CIVIL ENG. DEPT. 
 
or 
 
 *HJARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERS* 
 . CALH^ORNIA 
 
BOUNDARIES AND 
 LANDMARKS 
 
 A PRACTICAL MANUAL 
 
 BY 
 A. C. MULFORD 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 
 
 25 PARK PLACE 
 
 1912 
 
77? 
 
 Engineering 
 Library 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1912, 
 
 BY 
 D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 
 
 Stanbopc ifcress 
 
 F. H.GILSON COMPANY 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 W. H. C. PYNCHON 
 
 AS IT WAS THROUGH HIS COOPERATION AND ADVICES 
 
 THAT THE COMPILATION OF THIS MANUAL 
 
 WAS MADE POSSIBLE 
 
 664759 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS manual is intended to familiarize the surveyor with 
 the different types of old boundaries that exist throughout 
 the country. A great deal has been written on this general 
 subject, especially in reference to the public lands of the 
 West. Very little, however, is being done on the convey- 
 ances of the Eastern States, and it is my hope to furnish 
 sometlu'ng which may prove useful to those who are likely 
 to meet with cases of this sort. No attempt is made to 
 describe how the lines should be measured; the intent is 
 rather to furnish suggestions as to the method of locating 
 the line to be measured in short, finding it. It is far 
 more important to have faulty measurements on the place 
 where the line truly exists, than an accurate measurement 
 where the line does not exist at all. 
 
 A. C. M. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 Sept., 1912. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE WORK AND TRAINING OF THE SURVEYOR i 
 
 II. THE DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY. SIMPLE DEEDS WITHOUT 
 
 DIMENSIONS 4 
 
 III. THE RELATIVE LEGAL VALUE OF EVIDENCES OF BOUNDARY.. 10 
 
 IV. LANDMARKS. STAKES AND STONES 13 
 
 V. LANDMARKS (continued). MARKED TIMBER. DITCHES AND 
 
 BALKS 23 
 
 VI. LANDMARKS (concluded). FENCES AND WALLS 31 
 
 VII. DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS 37 
 
 VIII. SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIONS 46 
 
 IX. THE RELATIONS OF THE SURVEYOR AND THE LAWYER 53 
 
 X. HOUSE LOTS 56 
 
 XI. HOUSE LOTS (concluded) 63 
 
 XII. HIGHWAY RECORDS 71 
 
 XIII. RE-RUNNING OLD HIGHWAY RECORDS 79 
 
 XIV. LAYING OUT NEW ROADS 84 
 
 XV. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SURVEYOR 87 
 
 vn 
 
Boundaries and Landmarks 
 
 CHAPTER I.. . ; , --,-,- -. 
 THE WORK AND TRAINING OF THE SURVEYOR. 
 
 As compared with the vocation of the civil engineer, the 
 calling of the surveyor has always been regarded as com- 
 paratively easy and simple. This is true not only in the 
 popular conception of the two lines of work, but also in the 
 view taken of them in text-books and in courses of instruc- 
 tion. The training of the surveyor consists essentially 
 in practice in turning angles, measuring lines and getting 
 over obstructions, to which are added rather meager sug- 
 gestions on the subjection of the compass and the re-run- 
 ning of old surveys. He is considered preeminently a 
 measurer of land. This is very true, and in certain locali- 
 ties and under certain conditions this may compose almost 
 the entire work of the surveyor. But in the vast majority 
 of cases the actual measuring of land forms the smaller 
 portion of his duties. His hardest work is often, to use a 
 colloquial phrase, to " find the land " to be surveyed. 
 
 In a large part of our land, through the generations past, 
 the precise boundaries of holdings have received little atten- 
 tion. In the years when land was worth comparatively 
 little, when there was little money to be spared from the 
 
2 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 necessities of life for surveys, and when the surveys, when 
 made, were very crude, little attention was given to the 
 establishment or the maintenance of boundaries. Loose, 
 faulty and ignorant conveyances, the use of perishable 
 J&ildmarj^s pr 4<> landmarks at all, the temptation to build 
 iences ".off, line " for a dozen reasons, good and bad, and 
 innumerable x> trier l things have conspired to render the 
 boundaries of land the most uncertain of all things. 
 
 We have to-day fully entered upon the era of high land 
 values. The high prices paid by the wealthy for lands 
 from which to form estates have revolutionized the meth- 
 ods of handling realty. The title of all property must be 
 absolutely guaranteed and payment is usually made by 
 the acre. As a result heavy demands are made upon the 
 surveyor who finds himself confronted by two necessities, 
 first, the necessity of making an extremely accurate set of 
 measurements and, secondly, the necessity of defining 
 clearly the boundaries of the land which he must measure 
 - and the latter is by far the harder task. These prob- 
 lems he must work out single-handed and with the fear of 
 failure shadowing him day by day and hour by hour. 
 Since no two problems present exactly the same complica- 
 tions, it is useless for any one to attempt to lay out any 
 fixed rules of procedure, yet it may be fairly said that 
 from experience each surveyor acquires a certain amount 
 of definite information concerning boundaries and land- 
 marks and certain definite conceptions concerning the rela- 
 tive importance of different kinds of evidence, both direct 
 
THE WORK AND TRAINING OF THE SURVEYOR 3 
 
 and circumstantial. He is compelled to formulate for his 
 own use certain general methods of procedure, and it is 
 probable that the methods worked out by different sur- 
 veyors bear a much closer resemblance to each other than 
 would be supposed at first thought. 
 
 As far as my observation goes, in his preparatory studies 
 the surveyor receives little help or suggestion to enable 
 him to grapple with this important but elusive part of his 
 work. The intention of this treatise is to endeavor to meet, 
 in a small and tentative manner, this very distinct need. 
 A good deal has been written on this general subject with 
 reference to the public lands of the West, but little has been 
 done in this line in connection with the ordinary convey- 
 ances of the eastern United States. My hope is to furnish 
 something which may prove useful to those who are des- 
 tined to wrestle with problems of this nature. No attempt 
 will be made to describe methods of measuring the line; 
 the intention is to furnish suggestions for finding the line 
 which is to be measured. For after all, when it comes to 
 a question of the stability of property and the peace of 
 the community, it is far more important to have a some- 
 what faulty measurement of the spot where the line truly 
 exists than it is to have an extremely accurate measure- 
 ment of the place where the line does not exist at all. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY. SIMPLE DEEDS 
 WITHOUT DIMENSIONS. 
 
 THE description of property by landmarks and by bound- 
 aries is very ancient. A special curse is pronounced in 
 the Old Testament against the man who shall remove his 
 neighbor's landmark, while a very large part of the Book 
 of Joshua is occupied by the description of the various 
 pieces of land allotted to the different houses of the Israel- 
 ites. While the chief importance was put on the landmark, 
 yet it is plain that there was felt a need of some further 
 concrete description of the land. This feeling has increased 
 with the growth of civilization, until to-day we have arrived 
 at the guaranteed title and the detailed map which accom- 
 panies it. The need of such descriptions is intensified by 
 the habitual ignorance of boundaries which is to be found 
 in those who have occupied land for many years. Every 
 surveyor has had numberless cases where the owners have 
 been absolutely unable to follow out the boundaries of 
 their land even approximately, and equally numerous cases 
 where boundaries pointed out in all confidence and cer- 
 tainty have been found to be grossly inaccurate. A 
 written description on the other hand, while it may be 
 originally faulty and while it is liable to clerical error in 
 
 4 
 
THE DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY 5 
 
 copying, is free from the personal equation it is free from 
 preconceived ideas and it does not forget with the lapse of 
 years. 
 
 The surveyor, then, is driven at once to supplement and 
 correct the personal information furnished him by every- 
 thing in the way of recorded descriptions on which he can 
 lay his hands. 
 
 These records are of three kinds: 
 
 1. Records of the piece of land in question. 
 
 2. Records of the private lands which bound it. 
 
 3. Records of the public lands which bound it, in the 
 form of highways, etc. 
 
 To the above boundaries should perhaps be added bound- 
 aries by water, were it not for the fact that boundaries by 
 water are from their shifting nature essentially without the 
 established records found in the three previous cases. The 
 law prescribes clearly the course to be followed in surveying 
 along water boundaries. 
 
 The records of the land in question and of the private 
 lands adjoining are, of course, the deeds which conveyed 
 the properties to their owners. These deeds are to be 
 found in the hands of the owners or in certain places where 
 they have, for one reason or another, deposited them. Cer- 
 tified copies of them are also to be found (unless the deed 
 has gone unrecorded), fully indexed, in the Office of the 
 County Clerk, where they are open to public inspection. 
 To these records must be added such former maps and 
 " cards of land " as may have been made and preserved. 
 
6 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 They are a great help when they can be obtained, but they 
 are usually few and far between. 
 
 The records of the public lands adjoining are usually 
 records of Town Highways or County Highways, to be 
 found with the Town and County clerks respectively. In 
 the case of municipal surveys there are records of streets, 
 parks, etc., which are to be found with the proper city 
 officials. 
 
 The fundamental description of property, however, is to 
 be regarded as the DEED, and it is necessary first to con- 
 sider the nature and intention of this instrument in order 
 to understand why it is so often disappointing and deficient 
 from the surveyor's standpoint. 
 
 A deed is essentially a lawyer's not a surveyor's docu- 
 ment. Its intention is to make the possession of a certain 
 piece of land sure to the owner forever, not to give a mi- 
 nute description of the land for the comfort of the surveyor. 
 For legal reasons some lawyers prefer to omit from a deed 
 all data of direction and length of the boundaries, describ- 
 ing it only by adjoiners and landmarks or by adjoiners 
 only. Such a deed, after stating the names of the seller 
 and buyer, the amount of compensation, the date of the 
 transfer and the town, county and state where the land is 
 situated, would proceed to the description somewhat as 
 follows: 
 
 " Beginning at the Northwest corner of the property to 
 be conveyed where it adjoins the Highway leading from 
 M to N and running thence in an Easterly direc- 
 
THE DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY 7 
 
 tion along the land of William Smith until it comes to the 
 land of Richard Jones, thence, in a Southerly direction 
 along the land of the said Richard Jones to a large stone 
 at the Southeast corner of the land being conveyed where 
 it adjoins the land of Richard Jones and land now or late 
 of John Brown, thence in a Westerly direction along the 
 land now or late of John Brown to the East side of the 
 aforesaid Highway, thence in a Northerly direction along 
 the Easterly side of the aforesaid Highway to the point or 
 place of beginning, Containing within the said bounds 
 Forty and one-half acres of land be the same more or less." 
 
 Then usually follow references to the records of earlier 
 transfers of the same land, showing continuity of title and 
 various other matter according to the particular nature of 
 the deed. Finally come the signatures of the grantors, the 
 acknowledgment before a Notary Public and the County 
 Clerk's memorandum of public record. 
 
 It is argued that the above description clearly and con- 
 cisely conveys all the land lying in the four-sided area 
 bounded by Smith, Jones, Brown and the highway without 
 raising any questions or controversies; while if directions 
 and distances were given they might fall short of or over- 
 lap the known boundaries of the adjoiners, in one case 
 leaving unclaimed gores of land and in the other leading to 
 boundary controversies. Nevertheless, the surveyor is ex- 
 pected to take this deed and from it define the land with 
 the greatest clearness and accuracy. 
 
 It is probable and it may be fairly said that there are 
 
8 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 two standpoints from which the surveying of the ab< 
 piece of land may be regarded. In the first place this IE 
 may be surveyed " as occupied " or " as found in poss 
 sion." This means that it is to be surveyed according 
 the present standing boundaries between the land and 
 four adjoiners, no attempt being made to raise the dan 
 ous question as to whether the fences, etc., occupy to-< 
 the original boundary lines. If this method is satisfact 
 to all parties interested, there seems to be no reason v 
 the land should not be measured and marked as the bou 
 aries stand. But to guard against complications in 
 years to come, the map or description should be clee 
 marked " surveyed as occupied " or " surveyed as founc 
 possession " or "as the fences now stand " and the d 
 given. This will prevent misunderstandings which mi 
 arise from the survey being subsequently used to se 
 boundary disputes. 
 
 The other method, which is generally adopted as 
 correct one, is to endeavor to determine the boundaries 
 the land " as originally intended to be conveyed." 
 eight cases out of ten all parties would prefer to get b 
 to the original boundaries as they stood at the time of 
 early transfers. This is all the more desirable since 
 deed made out yesterday is very apt to follow closely 
 verbatim, the wording of the early descriptions. In a 
 of boundary controversies this method must always 
 followed. In any case it does no harm to know the 
 cient conditions, since it is a very simple matter for 
 
THE DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY 9 
 
 the parties concerned to set aside the old boundaries in 
 favor of the new, if they believe this to be the wiser course. 
 For this reason throughout this treatise it will be taken 
 for granted that the surveyor is trying to get back to the 
 boundaries of the land "as originally intended to be 
 conveyed." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE RELATIVE LEGAL VALUE OF EVIDENCES OF 
 BOUNDARY. 
 
