

Section 422.-GOVERNMENT SURVEY ACCEPTED AND APPROVED IS FIXED AND UNCHANGEABLE. First, it is important to know, that a survey accepted and approved by the Government of the United States is fixed and unchangeable. People may think that the original survey was not correct, but that makes no difference. As a matter of fact, very few Township surveys are absolutely correct, and in many of them serious errors were made as reported by the Government surveyors. And, too, many of those who took contracts to survey Government lands were dishonest or incompetent, or both together, and instead of going over the ground, this class of surveyors contented themselves with sitting on a rock and guessing at the surrounding country. But it was in the interest of the peace and security of settlers upon the public domain that their occupation of the land should not be disturbed afterwards by the claim that the Government survey was not properly or correctly made; and as all titles to land in this country run back to the original ownership of the Government, it is evident that the extent and lines of any particular lot of land must rest upon the original survey made for and accepted by the United States; and for the purpose of security in titles, and so that private surveys may have something solid to rest upon, the Government of the United States has adopted the unvarying rule, that a survey accepted and approved by the Government of the United States, whether

correct or incorrect, is final and conclusive, fixed and unchangeable, and neither oral evidence nor private surveys can be admitted to contradict it.

Section 423.-FINDING ORIGINAL LOCATION OF TOWNSHIP LINE.-After many years, it frequently happens that adjoining land owners will differ as to the place where the Government surveyor really located a Township line, and to ascertain its true location in the lapse of a quarter of a century or more may be a matter of much difficulty for private surveyors. Mounds of stone may have fallen down and become scattered so as to lose their identity; corner stakes may have been burned away or pulled up and cast aside; witness trees may have disappeared, by fire or the ax, or by natural decay, or force of storms; so that all or nearly all of the monuments marked and placed upon the line by the Government surveyor, as he ran and established it, may have become obliterated and lost in the course of time. But the law has established certain rules and regulations for the guidance of private surveyors under such circumstances, which rules and regulations must always be followed by a surveyor seeking to locate the place where the line was originally established, if he expects to make a survey that will be of any value to his employer.

Section 424.-FIELD NOTES AND MAPS.-A private surveyor, seeking to find the true location of the Government lines, should have with him the field notes and maps of the original survey, certified copies of which can be obtained from the office of the United States Surveyor-General through the office at San Francisco. The field notes are always to be considered before the maps. The field notes made by the Government surveyor afford the best evidence of the place where the line was located, and control the maps or plats. The maps are made from the field notes, therefore the field notes are entitled to first consideration.

Section 425.-MONUMENTS ON THE GROUND.The private surveyor, employed to locate the Government

line, must find the monuments on the ground, called for by the field notes. If the original stakes, and mounds of rock, and witness trees, marked for Section corners and quarter Section corners, and closing corners on the Township line, are all in place, where the Government surveyor put them, and as called for by the field notes, the work of the private surveyor will be easy. But in controversies which arise over boundaries of land, it nearly always happens that most of the artificial monuments, the stakes, and mounds, have disappeared, and that some of the witness trees cannot be found. It is the duty of the private surveyor to try to find the stakes set by the Government surveyor, of course; but if he finds stakes, with the right marks for certain corners, it may be denied that they are the original stakes, or it may be claimed that they have been moved from the place where the original surveyor placed them. So that the natural objects called for by the field notes, objects which never change, and cannot be moved, such as creeks, rivers, bluffs, roads or trails, ponds, ridges, or other permanent features of the earth's surface, when found by the private surveyor in the position corresponding to the calls of the field notes, are really the most certain and satisfactory evidence that he is on the right line. And from the observations above made, it may be said, that the rule as to monuments which must govern the private surveyor in his work, and which will always be safe for the land owner for whom the work is being done, is as follows: It was the duty of the Government surveyor to note all natural objects in his field notes, and in trying to find where the Township line was actually run and established by the Government survey, the private surveyor must give careful consideration, with reference to the field notes, to permanent monuments set, their size, kind, and location, with reference to the corners which they are intended to perpetuate; bearing or witness trees marked in the field; all nearest known original corners, in all directions, following section lines; all natural objects called for by the field notes, such as creeks, rivers, bluffs,

roads or trails, ponds, ridges, or other unchanging features of the earth's surface.

Section 426.-TOWNSHIPS.-The public lands of the United States are primarily surveyed into uniform rectangular tracts, six miles square, called Townships, bounded by lines conforming to the cardinal points-North, South, East, and West-and containing, as nearly as may be, 23,040 acres.

Section 427.-SECTIONS.-The Townships are subdivided into thirty-six tracts, one mile square, called Sections, containing in full Sections 640 acres. The Sections in a Township are numbered consecutively from 1 to 36, beginning at the Northeast corner of the Township and numbering West with the North tier of Sections, thence East with the second tier, West with the third tier, and so on to Section 36 in the Southeast angle of the Township.

Section 428.-SUBDIVISIONS OF SECTIONS.-Sections are divided into four equal parts of 160 acres each, called quarter Sections, and each quarter Section is again divided into two half-quarter Sections of 80 acres, or four quarter-quarters containing 40 acres each. These are called Legal Subdivisions, and are the only divisions recognized by the Government in disposing of the public lands, except where tracts are made fractional by water courses or other causes. When tracts are fractional, the smallest legal subdivision may contain less than 40 acres or more than 40 acres, and they are then designated as Lots, to distinguish them from the legal subdivisions which contain exactly 40 acres. The subdivisions of Sections are not actually surveyed and marked on the ground. Quarter section or half mile posts are established on the boundaries of the Sections; but the interior subdivisional lines of Sections are made only on the plats of Townships, at the Surveyor-General's office, and when the boundaries of these subdivisions are required to be established on the ground, it must be done by a private

survey.

Section 429.-PRINCIPAL MERIDIANS AND BASE LINES. Two principal lines are established prior to the survey, of the Townships-a north and south line denominated a Principal Meridian, and an east and west line styled a Base Line. These lines constitute the basis of the public surveys, and are prerequisite to the laying out of the Township.

Section 430.-RANGES.—Any number or series of Townships situated in a tier North and South are denominated a Range, and the Ranges are designated by Numbers East and West, as the case may be, from the governing meridians. The Townships in each Range are also numbered North or South from established base lines.

Section 431.-STANDARD CORNERS.-At the time. the parallels and base line are run, the Township, Section, and quarter Section corners are established thereon. As the Township and Section lines North are run from them, it follows that these corners will be common to two Townships, Sections, or quarter Sections North of the parallel or base line, and these are called Standard Corners.

Section 432.-CLOSING CORNERS.-North and South lines are required to run on the true meridian. Hence, when the Township and Section lines below reach the parallels or base lines North, they will not close on the Standard Corners if the field of operation be West of the convergency of the meridians, but will strike the line at a distance corresponding to the convergency; East of the Standard Corners if the field. of operation be West of the governing meridian, and West of said corners if the surveys be East of the principal meridian. Another set of Township and Section corners is therefore established at the point of intersection with the standard or base line, and the distances of said corners from the corresponding standard corners previously set, are measured and noted in the field book. The corners so established are called Closing Corners, and will, of course, be common to two Townships or Sections South of the base or standard line. No closing quarter Section corners are established.