100 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



map of such description, was the coast charts published by the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, which I adopted and 

 which furnishes the basis for this whole investigation. These 

 charts, nineteen in number, cover the entire coast. 



From these charts I proceeded to make a catalog of every 

 island and ledge on the Maine coast as far as it appeared from 

 said chart to be in any part above water at high water mark. I 

 listed some thirteen hundred islands and ledges along the coast. 



Description of Card Index. 



To avoid confusion in names, as well as to make possible 

 an accurate listing of these islands, I adopted the method of 

 dividing each chart into squares, using lines of longitude and 

 latitude of four minutes each. I thus have the longitude and 

 latitude of each square, by which it may be readily located. I 

 have numbered each square on these charts consecutively com- 

 mencing with lOO, to avoid confusion with island numbers ; and 

 numbered each island in the square consecutively beginning 

 with one. The size of these squares is a mere arbitrary selec- 

 tion with a view of making a square as large as possible con- 

 sistent with its not containing too large a number of islands 

 to be easily listed. 



I then prepared a card index of all these islands, not in alpha- 

 betical order of their name, but in numerical order of the 

 squares, using a heavy index card for each square, followed by 

 cards in numerical order containing the name and number of 

 islands as appear on charts. As stated before, this method 

 definitely locates a particular island, and avoids the confusion 

 caused by the fact that many of these islands have the same 

 name. 



Thi^ card index and charts are a part of this report, and are 

 filed with it in the Land Office. 



How TO Use the Card Index. 



For information about a particular island, locate the island 

 on the series of charts. It will be found numbered in a certain 

 square — for instance, island No. i in square loo. Go to the 

 card index and under square lOO, as indicated on the heavy 

 index cards, on the first card will be found whatever this 

 investigation may have discovered about that particular island. 