 THE description in the preceding chapter may be regarded 
 as fairly representing that very large class of descriptions 
 in which no dimensions are given but where the land is 
 described by adjoiners and landmarks. Therefore it is 
 manifest that the decisions of the surveyor must be based 
 on two kinds of evidence only: 
 
 1. Landmarks in the field. 
 
 2. The claims of the adjoiners. 
 
 The subject of landmarks must be taken up in detail sep- 
 arately, while the same laws which govern the description 
 of the land in question will also apply to the descriptions of 
 the adjoiners' lands. 
 
 Before going farther it may be well to note briefly the 
 order of importance which the law assigns to the different 
 kinds of evidence which come under the cognizance of the 
 surveyor. 
 
 In a book entitled " The Law of Operations Preliminary 
 to Construction in Engineering and Architecture " by John 
 Cassan Wait, M.C.E., LL.B (John Wiley & Sons, 1900), the 
 author has taken up very fully from a legal standpoint 
 the problems of the surveyor. A few quotations from the 
 chapter entitled " Description. Conflict of Calls " throw 
 
 10 
 
EVIDENCES OF BOUNDARY II 
 
 much light on the relative value of the evidence in ques- 
 tion. Mr. Wait says: 
 
 " The calls as generally adopted to locate a survey are 
 in the following order, viz.: (i) monuments or marks on 
 the ground; (2) calls for ad joiners; (3) courses and dis- 
 tances; (4) quantity or area. If the marks found upon 
 the ground conflict with the calls for adjoiners, with the 
 courses and distances, and with the area, the marks upon 
 the ground, i.e., the monuments, must still govern. 
 
 " The monuments themselves need not exist, for where 
 they are gone they may be supplied by proofs of their 
 former existence. 
 
 " The rule is well established that where land is de- 
 scribed by courses and distances, and also by calls for 
 adjoiners, the latter will govern if there be a discrepancy 
 and there are no monuments. 
 
 " The third factor in order of importance is the course, 
 which is usually held to govern the distance. 
 
 " As quantity or area is directly dependent on courses 
 and distances, being calculated from them, it should be 
 controlled by them." 
 
 Under the general head of Marks in the Field the same 
 author says: 
 
 " The highest and best evidence of the location of a 
 tract of land is that furnished by the monuments found on 
 the ground and which have been made for that particular 
 tract. 
 
 "The line originally run, fixed and marked is the true 
 
12 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 boundary line that will control irrespective of any mis- 
 takes or errors in running and marking the line. 
 
 " The marks on the ground of an old survey, indicating 
 the lines originally run, are the best evidence of the loca- 
 tion of the survey. 
 
 " The position of old fences may be considered in ascer- 
 taining disputed boundaries. As between the old bound- 
 ary fences and any survey made for the monuments after 
 dispute, the fences are by far the better evidence of what 
 the lines of the lot actually were." 
 
 The first duty of the surveyor in running out a descrip- 
 tion without dimensions must therefore be to look for 
 
 1. Landmarks especially named for the piece of land in 
 question, such as the " large stone " in the foregoing de- 
 scription ; 
 
 2. The marks of a previous survey; 
 
 3. Indications of old fences. 
 
 If he cannot find sufficient evidence in one or more of 
 these classes he should take up the claims of adjoiners, and 
 if these again prove insufficient for locating the line he 
 should urge all parties interested to settle upon a new 
 boundary line by common agreement. But the search for 
 the landmarks must come first. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LANDMARKS. 
 STAKES AND STONES. 
 
 CERTAIN landmarks may be specifically mentioned in a 
 description. These may perhaps be called special land- 
 marks and must be identified as far as possible from the 
 characteristics named in that description. But beside these 
 there are a large number of general marks not mentioned 
 perhaps in the deed, but which are nevertheless of the 
 greatest possible value. Yet there can be no hard and 
 fast classification of these, because they vary greatly with 
 locality. On Long Island, where the most of my own work 
 lies, there are certain marks which are of the highest impor- 
 tance, yet their use is confined largely, if not entirely, to 
 Long Island. From the great abundance of yellow locust 
 and the great capacity of its wood for resisting decay, it is 
 used almost exclusively for surveyors' stakes in this section. 
 " To a locust stake " is the typical phrasing of a Long 
 Island description. It is preeminently the surveyor's mark 
 for the locality, yet it is manifestly not a landmark for 
 regions where the yellow locust does not grow. For the 
 reason that stones of glacial origin are plentiful in the hills 
 of the North Shore and scarce on the plains of the center and 
 
 the South Shore the interpretation of the meaning of stones 
 
 13 
 
BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 as indicating old boundaries differs considerably in localities 
 actually separated by perhaps only a dozen miles. The 
 nature of landmarks or, more accurately speaking, of the 
 marks employed to indicate a boundary, may therefore 
 vary greatly with the locality, and it is imperative that 
 the surveyor should at once familiarize himself with the 
 usages which prevail in the section where he is working. 
 There are, however, certain kinds of landmarks which are 
 widespread in their general use, though local custom may 
 
 modify even these somewhat. 
 The following may be regarded, 
 I think, as the most important: 
 
 The stake. A stake of some 
 sort, driven down to mark a corner 
 or a point where the course breaks, 
 is one of the most universal 
 landmarks. Besides the " corner 
 stakes " one or more " line stakes" 
 are frequently driven at different 
 points on a long straight line to 
 assist in following its direction. 
 
 Stake and stone. A stake is 
 often reinforced and emphasized 
 by having a stone laid beside it, 
 as shown by Fig. i. Sometimes there is a stone placed on 
 either side, as shown by Fig. 2, and at times there are found 
 four stones placed symmetrically around a stake, like in 
 Fig. 3. Sometimes there is a little irregular pile, as shown 
 
 FIG. i. 
 
 Stake and stone 
 corner. 
 
LANDMARKS 
 
 FIG. 2. Stone placed on either side of the stake. 
 
 FIG. 3. Four stones placed sym- FIG. 4. Irregular pile of stones used 
 metrically around a stake. for a corner. 
 
1 6 
 
 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 by Fig. 4. The stone and stake are more frequently used 
 at prominent angles of a piece of land, shown by Fig. i. 
 There seems to be little question that in these cases the 
 stake is the actual corner the stone simply emphasizes it. 
 The stone. A stone set up for a landmark is a very 
 ancient way of defining land, but like many ancient cus- 
 toms it is very vague. 
 In sections where large 
 stones are so scarce as 
 to make them valuable 
 for marks, a common 
 custom is to place the 
 stone or heap of stones 
 squarely on the corner. 
 The center seems to 
 be the angle point. 
 Such a large stone 
 frequently defines a 
 corner in unfenced 
 land (Figs, i and 5). 
 In other places, more usually in fenced land, there are 
 stones used as markers in a very different way. In these 
 cases the owner of a piece of land selects a large stone 
 having two faces meeting at approximately the same angle 
 as do the two courses which join at the corner which he 
 intends to mark. He then places the stone entirely on his 
 own land, fitting the angle of the stone into the angle of the 
 courses, so that the two faces coincide with these courses 
 
 FIG. 5. A large stone used as a corner. 
 
LANDMARKS 17 
 
 Fig. 6 shows such a case. In case a stone with suitable 
 faces cannot be found or in case the angle is of more than 
 1 80 degrees, he frequently takes 
 a stone with one strong angle and 
 places this angle coincident with 
 the point of junction of the 
 courses, as you will see by Fig. 7. 
 Where well-marked fences are 
 still standing it is easy to interpret 
 this corner. Sometimes the stone 
 is so happily shaped that the FlG .' 6 . A large stone having 
 meaning is clear, but where there two faces ' meetin g at a P- 
 
 proximately the same angle, 
 
 is the slightest trace of doubt, as do the courses that join 
 prompt inquiry should be made at that P mt - 
 as to who originally placed the stone. As far as the author 
 has been able to observe, these stones present some or all 
 of the following characteristics: (i) they possess one par- 
 ticularly conspicuous angle, (2) they have every appearance 
 
 FIG. 7. A sharp pointed stone placed at the junction of the courses. 
 
 of having been placed artificially, (3) they are usually on 
 end or on edge. The presence of these characteristics will 
 generally suggest when this form of marking has been 
 used, though the common corner stone may sometimes 
 
1 8 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 present some of the same characteristics. These private 
 angle stones have been mistaken for common corner stones 
 and the station made over the center, where there was no 
 possible doubt that it should have been made at the edge. 
 In such cases the surveyor should collect all the evidence 
 he can and then decide in favor of the balance of proba- 
 bility. 
 
 Fence stones. There is one other class of stones 
 which is to be found in some sections and which is of the 
 greatest importance. Reference is made to the so-called 
 " fence stones." In certain sections the oldest fences were 
 almost invariably of the zigzag rail type known as " worm," 
 " snake " or " Virginia rail." Under the apex of each 
 zigzag, where the ends of the rails crossed, it was the cus- 
 tom to place a stone in order to raise the lower rail from 
 the ground and prevent its decay. This is particularly 
 true on Long Island. The old fences have long since dis- 
 appeared and new fences have been erected in their place, 
 or it may be that hedgerow and forests have reclaimed 
 their own; but there the ancient stones lie in two parallel 
 rows, the individuals of one row alternating with those of 
 the other. The line always ran down the center of such a 
 fence and therefore now lies midway between these two 
 parallel lines of stones. The points at which the line 
 breaks are to be found by ranging out the rows, the course 
 changing where the range of the fence stones changes. 
 It should be remembered, however, that where these stones 
 lie on steep earth hillsides they have a tendency to slide 
 
LANDMARKS 
 
 down hill. Also there are few people who have the ability 
 to " line a fence " straight 
 across hill and hollow. So 
 it not unfrequently hap- 
 pens that where an old map 
 or survey shows unmistak- 
 ably one long straight 
 course, the fence stones 
 may show half a dozen 
 short ones, the average 
 being identical. 
 
 The value of the fence 
 stones cannot be over- 
 estimated and the illustra- 
 tion, Fig. 8, will at once 
 show the conditions. Once 
 I was called upon to survey 
 an old farm which had ac- 
 quired value and was to be 
 sold by the acre. There 
 existed a good map of the 
 land made early in the last 
 century, but at different 
 times small tracts had been 
 purchased and added to 
 the farm while in other 
 portions of it sections had 
 been sold off, so that the boundaries were very uncertain. 
 
2O 
 
 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 
 Along the back line for about 700 feet the fences had 
 entirely disappeared, the wood had been 
 cut off and after the axe had come the 
 fires. The whole had " come up again 
 to sprouts." The owner, who had been 
 born on the land, twice endeavored to 
 show me the line. The second time he 
 got lost and, when he found himself, 
 
 was half a mile distant from the farm 
 
 
 
 itself. At last one fence stone was found 
 
 
 
 ~ about where the line should be, then a 
 
 second and then a third in close prox- 
 
 g imity. These gave the direction in 
 
 ' which to work. Finally, by searching 
 
 M -5 J3 at the proper intervals, digging away 
 
 * 55 
 
 ~f the mold here and prodding with a 
 range marker there, nearly every stone 
 of the series was found. Finally, when 
 the survey was plotted, it was found 
 that the fence stones marked the original 
 back line of the old map, the only 
 difference being that the map gave one 
 long straight course and the fence stones 
 six or seven short courses (Fig. 9 shows 
 the conditions). In searching for fence 
 stones it should be remembered that the 
 rows are usually about four feet apart 
 and that the rails which they supported were twelve feet 
 
LANDMARKS 
 
 21 
 
 in length. In some cases I found that old fence stones 
 
 were removed to be used for other 
 
 purposes. The holes, however, 
 
 which were left in digging them 
 
 out, will often mark their former 
 
 location for some years. 
 
 Fence stones are almost always 
 landmarks of long standing, for while J$x2& 
 
 new rails are often laid on the old 
 stones, it is doubtful if this form of 
 fence is ever erected along new lines 
 at the present time, the post-and- 
 rail fence and the wire fence have 
 succeeded it, and the zigzag fences 
 now standing probably represent 
 later erections on old foundations. 
 
 In determining the point where 
 fences of this sort come together at 
 an acute angle, care should be taken 
 to extend the ranges of the two 
 fences to their logical intersection, 
 as it is a very common practice to 
 join the rails across from one line to 
 the other before the actual point of 
 intersection is reached. 
 
 In conclusion it may be fairly 
 said that in the fence stones you 
 have not one or two boundary stones but a consecutive 
 
22 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 series so numerous that the loss of a number of members 
 makes no essential difference. I have found them to be 
 universally considered landmarks so ancient and so clear 
 that controversy might not extend beyond them. If the 
 fence stones were found, all the parties concerned were 
 completely satisfied. 
 
 There is one other arrangement of stones which may be 
 regarded as a very good landmark. It is a common cus- 
 tom to throw the small waste stones picked up on culti- 
 vated fields under the fences which border these fields. 
 These collections of stones often furnish an excellent 
 method of determining the general location of a long van- 
 ished fence, as you will see by Fig. 10. The belt which 
 they occupy is often several feet wide and they may origi- 
 nally have been thrown only on one side of the fence; 
 but they are often of the very greatest service in deter- 
 mining the approximate position of a boundary line. They 
 must not be confounded with the " fence stones " among 
 which they may lie. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANDMARKS (continued). 
 MARKED TIMBER. DITCHES AND BALKS. 
 
