102 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



(b) Photography — In addition to sketching there was also a beginning this 

 season of survey based on photography. The system adopted is the one origin- 

 nated and developed by the Dominion Topographical Surveys Branch, and is 

 generally known as the "distorted grid" system. It is a method whose results 

 can be checked mathematically, and which in actual practice has produced very 

 accurate results 



Properly developed by the Branch, it will, by supplying an accurate base 

 map for aerial timber classification, eliminate one of the chief elements of cost 

 and error in our present system of survey. If an organization to carry on this 

 method could be assembled and put in working order by the Branch, prior to 

 undertaking estimation in Patricia and other poorly-mapped sections of the 

 Province, a great saving in time and money and a tremendous gain in accuracy 

 and prestige would be effected. Such an organization need not be elaborate nor 

 would the equipment cost be high, as compared to the value of the work done. 



III. Forest Survey and Investigation 



Report of the Nipigon Forest Survey, Eastern Portion. 



1. Area Surveyed. — ^The tract surveyed during the first half of the summer 

 season of 1924 lies east of Lake Nipigon to the watershed of that lake, and 

 extends from the southern boundary of ^the Nipigon Forest Reserve to the 

 Transcontinental Railway on the north. 



The total area covered was 2,770 square miles, or 1,772,835 acres, all of 

 which is Crown land, with the exception of approximately one-third of the 

 townships of Purdom and Ledger, held under veteran claims. 



2. Object of Survey and Method. — The object of the survey was to obtain 

 information for — (1) the completion of a forest type map, showing composition 

 and age-class conditions, (2) an estimate of standing timber; (3) improving the 

 existing map in correcting as far as possible the water routes and adding as many 

 unmapped routes as possible. 



The method consisted of a combination of (a) ground-work; (b) aerial type 

 mapping. 



(a) Ground work. — Thirty-four men made up the crew for the ground work. 

 This number includes five foresters, sixteen forestry students, nine men used 

 either as packers or on the strip parties, and four cooks. 



The organization of the work consisted of a chief, and sub-chief and four 

 field parties composed of a chief and five men, together with a cook and packers 

 where needed. 



Field operations extended from May 26th to October 15th, with two months 

 allotted to complete the work on the east side. 



Strips were used in collecting field data. Owing to the limited time to cover 

 so large an area, it was not possible to define any set instructions as to the distance 

 apart the strips would be run and this was left to the direction of party chiefs. 

 Every effort was made to adhere to strips one half-mile apart and run as nearly 

 as possible at right angles to the water courses. 



The eleven-foot strip was practically used throughout, and it was only in 

 the open jack pine stands that a thirty-three-foot strip was used. 



A two or three-man unit formed a strip crew. Since the whole area does not 

 bear any important stands of saw timber species and the strips were eleven-feet 

 wide, a two-man unit proved almost as effective as the three men. 



The amount of strip run by all parties amounts to 1,276 miles, or 1,678 acres. 

 This was distributed as follows: — 266 acres in the Superior drainage; 226 in the 



