SURVEYING 



39 



called correction lines. Guide meridians are run north from 

 the base line and from the standard parallels at intervals of 

 24 miles. These blocks of land are successively divided 

 into townships six miles square and then into sections ap- 

 proximately one mile square. 



Townships. The townships lying between two consec- 

 utive meridians six miles apart constitute a range, and the 

 ranges are numbered from the principal meridian, both east 

 and west. The townships in each range are numbered 

 both north and south from the base line. Thus if a town- 

 ship lies 18 miles west 

 of the principal meridian 

 and 12 miles north of 

 the base line, it is de- 

 scribed as Township 

 (Twp.) 2 N., Range 3 W. 

 Sections. Each town- 

 ship is divided into 36 

 sections of 1 square mile, 

 or 640 acres more or less, 

 the exact areas being 

 subject to the conver- 

 gence or divergence of 

 the meridians, which 

 amounts to about a foot for each mile. 



Sections in all of the more recent surveys are numbered, 

 beginning with the section in the northeast corner of the 

 township as No. 1, and proceeding as indicated in Fig. 27. 



Subdivisions of Sections. Each section may be divided 

 into one-fourth section, or 160 acres, or into still smaller 

 divisions of 80, 40, or 10 acres. Each of these divisions may 

 be described by its location in the section. Thus a quarter 

 section of 160 acres may be the N.E.Ji, S.E.J4, S.W.Ji, or 



27. 



The numbering of the sections 

 in the township. 