 TREES are frequently used as monuments in the descrip- 
 tion of property. In these cases the kind of tree is usu- 
 ally named or the tree is specified as a " marked " tree. 
 As far as the author's personal experience goes, he has 
 found that in the sections where stone for landmarks was 
 scarce, extra attention was given to marking or " blazing " 
 the trees. In the southern portion of Long Island, for 
 instance, there are few fence stones but there is a good 
 deal of marked timber. 
 
 The methods of marking timber to indicate a line must 
 of necessity vary greatly with locality and usage, but there 
 are certain " blaze marks " which are so well established 
 that they must be regarded as extremely important, espe- 
 cially as they usually come under the head of " marks on 
 the ground of an old survey. " A property owner often 
 sets up the artificial landmarks, but it is more frequently 
 ,the surveyor who marks the timber. 
 
 Corner trees. A " corner tree " is usually marked in 
 some distinctive way (Fig. n shows one). Sometimes a 
 series of three notches, one over the other, is cut on each 
 
 of the four sides, or it may be that these notches are con- 
 
 23 
 
BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 FIG. ii. The three notches in some cases are cut on the four sides of the 
 tree, and in other cases, only on one side when the intersecting lines 
 enter the tree. 
 
 FIG. 12. The stone being jammed into the roots of the tree, where 
 it enters the ground. 
 
LANDMARKS 25 
 
 fined to the sides where the intersecting lines enter the 
 tree. Sometimes a stone is jammed into the earth at the 
 foot of the tree to emphasize the corner, like in Fig. 12. 
 There is an instance where the stump of a corner tree which 
 had been small and inconspicuous had been cut down 
 
 Boundary Line 
 Leaving here - 
 
 Boundary Line 
 Entering here 
 
 FIG. 13. Being a line tree a chip is taken out of opposite sides. 
 
 but the stone jammed in by the stump, especially as it 
 was common local usage, identified it with certainty (see 
 Fig. 12.) 
 
 Line trees. A " line tree," i.e., a tree through which 
 the line passes, is usually designated in the field by one of 
 several ways. Ordinarily a liberal chip is cut out of the 
 tree several feet above the ground at the point where the 
 line enters it and another on the opposite side at the point 
 where the line leaves it (Fig. 13 shows such a case). Some- 
 
26 
 
 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 times a second pair of chips is cut out in such a way that 
 the line connecting them is at right angles to the line of 
 the survey, the tree thus being blazed on four sides. This 
 arrangement has been found less frequent than the other. 
 There are cases where you will find a line tree with only the 
 second pair of chips removed. For lack of a better name 
 any mark intended to indicate a line tree might be termed 
 a " line blaze." 
 
 Lopped trees. A friend of the author's who was an 
 antiquarian as well as a surveyor, once called his attention 
 
 FIG. 14. A lopped tree, bent in the general direction of the boundary line. 
 
 to another very old form of line mark which he called a 
 " lopped tree " (see Fig. 14). It seems that many old 
 surveyors had a practice of " lopping " a sapling which 
 came on the line, i.e., at a point several feet above the 
 ground they cut the sapling half through in such a way 
 that it could be bent over parallel to the ground and in 
 the direction of the line. Such a sapling did not die nor 
 did it ever become erect again. Though it might grow to 
 
LANDMARKS 27 
 
 great size, the main trunk was always horizontal or at 
 least showed a double crook. The position of this trunk 
 may indicate half a century later the location and general 
 direction of the line of the early survey. 
 
 Another form of blaze is used on a tree that stands very 
 close to the line though not actually on it. This mark 
 
 FIG. 15. Side line blaze. 
 
 consists in a chip taken out of the side of the tree which 
 is next to the line. For lack of a better name this may be 
 called a " side-line blaze " (see Fig. 15). 
 
 Of all these marks the " line- tree " blaze is the most 
 valuable. It is usually strong and unmistakable. But all 
 blaze marks must be treated with a certain amount of 
 skepticism. A man clearing up a piece of woodland fre- 
 quently places a side-line blaze on the trees which stand 
 just over the line on his neighbor's land. Such marks are 
 
28 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 usually very nearly accurate for the reason that, unless 
 the line was very clear, the man who was cutting the wood 
 would not dare to define it. Scars looking very much like 
 blaze marks may be formed on trees from natural causes, 
 while it must be remembered that a small boy with a 
 hatchet can mark up more trees in one Saturday afternoon 
 than a dozen surveyors can in a year. 
 
 In general, blaze marks are to be regarded as suggestive 
 and corroborative rather than determinative. They may 
 suggest that the line runs in a place where you did not ex- 
 pect it and a subsequent study of the records may entirely 
 confirm this. Or in a case where it has been necessary to 
 render a decision on meager evidence, the finding of blaze 
 marks may confirm the decision. But, in general practice, 
 to render a definite opinion on the evidence of a few rather 
 obscure blaze marks is, to say the least, rash. It must, 
 however, be clearly understood that these remarks do not 
 refer to the government blaze marks on public lands, these 
 being clearly and carefully made. These remarks apply 
 only to the cases met with in ordinary country surveying. 
 
 Ditches. Ditches are frequently used to mark bound- 
 ary lines, but usually in meadow lands only. In such 
 cases the line, which usually runs down the center of the 
 ditch, is frequently marked additionally by a stake at 
 either end of the ditch or by a line of stakes extending 
 from one end to the other. Such ditches are usually spe- 
 cifically mentioned in descriptions and their meaning is 
 thereby made clear. 
 
LANDMARKS 2p 
 
 Balks. The using of this term, which is of perhaps too 
 local a nature, is meant in a wholly tentative manner. It 
 is intended to signify all ridges of earth which mark a 
 boundary line, whether they be natural or artificial. 
 
 A balk is sometimes simply a low wall of earth built 
 along a boundary line. In such cases the line runs along 
 the center and, if there has been a previous survey, the 
 stakes will be found on top of the mound. It is my im- 
 pression that this form is most frequently employed where 
 the boundary line follows the junction of marsh and up- 
 land. 
 
 There is a second form much more difficult of interpreta- 
 tion, where a ditch has been excavated and the earth 
 thrown up in a low mound along one side. This form is 
 not confined to marsh lands, but is sometimes seen in un- 
 fenced woodland and hill country and also on the plains 
 here on Long Island. It is an ancient, cheap and perma- 
 nent method of marking poor land. The great trouble 
 with it is that there seems to be no rule to determine 
 whether the ditch or the balk marks the line. There are 
 cases of it being both ways. If the deed throws no light 
 on the subject, the surveyor must look for other marks on 
 the ground or must consult persons who are familiar with 
 the land and its history. It is a case where additional 
 evidence must always be sought. 
 
 A third form of balk is largely the work of nature. The 
 plow is a great destroyer, and where the soil has been 
 loosened by it year after year, nature removes the excess 
 
30 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 of earth in ways of her own. On the other hand, where 
 man has left the soil alone, nature builds up its surface 
 from plant waste and makes its texture firm by interlacing 
 roots. For this reason the level of cultivated fields is 
 gradually lowered, while, if there is a hedgerow between 
 them, the surface of this undisturbed portion may actually 
 become slightly raised. If, after this, the fields be allowed 
 to lie fallow and the hedgerow be entirely cleared away, 
 the position of the latter will nevertheless be marked in all 
 probability by a low broad balk, an ineradicable mark of 
 ancient boundary. 
 
 After all has been said it must be fairly admitted that 
 these three classes of landmarks, blazed trees, ditches 
 and balks, though capable of very varied interpreta- 
 tion, form a most useful and valuable portion of the gen- 
 eral body of evidence. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LANDMARKS (concluded). 
 
 FENCES AND WALLS. 
 
 IT is needless to say that walls and fences are of great 
 importance as landmarks; nevertheless they do not prove 
 to be such definite ones as would appear at first sight. 
 It is very easy to say, " The fence is the line," but the 
 question immediately rises " Whereabouts in the fence 
 is the line? " - and the same question may be asked 
 concerning walls. This is a case where every effort should 
 be made to find out the local usage, and the surveyor 
 should not hesitate to consult the proper authorities 
 the carpenters who build the fences and the masons who 
 lay the walls. These people are in the habit of doing 
 their work from surveyors' stakes and they should be able 
 to give one exact information in regard to how the fence 
 was built, though they often fail. 
 
 The following rules, though they should be confirmed by 
 consulting local usage, may be regarded as of very general 
 application. 
 
 Fences and walls between adjoiners. In rail fences of 
 all kinds the line runs down the middle, half of the fence 
 being on the land of one party and half on that of the 
 
 other (see Fig. 16). 
 
 31 
 
BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 In wire fences the wires themselves are on line, the posts 
 being entirely on the land of one party (see Fig. 17). 
 In picket fences and board fences two kinds of con- 
 
 \t~Thfs Center is the Boundary Line 
 
 jiae 
 
 Wireorlron ' 
 Supports 
 
 ffa/fs^ 
 
 i 
 j 
 
 "Post 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 B 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 l_ 
 
 . I 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 4^" - ~**1 
 
 Side. View. 
 FlG. 1 6. 
 
 End View. 
 
 struction are found. In the first kind (see first case, Fig. 
 1 8), the battens or flat strips to which the pickets or boards 
 
 Wires being j (j 
 Taken as the -ll? 
 Boundary \ % 
 
 W 
 the Post ";\ 
 being en- \ \ 
 ti rely on \ *** 
 the Land \ 
 ofoneParry. \ 
 
 Picket, 
 
 'f-Tfris Face 
 ! Considered the 
 Boundary Line 
 
 Post 
 
 Batten 
 
 Measurements Should 
 Always be Taken from where 
 the Post Enters the Ground. 
 
 x-This Face 
 Considered the 
 BoundaryLine 
 
 Case I., 
 
 Case 2. 
 
 FIG. 17. 
 
 FlG. i 8. 
 
 are nailed are fastened to the front of the posts; in the 
 second (see second case, Fig. 18), the battens are sunk to 
 their full depth in the face of the posts. In the former 
 
LANDMARKS 
 
 33 
 
 class the line where the posts and battens join is commonly 
 considered the line, or in other words the front of the posts 
 is the line, the posts being on the land of one party and the 
 battens and pickets (or boards) on that of the other. In 
 the latter class the front of the posts (or the back of the 
 pickets) is still the line, but in this case both the posts and 
 battens are on the land of one party and only the pickets 
 on the other. 
 
 In fences composed only of a series of rows of battens 
 nailed to the front of posts, the front of the posts or the 
 back of the battens is the line, as shown by Fig. 19. 
 
 |<- . Boundary L ine as 
 \ Should be Taken 
 
 m 
 
 In all cases the measurements should be taken, not 
 from the upper part of the post but from the point where it 
 enters the ground. In case the post leans, the measure- 
 ments should be taken from the point where the face of 
 the post would enter the ground if the post were straight- 
 ened up. As a general rule the posts at the ends of a 
 fence are more nearly correct, since almost all fences are 
 originally placed on line at their ends, though they fre- 
 
34 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 quently depart far from the course of rectitude before they 
 reach the middle. Sometimes, however, in cases where 
 the posts have sagged a good deal an average of the bot- 
 toms of the faces of a number of posts will be more nearly 
 the true line than anything else. 
 
 In stone walls the line may be regarded as running 
 down the center, except in the case of bank walls. In 
 these the exposed face will generally be found to be on 
 or a little back from the line. 
 
 Fences and walls on highways. Here, as in the case 
 of division boundaries, the line may be considered as run- 
 ning down the center of all rail fences. 
 
 In wire fences the wires themselves are on the line while 
 the posts are on private land. 
 
 In the case of picket and board fences there seems to be 
 great uncertainty, different builders following different 
 methods, each according to his own judgment rather than 
 by fixed rule. The majority, as far as I have been able 
 to find out, bring the outer edge of the trimming strip or 
 " ribbon " to the street line, though I am confident that 
 others place the face of the posts to the line. Those fol- 
 lowing the former practice claim that the fence should be 
 entirely on private land, and some extend this practice 
 even to fences between adjoiners a serious departure 
 from the best practice. Probably, if the truth were known, 
 you would find that the builder seldom inquires into the 
 matter, for the reason that most fences which are built in 
 the country simply replace old fences. In such cases 
 
LANDMARKS 35 
 
 every effort is made to line the new posts exactly with the 
 old, so that the ancient intention, whatever it may have 
 been, shall still be carried out (see Figs. 16, 17, 18 and 19). 
 
 Much valuable information for a locality can be ob- 
 tained by consulting men who have for many years han- 
 dled real estate in the section in question. In any case 
 the surveyor should make every effort to determine local 
 usage or lack of usage, and he should then be governed by 
 common sense. 
 
 The outer surfaces of a square unboxed post standing 
 at a street corner may be regarded as agreeing with the 
 street lines. 
 
 A bank wall is to be considered as on private property, 
 its face being placed on the street line or a little back of it. 
 
 In case of ordinary stone walls local usage should be 
 carefully ascertained. 
 
 The above rules are by no means to be considered as 
 unvarying, but any surveyor will agree that they fall in 
 closely with the lines of common practice everywhere. 
 As said before, the surveyor should in all cases make cer- 
 tain of the practices which prevail in the section where he 
 is working. 
 
