the matter was left in careless hands, to say the least. 

 Then came fire, and usually a second fire and by this 

 time there was but little left of any of the land marks. 

 Today there is no section line which might be traced 

 by the land marks or blazes and there is not one cor- 

 ner in twenty in which is even approximately com- 

 plete in its marks. The merest remnants must suf- 

 fice for clues and no spot, no line, no corner can be 

 located without instruments and considerable skill 

 and experience. To the ordinary man standing in 

 the midst of one of the large denuded areas, the idea of 

 exact location is positively bewildering. Nor does 

 the initiated fare so much better. "Oh, yes, Mr. X 

 knows every corner in that town," the writer was in- 

 formed but when Mr. X was taken out to locate them, 

 he knew not a single one. Nor did anyone else know 

 any corner of the town so that one could really be cer- 

 tain with regard to the matter. But the care of the 

 Reserves requires that the ranger protect the W 1-2 

 of Section 6 of T-R-, or it requires that he assign the 

 timber on the S. W. 1-4 of N. E. 1-4 of Section 7, T- 

 R-. But how is he to do this if the section lines and 

 corners are gone? Why, he must survey. After that 

 it may happen that a fire breaks out, that trespass 

 occurs on this same section and the question is: Is it 

 on Reserve lands? To ascertain, he again surveys. 

 And it is in this way that all of the north of Michigan 

 has been located and re-located, most of it many times 

 and no end of money wasted in surveying and re-sur- 

 veying, to say nothing of the hundreds of lawsuits; 

 all because there were no land marks kept up by 

 which people could go. But the Reserve work re- 

 quires more. The land shall be re-stocked, fire lines 

 shall be built, roads and trails established, and all 

 should be planned to do the most good to the lands in 

 hand. To do any of this work as it should be done, 

 the lands must be located on the ground and the maps 

 made to show the land on paper. Such marks are not 

 in existence and such maps must yet be made; and it 

 is to supply this most urgent need that the survey is 

 made. 



For three seasons during the months of July, Au- 

 gust and September this work has been carried on. 

 Thus far about 28,000 acres have been surveyed at a 

 cost of about 7 1-2 cents per acre. The work was 

 mostly done by forestry students of the University 

 and Agricultural College receiving $20.00 and board 

 per month, since some training in botany, forest de- 

 scription as well as mapping is essential and experi- 

 rienced men of this kind are not easily nor cheaply 

 procured. 



In working, one crew locates the section lines and 

 corners, blazes and erects monuments along these 

 lines. This was done with large compass the first 

 two seasons, with transit in 1905. Two crews do the 

 interior work of mapping and describing. They work 

 north and south and each "forty, " or forty acre tract, 

 is examined along the east and west lines and along a 

 line running through the middle, jThis covers the 

 area in such a manner that in mapping and describing 

 the crew never describes forest or land more than no 

 yards from the line along which they travel, so that 

 it is literally true that they "see every acre" (a phrase 

 so much used and so rarely true). The distances are 

 measured (not paced) and the changes in level are 

 taken with a height measure. The lines are run with 

 sight compass with three and a half inch needle levels 

 and mounted on Jacob staff. 



The section is divided into eight lots by lines blazed 

 by this mapping crew t each lot forming an 80 acre 

 tract and either the east or the west half of the regular 

 quarter section. 



The mapping is done on a scale of i to 5,280 (i foot 



