THE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND 129 



line, and of the sections by successive numbers within 

 the township. Of the surveyed portions of the terri- 

 tory plats, maps and records were to be kept, so that 

 it would be relatively easy to locate authoritatively 

 any tract of land in the surveyed area, and thus in 

 the main avoid costly litigation and conflict of title. 

 Subsequently provision was made for the subdivision 

 of sections into fractional portions; and while the 

 description of tracts of land by "meets and bounds" 

 is occasionally met with in ]\Iicliigan, much of the 

 land is located under the old Congressional plan 

 of 1785; and the Auditor-General of the State has 

 earnestly sought to make the practice universal in 

 order, among other things, that the identity of all 

 lands subject to taxation shall be beyond question.^ 

 In 1920, Auditor-General 0. B. Fuller estimated the 

 total number of descriptions of property on the tax 

 rolls of Michigan at some 1,500,000. Of the 300,000 

 descriptions of property on which taxes are annually 

 returned as delinquent, he states the number of these 

 that are erroneous to be from 15 to 20 per cent of 

 the total, partly due to error in the caption of the 

 plat, and partly due to indefinite description of the 

 property. He lias knowledge of faulty descriptions 

 only in cases in which property is returned as de- 

 linquent for taxes, but he believes that in the south- 

 ern — and therefore the oldest — counties of the State 

 40 per cent of all property is described by meets 

 and bounds in spite of the form of description ap- 

 ' Hinsdale: "The Old Northwest," ch. XIV. 