 It is to be borne in mind that where walls and fences 
 have been removed for any purpose, frequently sufficient 
 fragments are left below ground to determine accurately 
 the position of the original line. Careful search will fre- 
 quently reveal these fragments, and the surveyor should 
 so far familiarize himself with the various methods of con- 
 
36 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 struction that he can immediately determine what position 
 these crumbling fragments actually bear to the original 
 line. Quite frequently on the removal of an old fence the 
 principal posts are cut off at or just below the ground and 
 the stumps left standing for this very purpose. This is a 
 practice which cannot be too much encouraged. The find- 
 ing of these buried " marks on the ground " will frequently 
 end controversies, prevent law suits and avert expensive 
 errors in construction. It is one of the duties of the sur- 
 veyor to see that such landmarks are preserved as far as 
 possible, and when it becomes necessary that they should 
 be removed he should take such measurements and " ties " 
 as may certainly identify their original location. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 IN direct contrast to deeds containing descriptions by 
 adjoiners only is the class which, for lack of a better name, 
 we might call " Deeds with Complete Descriptions." Such 
 deeds usually commence with a clear location of the start- 
 ing point and then continue by course and distance com- 
 pletely around the piece to be described with frequent 
 reference to definite landmarks. If the deed by adjoiners, 
 previously given in Chapter II, were to be rewritten along 
 these lines, the description would read something like this: 
 
 " Beginning at a stake standing at the Northwest corner 
 of the property to be conveyed at a point on the East line 
 
 of the highway leading from M to N adjoining 
 
 land of William Smith and running thence S 68 J E, 25.77 
 chains along land of said William Smith to land of Richard 
 Jones as the fence now stands, thence along said Jones' 
 land S 5J E, 16.60 chains to a large Stone at the South- 
 east corner, thence along land now or late of John Brown 
 S 88 W, 14.27 chains to the middle of the Spring, thence 
 N 22 W, 57 links to a Black Oak tree, thence S 87i W 
 along said lands now or late of Brown, n chains to the 
 East line of the highway, thence along the East line of 
 said highway N 4! W, 15.63 chains to the point or place 
 of Beginning, containing within the said bounds Forty-one 
 
 37 
 
38 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 Acres and 38 Square Rods of land, be the same more or 
 less, according to a survey made by John Wolcott, County 
 Surveyor, October 3oth, 1819." 
 
 In this case the surveyor has clear and specific directions 
 for his guidance, but actual practice will show that this is 
 by no means an unalloyed blessing, for while these direc- 
 tions point the line he is to follow they are also liable to 
 restrict him very severely. If the description were surely 
 exact and accurate, as most modern descriptions are in- 
 tended to be, the case would be different, but the descrip- 
 tions of these older deeds is in general only approximate in 
 accordance with the loose methods of conveyance of their 
 time. How is the surveyor to tell what items are to be 
 followed minutely, what ones are to be taken with allow- 
 ance and what ones are to be thrown out altogether? In 
 the foregoing instance it is taken for granted that there 
 have been no clerical errors in the field notes, the descrip- 
 tion furnished by the surveyor or the deed as drawn. 
 
 In the first place the courses in the above description 
 are given only to quarter degrees, which allows and prac- 
 tically necessitates an error of some minutes in the bearing 
 of every course in the description. In the second place 
 the original survey was probably run with an old-fashioned 
 surveyor's compass, which is a crude instrument at best. 
 Concerning the compass in the present case we do not 
 know whether its meridian coincided exactly with the 
 line of sight, whether the needle was accurately centered 
 and moved freely on the pin or that the compass ring did 
 
DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS 39 
 
 not contain minute fragments of iron which might attract 
 the needle. Still further we have no proof that John Wol- 
 cott did not read the needle through steel-bowed spec- 
 tacles. Beside this we do not know whether he took 
 backsights as well as foresights, whether he made allow- 
 ance for diurnal variation or whether he was troubled in 
 his work by local attraction. Incidentally we do not 
 know whether the same causes of local attraction exist 
 to-day that existed in 1819 or whether the ones observable 
 to-day were then present. 
 
 It is possible of course to determine the true meridian by 
 observations of the Polar Star or by solar apparatus, but 
 the exigencies of ordinary surveying frequently preclude 
 both these methods. Granted that the meridian can be 
 established on the ground and that the exact declination 
 of the needle in 1819 for the locality is known, how nearly 
 will the line thus determined agree with the line as origi- 
 nally surveyed when the original record itself is so involved 
 in probable and indeterminable error? It seems that the 
 old proverb, " A chain is as strong as its weakest link," is 
 singularly applicable in the present instance. The pres- 
 ence in the original fieldwork of a single one of the many 
 possible errors makes it a very uncertain matter whether 
 the line carefully established from meridian agrees at all 
 closely with the old line on the ground as it was surveyed 
 nearly a century ago. 
 
 Nor do the possibilities of error in description lie in the 
 compass bearings alone. There are perhaps still greater 
 
40 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 certainties of error in the chaining. We do not know cer- 
 tainly whether John Wolcott held his chain level or laid it 
 along the ground. He may have struck a compromise 
 between the two by always running full-length chains and 
 holding them as nearly horizontal as the ground, however 
 rugged, would allow a method which has been done. In 
 any case, if the country were rough, we are practically 
 sure that the chain was considerably off the horizontal a 
 large part of the time. In case of running parallel with a 
 hedgerow or overgrown fence, we do not know whether he 
 actually determined his offset points at right angles to the 
 true stations before chaining or whether he simply laid out 
 an equal distance at each end and " guessed " that he had 
 established his chaining points opposite the stations. 
 Furthermore we do not know how much the line was 
 obstructed at the time of the original survey, how high the 
 chain had to be held or what methods were used to deter- 
 mine the ground points under the ends of the chain. 
 
 Among this mass of probable errors it seems hopeless at 
 first to think of reaching anything like definite results, but 
 there is a mitigating circumstance which has not been 
 mentioned. The old surveyors were more particular, it 
 often seems, about leaving behind them permanent marks 
 than are the surveyors of to-day. The modern surveyor 
 is prone to run an instrument traverse where he can do so 
 most easily, and from this he runs offsets to the corners 
 which he marks with stakes none too large. As a result 
 the actual line between corners is un traversed and un- 
 
DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS 41 
 
 marked. The old surveyors used larger corner stakes; they 
 generally held closely to the course and frequently set line 
 stakes at all compass stations, blazing the timber with a 
 liberal hand. 
 
 I have in memory an old surveyor who at an advanced 
 age took with him to the grave a knowledge of property 
 relations which the younger men who have come after 
 him may never hope to acquire, but whose methods of 
 work became fixed in the days when less accuracy was de- 
 manded. His bearings were seldom closer than 5 minutes 
 and accurate measurements would often shorten his dis- 
 tances ten feet in the thousand in rough and hilly country. 
 But as a marker of a line he had few equals. If his map 
 called for a stake in a certain place, there on the ground 
 would be found a short strong post of locust about one 
 foot tall. If his map called for a stone, you would find a 
 stone that required a crow bar to move it, and his marked 
 trees carried the scars forever. His courses and distances 
 were inaccurate in the modern sense of the word, but they 
 were always sure guides to the immediate vicinity of clear 
 and substantial landmarks defining the actual boundaries. 
 
 Considering, then, all the uncertainty connected with 
 description of land and the possible and probable errors 
 which may exist in each case, I have been led to adopt in 
 my own work the " Principle of Cumulative Evidence." 
 It seems that, either rightly or wrongly, it is incumbent on 
 the surveyor to collect all the evidence in each case and 
 to carry his work along the lines of the preponderance of 
 
42 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 probability. In nearly all cases, while some of the data 
 are either ambiguous or even conflicting, there is usually a 
 large preponderance of evidence which points more or 
 less clearly to one solution of the problem, and my own 
 experience, containing some few examples, leads me to 
 believe that this generally indicated solution is probably 
 the right one. I have generally found that this line of 
 reasoning appeals pretty strongly to all parties interested 
 and that there is a general willingness to abide by a de- 
 cision so reached. The fact that you have been willing to 
 collect all data possible and hear all sides of the case begets 
 confidence, and the rest is largely a matter of common 
 sense. 
 
 If, however, the evidence for and against re-locating an 
 old line in a certain place is pretty evenly divided, it is my 
 belief that a conference of all parties interested should be 
 arranged with a view to establishing a line by agreement, 
 as a sure and safe way of preserving the peace and fixing 
 the boundary for the years to come. 
 
 In the description mentioned at the beginning of this 
 chapter it will be noted that most of the courses are very 
 long, as, for instance, the first course of 25.77 chains or a 
 little over 1700 feet. It will be readily seen that a deflec- 
 tion of a very few minutes at one end will cause a serious 
 departure by the time the other end of the course is reached. 
 Hence, if the compass is taken as the only guide of direc- 
 tion, the slightest error in correcting the variation will have 
 disastrous results, supposing that the original record was 
 
DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS 43 
 
 perfect; and furthermore, 25.77 chains is a long distance 
 to have been chained accurately in the old days. The 
 deed states that this course was run " as the fence now 
 stands." Any traces then of this old boundary are to be 
 regarded as evidence in point, and it will be very remark- 
 able if a number of remains are not found somewhere along 
 the line. A bearing taken with the proper care along the 
 general line of these landmarks should show very nearly by 
 actual measurement how much the compass has changed 
 since the time of the original survey. If this actual varia- 
 tion agrees with the theoretical variation, so much the 
 better. The distance named in the description will en- 
 able the surveyor to tell when he approaches the near 
 vicinity of the northeast corner, but the position of the 
 corner should be determined from the sum total of evidence. 
 Old stakes, fence remains, marked timber, lines along which 
 the land has been cleared, marks of old balks or hedgerows, 
 claims of adjoiners and testimony of old residents all have 
 their place in the body of evidence on which the corner may 
 be reestablished. The dimension named in the deed should 
 be binding only in the case of total lack of other trust- 
 worthy evidence. In nine cases our of ten the careful 
 measurements of to-day will overrun the point where the 
 corner originally existed. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to settle the first course as 
 the first step. Careful investigation may prove that mat- 
 ters are much clearer and much more certain in the vicin- 
 ity of the stone at the southeast corner. It may be that 
 
44 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 the line from the stone to the center of the spring is very 
 clear and that the variation of the compass may be best 
 established along this line. It is also quite possible that 
 the field marks indicating the back line or second course 
 of the description may be clear near the stone and that, by 
 tracing these backward, evidence previously overlooked 
 may be found showing where this course meets the first 
 course, the result being the establishment of the northeast 
 corner which was before more or less uncertain. 
 
 In short, no fixed rule of procedure can be laid down, 
 and the realization of this seems to me to be the first step 
 toward a right solution of problems of this nature. I do 
 not mean by this that the matter should be gone at hap- 
 hazard, but that the mind should be in a receptive condi- 
 tion, ready to give a hearing to all evidence and quick to 
 analyze, arrange and weigh this evidence. Furthermore 
 the mind should give its first attention to the broader 
 consideration of the case, coming down to details and 
 minutiae later. To this end I have always found it advan- 
 tageous to go completely around the piece of land to be 
 surveyed in the company of the owner, hearing all he has 
 to say and noticing the main features and the landmarks 
 as far as possible. It is better that this should be done 
 several days before the actual fieldwork begins, in order 
 that there may be mapped out in the mind some definite 
 plan of work fitting the conditions in hand. A plot of the 
 piece of land in question, made according to the descrip- 
 tion given in the deed, will often prove very useful as a 
 
DEEDS WITH COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS 45 
 
 starting point from which to work out toward a plan of 
 common-sense procedure in making the actual survey. 
 
 Between the two extreme classes of descriptions, those 
 with full dimensions and those with no dimensions, there 
 are all kinds of intermediate varieties. Some deeds de- 
 scribe partly by adjoiners and partly by course and dis- 
 tance, some by linear dimensions only, and there have 
 been some of the sides described by compass bearing only. 
 Others are plainly made up in whole or in part from courses 
 and distances borrowed from the descriptions of the sev- 
 eral adjoiners, regardless of the different variations of the 
 compass as determined by the different dates of the differ- 
 ent component surveys. 
 
 No two of these problems are alike, but they are all open 
 to the same method of investigation and solution, in accord- 
 ance with the preponderance of evidence from all sources 
 carefully collected, thoroughly analyzed and honestly 
 weighed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 IN the description in the previous chapter it has been 
 taken for granted that there have been no clerical errors 
 in recording the field notes or in transcribing them into 
 the deed. In addition to this the actual date of the survey 
 and the name of the surveyor are given. The former gives 
 some definite basis on which to make compass corrections, 
 while it is possible that something is known of the special 
 idiosyncrasies of this particular surveyor. But it can per- 
 haps be fairly said that in these respects this particular 
 deed is an exception to the established order. 
 
 The descriptions to be found in many deeds are but dreary 
 inheritances from the past. It frequently happens that 
 circumstances require a surveyor to follow back the title of 
 a piece of land of which he has been furnished only the 
 description from the last transfer. He then frequently 
 finds that the description does not apply to the time of 
 this particular transfer at all, but has been handed down 
 slavishly from transfer to transfer from decade to dec- 
 ade. This is not necessarily the result of ignorance or 
 penuriousness, but is frequently based on the desire to 
 make sure that the piece of land conveyed is exactly the 
 same piece that was conveyed by the next previous deed. 
 
