138 Forest Club Annual 



the bank on the left hand when proceeding down stream was 

 considered the left bank and the bank on the right hand, the 

 right bank. When there was a considerable number of corners 

 and courses the error of closure was usually large. Although 

 the allowable error of closure was one link to the chain the 

 combined error of latitude and departure for a 160 acre tract 

 was seldom over one-eighth of a link per chain. 



It is very important that the surveyor write up field notes 

 and make the plats in the field. Also it was necessary that 

 the notes and reports should be properly signed, as the General 

 Land Office would not accept notes signed with a typewriter 

 or a stamp. In making plats a scale of eight inches to the 

 mile was used. It was desirable to show relief by hachures 

 or in rare cases by contours. When using hachures the system 

 used was three lines in the hachure to indicate the foot of a 

 bench, four lines to indicate the top of a bench, and five lines 

 to indicate the foot of a mountain. (See accompanying map). 

 Ridges are indicated by the conventional chain-link sign. The 

 plat showed all distinct land features, water courses, springs, 

 railroads, trails, wagon roads, log chutes, mining claims, power 

 sites and all important natural and cultural features. The 

 maps were platted in the field. Some distances and directions 

 were figured by latitude and departure, and areas were com- 

 puted by the double meridian distance method. The compo- 

 sition of the stand as to species and amount of each was shown 

 by heavy black figures and letters, and the type of cover of 

 the land was indicated by colored crayons which showed 

 classifications in conformity with the Forest Service Atlas 

 Legend, as for example, cultivated land was indicated by 

 solid red ; areas applied for were surrounded by a blue line ; 

 areas recommended for listing by an orange line ; and areas 

 suspended from listing by a green line. 



In listing lands where it was necessary to protect National 

 Forest interests or the interests of the public at large, a pas- 

 sage on or across said land was reserved. For instance, if it 

 was found necessary to run a road or a trail through a claim, 

 an explicit statement was made in the body of the recom- 

 mendation stating, "except a strip of land 30 feet wide within 



