SURVEYING PRACTICE 25 



on the sides facing the line, without any other marks whatever. 

 These are called sight trees or line trees. A sufficient number of 

 other trees standing within 50 links of the line, on either side of 

 it, will be blazed on two sides diagonally or quartering toward the 

 line, in order to render the line conspicuous, and readily to be 

 traced in either direction, the blazes to be opposite each other, 

 coinciding in direction with the line, where the trees stand very 

 near it, and to approach nearer each other toward the line, the 

 farther the line passes from the blazed trees. 



Due care will ever be taken to have the lines so well marked 

 as to be readily followed, and to cut the blazes deep enough to 

 leave recognizable scars as long as the trees stand. This can be 

 attained only by blazing through the bark to the wood. Trees 

 marked less thoroughly will not be considered sufficiently blazed. 

 Where trees two inches or more in diameter occur along a line, 

 the required blazes will not be omitted. 



Lines are also to be irftirked by cutting away enough of the 

 undergrowth of bushes or other vegetation to facilitate correct 

 sighting of instruments. 



These directions are ample, have been tested by use, and 

 are practically the same as those issued for land survey 

 work in the Dominion of Canada. Plainly, however, they 

 are adapted to sparsely wooded land, for, in real timber' 

 growth, blazed trees two rods away from the line would be 

 a source of confusion. In fact, the narrower a line is blazed, 

 so long as it is clear and durable, the better. A good 

 general rule to be applied in timber is to blaze those trees, 

 and only those, which a man can reach with his axe when 

 standing directly in the line. 



A line in ordinary woods well blazed according to this 

 method is prominent, and reasonably durable, while the 

 quartering of the spots and special marking of the " line" 

 trees render it reasonably well defined. If decent care is 

 used in maintenance, and if when it has become dim or 

 doubtful it is thoroughly and carefully renewed, there need 

 be no great trouble or expense involved in that process, 

 and no trespass or dispute meanwhile. Certain identifica- 

 tion of the " line" trees of a previous authoritative survey 

 is a great help in renewal. In the United States system that 

 is secured by notching those trees ; in the province of New 

 Brunswick they are blazed and the blazes hacked three 

 times upward. The same thing might be secured, and in 

 addition the work of the individual surveyor identified, 