 In fact most deeds contain a clause stating that this is 
 
 46 
 
SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIONS 47 
 
 " the same piece of land formerly conveyed by X to 
 
 Z , dated so-and-so and recorded so-and-so." Of 
 
 course this all means that the date of the original survey 
 is so very uncertain that there is no basis upon which to 
 correct the compass, unless the search should chance to 
 establish the time of the original survey in a fairly definite 
 manner. It may at least be said that a few experiences of 
 this sort remove all confidence in one's ability to make ac- 
 curate compass corrections from the data contained in the 
 ordinary deed. Indeed it is often much easier to fix the 
 approximate date of the original survey from the actually 
 measured compass correction of a known line in the field. 
 
 Besides this uncertainty of date there are often distinct 
 clerical errors in transcription or even in the original field 
 notes. When there is reason to doubt the description a 
 careful search for what mistake would probably have been 
 made under these particular circumstances will often lead 
 to a discovery of what the proper record should have been. 
 
 It is not an uncommon matter to find that the bearing 
 has been recorded in the wrong quadrant, especially if the 
 bearing approaches closely due east or due west. Some- 
 what rarer is the error of reading the compass backward. 
 Suppose that the bearing is N 33 W and that the surveyor 
 is reading the end of the needle nearest him, under which 
 circumstances the figures on the compass ring would be 
 inverted, causing a certain possibility of confusion. His 
 eye, instead of catching the 30 and reading on to the left, 
 catches the 40 and reads on to the right. The result is 
 
48 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 that he records the bearing as N 47 W instead of N 33 W 
 as it should be. It would seem that these errors ought to 
 come out in balancing the survey at the time of the original 
 computation, but this is not always the case, for I have 
 seen a very bad quadrant error carried straight on and 
 plotted in the map; while in unclosed surveys, such as 
 those of highways, where there is no computation, there is 
 no way of discovering the error after it has once been made. 
 
 It is always well at the start to plot out on the paper 
 the description from the deed in order to find errors of 
 this kind, if any are present. There was a certain descrip- 
 tion where two courses were given as northeast. When 
 plotted thus, a most remarkable outline with great error 
 of closure was the result. Knowing something of the local- 
 ity, I felt confident that these courses should be made 
 southeast instead. As soon as this change was made the 
 survey closed in a very satisfactory manner, and subse- 
 quent fieldwork proved my theory correct. 
 
 Far less easy to locate are errors in copying figures, yet a 
 logical course of procedure will frequently enable one to 
 make the right correction. I remember one case where 
 the description was supposed to follow the remains of an 
 old worm fence and the actual survey agreed with this 
 description in a most satisfactory manner. Suddenly, on 
 a course given as S 7 E, the line deflected several feet 
 from the fence and on the following courses continued 
 parallel to it. It seemed that the surveyor might have 
 read the compass backward and recorded 7 when he 
 
SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIONS 49 
 
 meant 3. This correction improved the trouble but did 
 not entirely do away with it. I then took the actual bear- 
 ing of the fence, corrected it and found that the original 
 bearing must have been 4 instead of 7. The explana- 
 tion was simple. Someone in writing the 4 had made the 
 first downstroke very short, had made the cross-stroke 
 very high and had carried it only until it met the long 
 downstroke. Someone making a later copy of this de- 
 scription had mistaken the distorted 4 for an elaborate 7 
 and had copied it as such. 
 
 When such clerical errors occur on maps they can fre- 
 quently be discovered by going over the map with scale 
 and protractor, the actual lines of the map being correct 
 while the accompanying legend is not. Other errors again 
 can only be corrected from the actual conditions as found 
 in the field. For some errors no logical explanation can 
 be found. They must be corrected according to the best 
 dictates of common sense. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of deeds attention should be 
 called to one further point of interest, that for purposes of 
 getting back to an original boundary or settling a dispute, 
 several deeds, though equally explicit, are not necessarily 
 of equal value. This is especially true with reference to 
 the determination of boundaries along highways. Most 
 highways are described in the public records by a survey, 
 the courses, distances and width of the road being clearly 
 given. Theoretically the descriptions of properties adjoin- 
 ing such a road should come to the recorded boundaries 
 
50 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 of the road and no farther. It is a fact, however, that 
 these boundaries along roads are the most unstable of all 
 boundaries for the simple reason that, while each man 
 watches his neighbor to see that there is no transgression 
 of the line between them, all parties concerned are apt to 
 combine to borrow as much land from the public highway 
 as possible. As a rule a highway record is rather difficult 
 to reestablish, and in cases of small places and house lots 
 the ordinary deed, outside of city limits, makes no pre- 
 tense of defining the road in accordance with its official 
 boundaries. The survey has usually been made at small 
 charges by some local surveyor, the object being simply to 
 " get something we can put in the deed." 
 
 As a result some deeds bordering along such a road, 
 notably those of a date nearest to that at which the road 
 itself was put on record, may be very valuable not only 
 with reference to the piece of property which they de- 
 scribe but also in connection with determining the actual 
 location of the road itself. They more probably repre- 
 sent the conditions before there was any encroachment on 
 the highway, while the deeds of other pieces of land on 
 the same street, though they may agree exactly with the 
 present lines of possession, may be based upon surveys 
 made after the fences had been pushed out on to land 
 properly belonging to the public. There is a case where 
 two small streets together formed a T-shaped court, one 
 street forming the upright of the T and the other the 
 crossbar at the top. Both had been recorded something 
 
SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIONS 51 
 
 like fifty years ago, but the official boundaries had been 
 very much neglected. It became necessary to define the 
 boundaries of these streets, since it was generally believed 
 that there had been wholesale encroachment on the high- 
 way. A careful examination of the road record, and of the 
 deeds which were made at about the same time and which 
 also referred specifically to these streets as new streets, 
 gave sufficient data for locating the limits of the road 
 successfully. There were other deeds, however, where 
 the case was very different. There was one in particular 
 of a property located at the corner where the two streets 
 met. In this deed the description agreed almost exactly 
 with the land as found in possession, but these lines of 
 possession at one corner encroached several feet on the 
 highway. Investigation showed that for nearly ten years 
 after the recording of the street this corner land had lain 
 unfenced and had practically been regarded as common 
 land. When finally a fence was erected it was placed 
 without reference to the street lines which had been lost 
 sight of meanwhile. The survey for the deed was prob- 
 ably made as the fence stood, and thus it came to pass 
 that a description which agreed with long-established lines 
 of possession was finally found to be utterly at variance 
 with the road record. 
 
 From the above it will readily be seen that it is a deli- 
 cate matter, in the case of determining a boundary contro- 
 versy, to sort out the valuable deeds from those which are 
 worthless from the surveyor's standpoint. It requires not 
 
52 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 only good judgment but a considerable amount of tact as 
 well, for it is a trying matter to convince one party in the 
 altercation that his deed is worthless as evidence while his 
 opponent's is of value. The surveyor is pretty sure to 
 incur criticism in any case. 
 
 Of course a large part of the foregoing does not apply 
 to sections where property lines and especially street lines 
 are marked by accurately set stone monuments. In such 
 cases the boundaries are already settled. The suggestions 
 are intended to apply to old acreage and long-settled 
 country communities where the loosely established bound- 
 aries of long ago have seldom been verified, and where, 
 during the lapse of easy-going years, the landmarks have 
 been lost or forgotten. It is such lines and such landmarks 
 that it is difficult to reestablish when the requirements of 
 the present day demand them. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF THE SURVEYOR AND THE 
 LAWYER. 
 
 BEFORE leaving this general subject it would perhaps be 
 well to consider for a few moments the relation between 
 the surveyor and the one who may perhaps be called his 
 co-worker the lawyer. 
 
 Surveys are usually made in order to furnish the de- 
 scriptions to be used in legal instruments and the data 
 necessary for legal proceedings. The surveyor does not 
 necessarily look upon a survey in the same light as does 
 the man of law, and he must be governed largely by the 
 particular legal requirements of the case in hand. While 
 the surveyor naturally looks for the intention implied in 
 the earliest conveyance of a piece of land and seeks to get 
 back to the original boundaries, the lawyer may sweep 
 aside all this exact and careful work and require a survey 
 according to the boundaries of to-day, on the ground of 
 undisputed possession for a number of years. Yet the 
 lawyer will promptly admit that the course followed by 
 the surveyor was the proper course for the surveyor, the 
 responsibility of departing from the ancient record resting 
 entirely with himself. Furthermore the lawyer is gener- 
 ally very glad to know what the original conditions actu- 
 
 53 
 
54 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 ally were, no matter how far he may subsequently depart 
 from them. 
 
 I have said that the surveyor must be largely governed 
 by the legal requirements of the case in hand, but I do not 
 mean by this that he should endeavor to make legal de- 
 cisions for himself. The surveyor is usually employed by 
 a lawyer direct or by a man who has an attorney looking 
 after his interests, and the survey is usually wanted for 
 some special and particular purpose. Though the surveyor 
 may not at all approve the lines he is directed to follow, I 
 do not think that he can very well refuse to do the work 
 unless it is very clear that he is making himself a party to 
 questionable proceedings. In case he does not fully agree 
 with the instructions which he receives I think that he 
 should make his employer or his employer's attorney 
 shoulder completely the responsibility for those instruc- 
 tions, and that he should retain written evidence of the 
 same if possible. If a moral issue is at stake he should 
 refuse the work rather than enter upon an undertaking 
 which he believes to be questionable. 
 
 I think there is no doubt that the legal intricacies con- 
 nected with the search and guaranteeing of complicated 
 titles are beyond the province and the full appreciation of 
 the ordinary surveyor, yet he must render intelligent help 
 to the lawyer who is attending to the same. I think that 
 in these cases he should obtain the most explicit directions 
 concerning the measurements which he is to make and 
 that he should make a most full and careful report to the 
 
RELATIONS OF THE SURVEYOR AND THE LAWYER 55 
 
 lawyer of the conditions as found on the ground, and that 
 he should then ask for full directions as to what the final 
 survey must show and should assume responsibility for 
 absolutely nothing but the honesty and accuracy of his 
 work. By so doing he will be certain of keeping his own 
 hands clean and of retaining the respect of all those by 
 whom he is employed. 
 
 It is a curious fact that a great many lawyers who are 
 continually dealing with land transfers are grossly ignorant 
 of the simplest details of surveying I should say that 
 the minority know the number of feet in a chain. As a 
 result many useful details which the surveyor would gladly 
 furnish in connection with the piece of land in question 
 are to many of them difficult of comprehension or abso- 
 lutely meaningless. On the other hand the surveyor is 
 probably equally ignorant of the law of property. A frank 
 recognition by each of his own limitation is, I think, the 
 first step to a sound understanding and furnishes a starting 
 point from which both may work together toward accu- 
 rate and satisfactory results. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 HOUSE LOTS. 
 
 WHILE it may be said that in general the most important 
 problems that vex the surveyor arise in connection with 
 acreage and the determination of old boundaries, yet there 
 is a class of smaller surveys which, in its way, is capable of 
 giving infinite trouble. This is the group of house-lot 
 surveys. In fact I think it may be fairly said that there is 
 more strife and litigation over the boundaries of these 
 small holdings than there is over the boundaries of large 
 tracts. 
 
 The reasons for this are not difficult to find. Usually 
 land which is divided into lots is held at a much higher 
 valuation than that which lies in large tracts, and an inch 
 error one way or the other is a very much more serious 
 matter. Moreover since the dimensions are comparatively 
 small and extremely specific, property owners feel that the 
 surveyor should be able to show them exactly where their 
 boundaries lie. This expectation is thoroughly reasonable 
 in case of modern lot layouts in large communities where 
 property limits are minutely defined, but such surveys usu- 
 ally come under the hands of city engineers and seldom 
 fall to the lot of those whose work lies in country-towns 
 
 and villages or at best in the suburbs of lesser cities. 
 
 56 
 
HOUSE LOTS 57 
 
 It seldom happens that an engineer opening an office in 
 such a community will be called upon at first to cut up a 
 piece of property into building lots, but it is highly prob- 
 able that one of his earliest orders will be to set the corner 
 stakes of a plot according to a map of lots already in ex- 
 istence. He may perhaps be materially aided in this work 
 by a few suggestions as to the methods in which country 
 property has usually been subdivided. Subdivided prop- 
 erties in the country are usually of two kinds: 
 
 i. Properties controlled by Real Estate Companies. 
 
 These properties are usually independent units. They 
 are bought and handled purely as money-making enter- 
 prises and they are laid out entirely with a view to bring- 
 ing in the greatest possible returns on the investment. As 
 a r'esult they usually bear no relation whatever to the ad- 
 joining properties. They usually have a complete street 
 system of their own which is entirely independent of the 
 read system of the town, except that it connects with one 
 or more highways already existing. Long experience in 
 handling land in the market has given these real estate 
 companies the knowledge of how to cut up the land most 
 profitably, and they generally furnish the surveyor a plan 
 of subdivision which he is expected to follow within the 
 limits of common sense. For this plan they require a 
 careful map of the boundaries of the property showing 
 its relation to the adjoining highways and also the location 
 of all buildings standing upon it. If the map also shows 
 clearly the boundaries between woodland and cleared land 
 
58 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 and the location of all streams, ponds, swamps, ravines, 
 etc., in short any points of knowledge which may be useful 
 in subdividing the property, so much the better. Guided 
 by this map the owners will make a plan for subdivision 
 which it will be the surveyor's later work to actually place 
 upon the grounds. 
 
 2. Properties owned by Private Individuals usually not 
 Professional Real Estate Men. 
 
 It sometimes happens that Mr. Smith, looking over his 
 more or less extensive property, finds a portion which is 
 at present yielding small returns, and it strikes him that 
 it would be an excellent idea to cut it up into building lots 
 and sell it to small holders. Feeling fairly well convinced 
 that the town is going to grow in that direction he proceeds 
 to carry his plan into effect. 
 
 The actual work of subdividing the land is carried out 
 with all degrees of wisdom and unwisdom. I have seen an 
 owner lay out lots with a common fifty-foot " metallic " 
 tape, using no transit and making no map. As the prices 
 which he asked for his lots were singularly fair he made 
 many sales; and in all cases he made the conveyances and 
 prepared the deeds personally. I have known of another 
 case where the lines were run, not with a transit but with a 
 plain surveyor's compass, many of the main lines being of 
 such a nature that it was impossible to see from one end 
 to the other. The chain or tape work was such as might 
 be expected from a man who would lay out building lots by 
 a magnetic needle. A map was then prepared according to 
 
HOUSE LOTS 59 
 
 what this survey was intended to be and the deeds were 
 drawn by a third party who knew very little about the 
 conditions in the case. These instances are of course ex- 
 treme and the final complications arising in each of these 
 properties may easily be imagined. 
 
 The conditions under which country property is sub- 
 divided are usually somewhat as follows: 
 
 A man the Mr. Smith above mentioned owns a 
 piece of property bounded on one side by a highway and 
 he decides to cut up this property into lots. If it is a 
 small property he opens one street through the middle of 
 it from the highway to the back boundary; if it is fairly 
 large he opens two or more parallel streets. These streets 
 are usually at right angles to the highway and are spaced 
 a number of lot widths apart, often without any particular 
 attention being paid to the fitness of the land for road 
 building. All lots that can be so arranged are made to 
 face on the public highway. The remainder are made to 
 face, as far as possible, on the main streets which have been 
 cut through and the balance are faced on cross streets 
 placed at suitable (or unsuitable) intervals at right angles 
 to the main streets. These cross streets run to the side 
 lines of the property and stop. 
 
 Inasmuch as the exact boundary of the public highway 
 is seldom known, and as its course frequently changes one 
 or more times in passing across the front of the property, 
 it is seldom attempted to make the highway the starting 
 point of the lot layout. The intersection of the first cross 
 
60 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 street with the main street or streets is usually made the 
 place of beginning, and from this point the property is cut 
 up into blocks which shall, as far as possible, contain an 
 exact number of rectangular lots of the dimensions which 
 have been decided upon by the owners. It will be seen, 
 however, that all those lots which touch the outer bound- 
 aries of the property will, in all probability, have irregular 
 shapes and dimensions, determined by the direction of 
 these boundaries at the different points of contact. Such 
 lots are the " remainders " resulting from this sum in 
 division and for convenience may be spoken of as " re- 
 sidual lots " or simply as " residuals." 
 
 It only remains now to make a map of the property with 
 an ornate title and imposing names for the streets. This 
 map will show all lots by number, the position of the 
 streets and also the exact dimensions of all the standard 
 lots. The dimensions of the " residuals," if given at all, 
 are followed by the " plus-and-minus " sign or are pre- 
 ceded by the abbreviation " abt." to show that these 
 dimensions which come in contact with the claims of other 
 ad joiners are not guaranteed. The same reservation is 
 usually employed in giving the depths of the lots which 
 face on the public highway, while the oblique frontages 
 caused by the change of direction of the side line of the 
 highway are frequently left entirely blank. Of course there 
 are lot maps where all these dimensions have been carefully 
 worked out and where the description of each lot is com- 
 plete and accurate, but the above has, I think, been the 
 
HOUSE LOTS 6l 
 
 more common practice in lot maps of the kind de- 
 scribed. 
 
 It may be that Mr. Jones, one of the adjoiners of the 
 property described above, having seen how successful Mr. 
 Smith was in his enterprise, may decide to do the same 
 thing and cut up his property into lots, and the proba- 
 bilities are that he will follow the same general plan. If 
 his land is in the rear of Mr. Smith's he will continue the 
 main street through his own property and will make cross 
 streets in much the same manner as did Mr. S. If his 
 land lies at one side he will cut main streets from the 
 highway, parallel with Mr. Smith's, and will continue that 
 gentleman's cross streets at least to the nearest main 
 street. 
 
 This seems a very simple process, but in reality there 
 are certain complications which frequently arise. Mr. 
 Jones, in having the survey made for the map, will direct 
 the surveyor to follow the description given in his own 
 deed and frequently (especially if the deeds are old) this 
 description will not agree in all details with the description 
 according to which Mr. Smith laid out his map. If the 
 same surveyor does the work in both cases he will, or 
 should, use his best endeavors to prevent any complica- 
 tions, but in case the second map is made by a person who 
 is unfamiliar with the details of the first layout, in all 
 probability there will be some point where the lots of one 
 map will overlap those of the other or else there will be a 
 gap left between. I do not think that this trouble can be 
 
62 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 always rightly charged against the surveyor, for the reason 
 that if he were to do sufficient work to safeguard against 
 all possibilities of complications in any of the adjoining 
 properties which might at some future day be cut up into 
 lots, he would have the pleasure of doing a large amount 
 of work at his own expense. In all probability Mr. Jones 
 would flatly decline to pay for anything but the work 
 done in actually cutting up his land and in determining its 
 boundaries with a fair degree of accuracy according to 
 the description contained in his own deed. I think on the 
 whole that a surveyor has done his duty when he has made 
 all reasonable endeavor to prevent misunderstanding, and 
 has made clear on his map what dimensions are to be con- 
 sidered as not absolutely certain. If the person who draws 
 the deeds is equally careful, there can be little danger of 
 serious controversy. Half the strife concerning the bound- 
 aries of residual lots arises from the omission of the 
 qualifying terms which should be used concerning these 
 doubtful dimensions, and which have been clearly shown, 
 or should have been clearly shown, by the surveyor in the 
 map on which the deeds were based- 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 HOUSE LOTS (concluded). 
 
 ANOTHER complication which sometimes arises is in the 
 matter of extending the streets from one property to an- 
 other. An illustration may be in point. There once came 
 into my hands a map of lots laid out as follows: A main 
 street ran through the middle of the property with a cross 
 street at right angles to it. At the extreme edge of the 
 property lay a street, which we will call " Edge Street," 
 distant 400 feet from the cross street and parallel with it. 
 Edge Street had been formed from a residual strip 30 feet 
 wide given by the property in question and a strip 20 
 feet wide given by the adjoining property. Four hundred 
 feet from the cross street I found the old surveyor's stake 
 marking the intersection of Edge Street with the main 
 street before mentioned, and I set the street monument 
 accordingly. At this stage a lot owner on the main street 
 made a protest and produced deeds showing that instead 
 of 400 feet the distance between the cross street and Edge 
 Street was really 405 feet. A search in the County Clerk's 
 office showed that there was on file there a map of the 
 property in which, previous to filing, certain dimensions 
 had been erased and altered. One of the lots had been 
 broadened from 50 feet to 55 feet and the strip thrown 
 
 63 
 
64 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 into Edge Street had been narrowed from 30 feet to 25 
 feet. In accordance with the recorded map I moved the 
 monument 5 feet, thus increasing the distance between 
 streets from 400 to 405- feet. It will be seen that there still 
 existed a discrepancy of 5 feet between the corner as the 
 original surveyor left it staked in the field and the corner 
 as shown on the map filed with the County Clerk. In 
 other words, the stakes in the field had never been moved 
 to fit the revised map placed on file. Under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances the final establishment of the corner should 
 have settled all trouble, but it had happened that already 
 the owner of the adjoining property had cut it up into 
 lots and had extended Edge Street through the entire 
 length of it. Unfortunately the surveyor had extended 
 this street from the stakes existing in the field, having no 
 possible way of knowing that they did not agree with the 
 map filed at the County Seat. This extension of Edge 
 Street was opened, lots were sold along it, trees were 
 planted and houses built. The result of the discovery of 
 the error of location of the first part of Edge Street and its 
 correction by moving the whole alignment 5 feet can readily 
 be seen. In the first property this shifting was easily 
 effected since this part of Edge Street had never been im- 
 proved, but the permanent improvements of Edge Street 
 in the adjoining property made such a " moving over " 
 impossible. As a result, at the boundary line between the 
 two properties the street " broke joints " to the amount 
 of 5 feet, and when this private street later became a 
 
HOUSE LOTS 65 
 
 public highway the matter had to be adjusted by inserting 
 a small oblique course to join these two unmatched por- 
 tions. 
 
 It quite frequently happens that where the ground is 
 uneven, careful measurements will show that there is not 
 sufficient land between clearly established streets to meet 
 the demands of the map or of the deeds which have already 
 been filed. Sometimes, rarely, in auction sales of lots, 
 glaring errors will exist in dimensions. I remember one 
 property where such errors occurred as the following, 
 
 Sales dimension, 420 feet, actual dimension, 412.1 feet; 
 
 Sales dimension, 335 feet, actual dimension, 355.5 feet; 
 
 Sales dimension, 150 feet, actual dimension, 130.75 feet; 
 with others of the same nature. Unfortunately in the 
 haste of the sale these lots were all sold by specified dimen- 
 sions without a single qualifying word. It can readily be 
 seen that the final adjustment was more profitable to the 
 surveyor than to the parties of the first and second parts. 
 
 How can a surveyor bring order out of such chaos as 
 this? How can he adjust all the discrepancies in the work 
 of those who have gone before him? The answer is simple 
 -he cannot. But he can do a great deal toward miti- 
 gating conditions. He must be able to gather all informa- 
 tion bearing on the problems and weigh it accurately, he 
 must be able to interpret a deed to a nicety and to deter- 
 mine unerringly the priority of conflicting claims, he must 
 be willing to bring about friendly relations and mutual 
 concessions between adjoiners and he can advise his clients 
 
66 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 against accepting unsatisfactory deeds. Beyond all else 
 he must be ready to go over with endless patience innu- 
 merable repetitions of detail with interested parties who 
 are frequently of willing mind but of slow comprehension. 
 In short he must do all his work in such a thorough and 
 painstaking manner that any one coming after him may 
 find nothing to add to it. 
 
 Of one thing, however, I am firmly convinced, that it is 
 useless for a surveyor to go into a strange subdivided prop- 
 erty and locate any one lot with quickness, ease and accu- 
 racy. I have seen the attempt fail too many times. If one 
 could be certain that the first layout was absolutely accu- 
 rate and that the stakes had never been displaced it would 
 be a different matter; but such is not the case. Errors of 
 inches and sometimes of feet often occur; right angles 
 seldom measure exactly 90 degrees and stakes are fre- 
 quently moved out of line by people stumbling over them. 
 If the surveyor would rest with an easy mind he must 
 check up a sufficient number of streets, blocks and lots, to 
 be sure that he has located his special lot in strict accord- 
 ance with the boundaries of the streets and the claims of 
 other landholders. To do this he will frequently have to 
 put in many hours of work from which he must expect no 
 immediate returns. But the fact that he has taken pains 
 to locate the lots accurately, that he has worked out the 
 details of the property and that he (and very likely he 
 only) knows where the lines truly run, practically insures 
 that all or nearly all of the future work in that property 
 
HOUSE LOTS 67 
 
 will eventually come to him for execution. It is simply 
 another illustration of the fact that honesty is the best 
 policy. 
 
 There is one other form of the lot problem which should 
 be mentioned. In earlier times it was a frequent occur- 
 rence for a land owner to sell a succession of house lots 
 from his property. These small holdings adjoined each 
 other and were of all shapes and sizes, with very uncertain 
 relations to the highway which they bordered. Happily 
 they were usually fenced at an early date, and the evi- 
 dences of early possession are of vastly greater value than 
 the deed dimensions. Front and rear dimensions are usu- 
 ally fairly accurate, but a common line between two neigh- 
 bors will often have quite dissimilar lengths in the two 
 deeds. This is due largely to the uncertain condition of 
 the highway line. As stated, the lines of old possession are 
 very important, but in deciding a boundary controversy 
 it is never safe to assume that any one line of possession 
 is sufficiently correct to be taken as a starting point for 
 measurements. A sufficient number of deeds must be 
 examined and a sufficient number of lots checked up to 
 make certain of the accuracy of the possession line in 
 question. It may then be used as a point of departure, 
 
 To illustrate, a certain street corner which was in dispute 
 was recorded as being located " 25 links west of lot belong- 
 ing to William Smith." The width of the Smith lot was 
 measured and found to be exactly 50 feet a standard 
 size. Then the street corner was made 25 links beyond. 
 
68 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 To leave no chance of error the deed of the Smith lot was 
 procured, and it was found that the front dimension was 
 not 50 feet but " 74 links of chain " or 48.84 feet. This 
 led to a checking up of all other properties necessary, with 
 the result that all lines of possession were found to be 
 essentially correct except a part of the west fence of the 
 Smith lot which was comparatively new. After this had 
 been established it was easy to locate the street corner 
 accurately and satisfactorily. 
 
 It will readily be seen that there are no fixed rules 
 which can be laid down for the accurate handling of old 
 lot layouts. Satisfactory results can be obtained only 
 through care, patience and common sense and, above all, 
 honesty. 
 
 So much for the interpretation of old lot layouts ; now a 
 word with reference to the construction of new ones. 
 With reference to general plan there is little to say, for the 
 reason that the owner of the land has usually some pretty 
 clear idea of just exactly what he desires he simply 
 wants the surveyor to carry out his design. In cases 
 where there is no such preconceived plan one or two sug- 
 gestions may not be out of place. 
 
 1. Roads and streets should be located, as far as possible, 
 with a view to economy in construction and maintenance, 
 while every effort should be made to so place the streets 
 that after grading they shall be reasonably accessible from 
 the lots bordering them. 
 
 2. If the land is to be cut up into standard lots there is 
 
HOUSE LOTS 69 
 
 very little room for independence of action, but if it is to 
 be divided into somewhat variable plots much can be done 
 in the way of locating them with reference to picturesque- 
 ness and accessibility. One further point might be made. 
 Nearly every property has some undesirable land scattered 
 about in one or more places. It is a mistake to make 
 any one plot consist of undesirable land only, since it 
 must be sold at a greatly reduced price if at all. If, how- 
 ever, you so divide the property that this undesirable land 
 shall be shared in small quantities by a number of plots 
 otherwise wholly desirable, the difficulty has been over- 
 come. A purchaser naturally expects that he will get a 
 little inferior land with the good and, if he gets a good 
 house site and lawn, he is perfectly willing to take a little 
 less satisfactory land on some other part of his plot. In 
 other words, the idea is not to cut the land into extra fine 
 plots and poor plots, but to so divide it that each and 
 every plot shall have sufficient points of excellence to thor- 
 oughly compensate for the less desirable features which 
 must be distributed in general to all purchasers. Briefly 
 put, the plots must all be salable. 
 
 3. It is not good practice to subdivide land in the office. 
 If the original traverse of the property has been exception- 
 ally accurate this may be done with a fair degree of safety; 
 but it so frequently happens that one error offsets another, 
 that a fine balance of an entire traverse is no guarantee 
 that the work is as perfect in all its details as this balance 
 would seem to show. It is my belief that all streets should 
 
70 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 be actually laid on the ground and their intersections with 
 the boundaries of the property actually determined in the 
 field. All complete blocks and all residual blocks should 
 also be measured before any attempt is made to give even 
 the approximate dimensions of residual lots. This method, 
 while more laborious than others, is sure to give good re- 
 sults, and will avoid the annoying discrepancies which are 
 so frequently found in properties divided by methods of 
 computation only. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 HIGHWAY RECORDS. 
 
 EXCEPT perhaps the study of the evolution of the pri- 
 vate ownership of land, there is nothing more attractive in 
 the realm of surveying than the evolution of the Highway 
 or Public Road. Nor need this statement be confined to 
 the subject in its broadest sense the study of road 
 building from its earliest times to the present; it is equally 
 interesting to study the evolution of the road system of a 
 town as set forth in the complete Town Records. 
 
 In general, history of the roads of an old district is simple. 
 Early records made soon after the settlement simply state 
 that a road was established from such a place to such a 
 place. There is no attempt at description by course and 
 distance and seldom by landmarks or adjoiners, though 
 the width of the road is frequently given. Later follows 
 the description by landmarks or by a statement of the 
 properties which the road touched in its course; later 
 still, the distance in rods from point to point appears. 
 Subsequently come the descriptions by bearings to degrees 
 or quarter degrees and distances in chains and links, and 
 it is in this form that the Road Records of most rural 
 highways, as far as I have been able to observe, actually 
 
 exist. At the time in their history when surveys were 
 
 71 
 
72 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 made to this particular degree of accuracy the roads were 
 already so well established that they required no subse- 
 quent change, and their records have continued to exist 
 in this form. Later roads are more minutely described, 
 but they are seldom the main roads of a community. 
 
 Recent roads, as just stated, are usually fully described 
 in the public records, and in further explanation maps are 
 placed on file. Furthermore the actual location of such 
 road lines on the ground is usually clearly marked by 
 stone monuments accurately set. Such roads present few 
 serious problems to the surveyor, but when he is called 
 upon to re-locate from the public records the actual lines 
 of old roads inaccurately surveyed and ambiguously, if 
 quaintly, recorded, roads where greedy possession has 
 encroached amazingly upon the public easement, where 
 time and man have joined forces to obliterate the ancient 
 landmarks, his problem is of an entirely different kind. 
 
 Roads are all supposed to have a certain legal status 
 which is commonly known as a " public easement." The- 
 oretically the road is still the private property of the par- 
 ties who adjoin it, with the understanding that they have 
 loaned it to the town for use as a highway for so long as 
 the town shall need it. Such roads are said to be " re- 
 leased " to the town and certain legal steps are necessary 
 in order to make the release binding. It not infrequently 
 happens that through carelessness or ignorance these legal 
 steps have not been properly taken and, in case of litiga- 
 tion between the town and the adjoiners to the road, much 
 
HIGHWAY RECORDS 73 
 
 annoyance arises therefrom. Some roads are actually 
 deeded to the town and become thereby the town's actual 
 property, but in the country, at least, these are rare. Old 
 records also sometimes describe certain roads as " regu- 
 lated " by the highway commissioners. This appears to 
 have been a somewhat irregular and arbitrary process, a 
 " regulated " road continuing as such on the record unless 
 somebody with a grievance brought the law to bear upon it. 
 
 With the legal phase of these various forms of record the 
 surveyor has little concern. He must see that his work has 
 been in accordance with the record and that he has found 
 the whole of that record; its legality is the concern of the 
 town's legal adviser. I have said that it is important that 
 the surveyor should find the whole of the record and this 
 perhaps needs a word of explanation. If a road were sur- 
 veyed and recorded once for all the matter of locating it on 
 the ground would become sufficiently difficult after the 
 lapse of years, but it frequently happens that the record is 
 fragmentary and the fragments are hard to identify in the 
 mass of public records. 
 
 The normal history of a main country road is usually 
 somewhat as follows, especially if it is a rather lengthy 
 one joining two or more villages. In the early days of a 
 community public convenience and topographical condi- 
 tions determine travel along a certain route which, in the 
 expiration of time, is recognized as a public thoroughfare, 
 although it may not appear at all on the public records or 
 perhaps only in the most general terms. Later, as the 
 
74 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 community becomes more thickly settled and the value of 
 property increases, there is a public demand that the legal 
 status of the road shall be defined and its boundaries 
 officially established. This forms the first definite record 
 and it is a fortunate matter if the first record remains also 
 the last. It frequently happens, however, that later in 
 the public records you may find a petition to have a por- 
 tion of this road altered. There are many reasons for 
 doing this. It may be that the parties adjoining the road 
 on both sides may for some cause desire it. It may be 
 that the road requires straightening or that a slight change 
 in the location of some portion will materially reduce the 
 public expense of maintenance. At any rate the altera- 
 tion is made and it is hardly ever known of a case where 
 such occurrence of alteration has been noted on the original 
 record. It also frequently happens that the road is altered 
 under an entirely different name from that which it bore 
 in the original description, and that, at the present day, the 
 road is known by an entirely different name from either. 
 
 For instance there is a highway which at the present day 
 is almost invariably called the Sandis Hill Road, but which 
 was originally recorded in 1827 under the somewhat labo- 
 rious title of " Highway leading from Silas Marner's Barn 
 running southerly till it intersects the highway leading 
 from Townsend Jackson's to Cold Spring." In 1832 it was 
 altered under the title of " Pitkin Hollow Highway." The 
 identity of the two roads can be discovered only by one 
 who has an extensive knowledge of the names of the long 
 
HIGHWAY RECORDS 75 
 
 dead adjoiners, this knowledge being aided by an incidental 
 record reference to an intersection with a third old road 
 the name of which has also changed. The searcher's atten- 
 tion having been arrested by these items of description, 
 his conclusions are confirmed by rinding a careful entry, 
 under the alteration, of the date and page of the original 
 description. Following is a copy of the record of the alter- 
 ation in full, as it is an excellent example of the wording of 
 an old highway record and because it furnishes several 
 excellent illustrations of the difficulties which beset the 
 surveyor who actually attempts to locate the bounds of 
 such a highway. 
 
 " We the Commissioners of highways of the Town of 
 Oysterbay in the County of Queens having in persuance of 
 the Statute entitled l An Act regulating highways and 
 bridges in the Counties of Suffolk, Queens and Kings ' 
 passed February 23rd 1830 taken a view of the highway in 
 the said Town of Oysterbay leading from Pitkin hollow to 
 the dwelling house of Horton Worman and finding said 
 highway to require alteration in some parts thereof as the 
 same was regulated and established by the Commissioners 
 of highways of the said Town of Oysterbay on the 6th day 
 of March 1827 and recorded in the book of the Records of 
 highways of the said Town of Oysterbay pages 183, 184 
 and 185, Do hereby order and direct that the said highway 
 be so far altered as that the center or middle line thereof 
 shall run as follows to Wit . . . Beginning 31 Links East- 
 
76 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 ward from a Walnut tree on the West on Caesar Brown's 
 Land, and running from thence S 5! W 2.35 Ch? a poplar 
 tree making the East Line thence S 14 E 1.81 Ch- thence 
 S 35 E 5.44 Ch? thence S 33^ E 2.47 Ch? thence S 
 3 E 4.59 Ch 9 - thence S 4^ E 7.15 Ch? Thence S J E 
 2.59 Ch- an apple tree on the West Line thence S 12^ E 
 2. 20 Ch- a white oak tree one foot East of the East Line 
 and a walnut tree one foot West of the West Line thence 
 S 33 y E 1.24 Ch? a wild cherry tree on the West Line 
 thence S 44 E 1.08 Ch?, thence S 39 E 2.72 Ch? an apple 
 tree on the West Line thence S 28 E 2.88 Ch? thence S 
 16 E 4.74 Ch? a white oak tree on the W thence S 12^ E 
 3.19 Ch? thence S if E 1.92 Ch? a walnut tree on the 
 West Line thence S i6j E till it strikes the road leading 
 from Robert Calwell's to Horton Worman's And that 
 the outlines or extreme boundaries of the said highway 
 shall be one and a half rods on each side thereof, so that 
 the said highway shall be three rods wide throughout . . . 
 And we do further order and direct that the Clerk of the 
 said Town of Oysterbay forthwith post a copy of this 
 order on the door of the house where the Annual Town 
 meeting in said Town was last held . . . Given under our 
 hands at the Town of Oysterbay the 28th day of July 
 1832. 
 
 THOMAS COCK) 
 
 Copy posted Aug. 6th, 1832 ISAAC WEEDS 
 Chs. H. Peters JACOB CROCKER 
 
 T. Clerk." 
 
 Com r l 
 
HIGHWAY RECORDS 77 
 
 Taken as old records go the above is a very satisfactory 
 one for the reason that a large number of landmarks are 
 specified. But it will be noticed that many points essen- 
 tial for the exact location of the road upon the ground are 
 entirely lacking. For instance the distance of the starting 
 point from the walnut tree is given but the exact bearing is 
 omitted, the general term " eastward " being used instead. 
 Also there is not the remotest attempt to define the point 
 on the original survey where the alteration begins or where 
 it ends, so that it is impossible to determine to what courses 
 the alterations apply. There is no way of telling at what 
 points on the side lines of the respective courses the various 
 landmarks stand we only know that a certain tree stood 
 somewhere on the side line of a certain course. Finally, 
 Who was Caesar Brown and where did he live? As a 
 matter of fact several people were asked, but they had 
 never heard the name. Finally I went to one of the oldest 
 men in town and asked him about it. " Yes," said he, 
 " I remember Caesar Brown when I was a boy. He was 
 
 an old man and that he lived about where A 's land is. 
 
 If you go there I think you will find the hole where the 
 cellar of his house used to be." On visiting the place the 
 cellar hole was easily found and, what was more, the walnut 
 tree, though dead, was still standing. 
 
 I have digressed a good deal from the main line of thought, 
 but I think that the above details will make two points 
 clear: first, that it is very difficult to find sufficiently clear 
 data for re-locating an old road with even approximate 
 
78 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 accuracy and, secondly, that it is of the utmost importance 
 to obtain the complete record of the road including all 
 changes which it may have undergone. 
 
 The genesis of all highways is not the same. While 
 many come from the legalizing of certain ancient traveled 
 ways, others are of gradual growth. Under the general 
 discussion of lot layouts it has been shown how in the proc- 
 ess of developing real estate a street may have successive 
 stages of extension as it is carried from one property on 
 into another. In the old days this process of development 
 was so gradual that some years might intervene between 
 the successive steps of street extension. On this account 
 it frequently happened that the street did not go onto the 
 records as a whole, but piece by piece, each section fre- 
 quently being described by the land through which it was 
 laid out and the final accepted name of the street never 
 appearing at all. For instance we will say that a street 
 now known as Summit Street runs through the lands of 
 Smith, Jones and Brown. Smith opened the portion 
 through his land first and it was described on the records 
 as " Road through James Smith's Land." Five years later 
 Jones decided to extend it through his property and it 
 was duly recorded as " Highway through William Jones' 
 Land." Finally Brown carried it through his land to the 
 highway adjoining him, naming it " Summit Street." It 
 would then very likely be recorded as " Summit Street 
 through John Brown's Land to the Turnpike." To get a 
 complete record of Summit Street all three records must 
 be looked up and fitted together. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RE-RUNNING OLD HIGHWAY RECORDS. 
 
 THE actual process of " running out " an old road record 
 is even more difficult in practice than it is in theory. No 
 actual rules can be given, but some general suggestions may 
 be helpful. It will readily be seen that in the case of a road 
 several miles in length, even though the starting point can 
 be exactly found, an error of one minute in the direction of 
 the first course will produce an enormous departure at 
 the end of the run. When one also takes into considera- 
 tion that the original survey was probably run with a 
 compass and that no attempt was made in most cases to 
 read more closely than quarter degrees, it will be seen that 
 all hope of exact re-location by instrumental methods only 
 must be abandoned at once. 
 
 If the surveyor has been so fortunate as to be able to 
 locate the starting point and compute the variation of the 
 compass, what is the next step after running and marking 
 the first course? Shall the succeeding courses be run by 
 the needle or shall they be located by turning off deflec- 
 tion angles? Theoretically it seems to me that the former 
 is the better method, since by it one may probably put 
 oneself more nearly under the conditions under which the 
 original surveyor worked. In actual practice it has been 
 found that better results have been obtained by turning off 
 
 79 
 
80 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 the deflection angles. Let the second course, then, be 
 turned off and run according to the record and the end of 
 it marked. The succeeding courses are to be run in the 
 same manner until the next landmark is reached, unless 
 there is good reason to believe that the work is going 
 seriously wrong. It is very seldom, however, that the 
 newly surveyed line is found to have exactly the same re- 
 lations to the landmarks that the record demands. If the 
 error of direction is large perhaps the simplest way is to 
 make some effort to approximate the angular correction 
 necessary, after which the courses may be re-run. It should 
 be borne in mind that during all this process most careful 
 account should be taken of all things that may help to 
 throw light on the problem. Marks on trees along the 
 sides of the road, the position of ancient lines of possession, 
 the testimony of adjoiners and the descriptions contained 
 in their deeds are all possible valuable sources of informa- 
 tion which must not be slighted. 
 
 It sometimes happens that both ends of some important 
 course are described with such detail with reference to 
 their direction and distance from the corners of buildings 
 still standing that it is possible to locate this course imme- 
 diately. When this condition exists the first running of 
 the courses will probably approximate closely to the original 
 line of survey. Yet even in this case the final location of 
 the line must in all probability be based on common-sense 
 conclusions drawn from a study of all the evidence obtain- 
 able. 
 
RE-RUNNING OLD HIGHWAY RECORDS 8 1 
 
 The surveyor will be aided in reaching these conclusions 
 by remembering the three following generalities which are 
 well substantiated by fact. 
 
 1. That the original record, while an invaluable general 
 guide, is only approximately accurate. 
 
 2. That in old roads the record was originally made in 
 accordance with the main lines of possession then existing, 
 and that such lines of possession as were at variance with 
 the newly recorded road were probably moved into their 
 proper position at an early date. 
 
 3. That the stations of the original survey the points 
 where the course changed were very frequently exactly 
 at those points where the road was intersected by the cross 
 fences between adjoining properties. 
 
 The previous suggestions apply more especially to find- 
 ing the approximate position of the line of the old record. 
 When this approximate position has been found a posi- 
 tion for the line where it agrees fairly well with the record 
 and the sum total of the evidence obtainable. The follow- 
 ing method has been found to be excellent for getting it 
 into its final and most nearly accurate location. Mark 
 each station with a stake if possible if not, with a spike 
 well driven down and take sufficient ties to every sta- 
 tion so that its exact location can be found again without 
 fail. Make an accurate traverse of the courses thus marked 
 and determine carefully the direction and distance from 
 the most convenient stations to every landmark which can 
 be identified and to every point whose position must be 
 
82 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 known. These notes should then be plotted in the office 
 on a large sheet of paper on which should also be drawn 
 two rectangular axes one running north and south and 
 one east and west conveniently placed. Next every co- 
 ordinate point in the survey with reference to these axes 
 should be computed and properly noted on the drawing. 
 The next thing is to determine by careful study how far 
 and in what direction the surveyed line must be moved in 
 order to bring it as nearly as possible into the same relation 
 with the landmarks as that shown by the record. Valuable 
 suggestions are often obtained by plotting both the new 
 survey and the old record on separate pieces of tracing 
 paper and superimposing them. 
 
 Having determined upon the amount which the new line 
 must be moved in order to bring it into its proper relation 
 to the landmarks, compute new coordinates for each of its 
 stations in the new position. It is then a simple matter to 
 compute the direction and distance for each station from 
 the stake left in the road to the point which the station 
 must finally occupy. It should be noted that the prin- 
 ciple of coordinates is of universal application. By far 
 the greater part of the old road records describe the survey 
 of the center line and the distance from the center line of 
 the side lines. The coordinates of these center-line sta- 
 tions, either approximate or real, being known, it is mani- 
 festly easy to compute the distance and direction to any 
 point on the outer boundaries of the road and also to de- 
 termine the relation of any point on these lines to any 
 
RE-RUNNING OLD HIGHWAY RECORDS 83 
 
 building or obstruction, the position of which is in question. 
 Familiarity with this method of computation cannot be too 
 strenuously urged. 
 
 While the great majority of country-road records give 
 the description by the center line, there are a few which de- 
 scribe one of the side lines instead. These are most easily 
 handled by computing from the record of the side line what 
 the center line would be and then running out this center 
 line. You undoubtedly will find that in all cases it is 
 thoroughly profitable to plot the old record with all its 
 landmarks on paper before going into the field. It fre- 
 quently happens that past masters of highways were not 
 past masters of the English language, and many old records 
 are exceedingly complicated and confused in their wording. 
 If the interpretation is carefully worked out step by step 
 and transferred to paper in actual lines and points the 
 meaning usually becomes perfectly clear. A blueprint of 
 this drawing is a most useful thing when it comes to the 
 actual outdoor work. 
 
 It sometimes happens that in searching the records for 
 the description of a particular road it is difficult to identify 
 that record when found. If, then, the record believed to be 
 the correct one be plotted on paper and the resulting map 
 be compared with the map of the desired road as shown 
 on the State Atlas Sheets or some other reliable chart, it is 
 usually very easy to decide whether further search is nec- 
 essary. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LAYING OUT NEW ROADS. 
 
 IT would not be right to leave the general subject of 
 roads without a few words of suggestion in the matter of 
 laying out and recording new highways. If the surveyor 
 comes in touch at all with the local government of his town 
 his first work will very probably be to lay out a new road, 
 or, more probably, to make a survey of a private road 
 already existing in order that it may be placed upon the 
 records of the town and made a public highway. The 
 common methods of procedure in such cases is for a num- 
 ber of property owners along a road to petition the town 
 to put the road on the highway list. If the petition is 
 accepted all persons owning land affected are called upon 
 to " sign a release," by which they agree to release the town 
 from all liability for any injury which may come to their 
 property through the opening of this road . The next thing 
 is to survey and mark the road in order that a description 
 of it may be put upon record and a description incorpo- 
 rated in the release. The surveyor is expected to make 
 this survey and to prepare the map and description. 
 
 From my own experience I am of the belief that the de- 
 termination of the exact boundary of such a private road 
 is a rather delicate affair. Among the petitioners there 
 
 84 
 
LAYING OUT NEW ROADS 85 
 
 are pretty sure to be one or more who are not very enthu- 
 siastic in the matter and who are very jealous of their 
 rights. Of course all principles of engineering require that 
 a road should consist of straight lines and satisfactory 
 curves, all laid with reference to ease of construction and 
 economy of maintenance. The prejudices and jealousies of 
 adjoiners, however, frequently make such a plan hopeless 
 of execution, and it is possible to place the road only in that 
 location where they are willing to have it go. The first 
 and most important thing is to determine accurately where 
 each owner's private boundary along the road is located. 
 Some owners will be willing to make concessions to the 
 common good, while some will not yield an inch. All 
 that the surveyor can do is to keep on hand an inexhaust- 
 ible supply of patience and good nature and to do the 
 best he can with the conditions as he finds them. 
 
 The survey of the road having been made, the boundaries 
 should be marked after the method commonly employed 
 by the town, though stone monuments should be used if 
 possible. Since stakes and even monuments are sometimes 
 buried and at times actually dug up, it is very desirable that 
 there should be some additional means of locating the lines 
 of the road easily and accurately. Accordingly all im- 
 portant points on the survey should have their location 
 clearly defined with reference to plain and permanent land- 
 marks wherever this is possible, and these " ties " should 
 be shown on the map, though for the sake of clearness they 
 may sometimes be wisely omitted from the written record. 
 
86 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 The description prepared for entry should be constructed 
 with great care. It should convey the intended meaning 
 without a shadow of ambiguity, and it should, in no par- 
 ticular, mean either more or less than it was intended to 
 mean. It is perhaps well to go over the first draft of such 
 a description with the town's legal adviser before offering 
 it for record, in order that no loophole may be left for 
 future litigation. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SURVEYOR. 
 
 THIS completes the suggestions which I wished to offer, 
 but I would like in conclusion to say a few words in a 
 general manner. This very brief treatise is not intended 
 as a handbook for surveyors in any way; it is not didactic 
 it is suggestive only. It is intended to give a little light 
 to men thrown, for perhaps the first time, on their own 
 responsibility or brought face to face with problems which 
 they have not met in their previous experience. For the 
 solution of these problems no general rules can be laid 
 down; each man must work out his own salvation. All 
 that I hope to do is to give a few suggestions from hard- 
 won personal knowledge which may make the road a little 
 easier. 
 
 The problems of boundary lie at the foundation of all 
 surveying, for one must know where a line is before he can 
 measure it, and the solution of these problems calls for the 
 -_same powers of accurate observation and of consecutive 
 and logical thought that are demanded for successful work 
 in any branch of modern science. It is needless to say that 
 the successful surveyor must be accurate in his instrument 
 work and in his computation; yet, if he would really suc- 
 ceed, he must go beyond this. He must add to this the 
 
 87 
 
88 BOUNDARIES AND LANDMARKS 
 
 patience to collect all the evidence which can be found 
 bearing upon the case in hand, together with the ability to 
 weigh this evidence to a nicety and to determine clearly 
 the course pointed out by the balance of probability. If, 
 in addition, he possesses enough imagination to cast pleasant 
 lights across the desert of dry details, he should be success- 
 ful indeed. 
 
 The watchwords of the surveyor are Patience and Com- 
 mon Sense. 
 
 The vocation of the Civil Engineer has always been in- 
 vested with a dignity of its own. But it seems to me that 
 of late years, in paying him the honor which is his just due, 
 we are apt to fix a little too wide a gap between him and 
 his humbler brother, the Surveyor. We give engineering 
 the chief attention in our technical schools, but surveying 
 we are wont to relegate to the Freshman class. Yet the 
 profession of the Surveyor deals with one of the oldest and 
 most fundamental facts of human society the possession 
 and inheritance of land. Fire, flood and earthquake wipe 
 out the greatest works of the engineer, but the land con- 
 tinueth forever. 
 
 Curiously enough the Surveyor is isolated in his calling, 
 and therein lie his responsibility and his temptations. The 
 lawyer comes nearest to understanding the work, yet of 
 the actual details of a survey most lawyers are woefully 
 ignorant. The business man who can judge to a hair the 
 fulfillment of a contract has no eye for the shortened line 
 
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SURVEYOR 89 
 
 or the shifted landmark. To the skilled accountant of the 
 bank the traverse sheet is a closed book. Dishonesty in 
 ordinary business life cannot long be hid and errors in 
 accounts quickly come to light, but the false or faulty 
 survey may pass unchallenged through the years, for few 
 but the Surveyor himself are qualified to judge it. I 
 maintain that in the hands of the Surveyor, to an excep- 
 tional degree, lie the honor of the generations past and the 
 welfare of the generations to come; in his keeping is the 
 Doomsday Book of his community, and who shall know if 
 he is false to his trust? Therefore I believe that to every 
 Surveyor who values his honor and has a full sense of his 
 duty the fear of error is a perpetual shadow that darkens 
 the sunlight. 
 
 Yet it seems to me that to a man of active mind and 
 high ideals the profession is singularly suited; for to the 
 reasonable certainty of a modest income must be added 
 the intellectual satisfaction of problems solved, a sense of 
 knowledge and power increasing with the years, the re- 
 spect of the community, the consciousness of responsibility 
 met and work well done. It is a profession for men who 
 believe that a man is measured by his work, not by his 
 purse, and to such I commend it. 
 
D.VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 
 
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 In addition to publishing a very large 
 and varied number of SCIENTIFIC AND 
 ENGINEERING BOOKS, D. Van Nostrand 
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 assortment in the United States of such 
 books issued by American and foreign 
 publishers. 
 
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 fully answered and complete catalogs 
 sent free on request. 
 
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