RURAL PLANNING:AND DEVELOPMENT 259 



the North Pole. The first of these, which is called the Principal 

 Meridian, is situated in the vicinity of Winnipeg, and the others, 

 with but two exceptions, number west from it. These meridians are 

 connected by base lines, also carefully surveyed, running east and 

 west at a distance of 24 miles, or the depth of four townships, apart. 

 From these base lines the outlines of the intervening townships are 

 prbjected, and eventually each township is surveyed into sections. 



The townships number northerly from the international boun- 

 dary and in ranges easterly and westerly from the Principal Meridian, 

 easterly from the second meridian east, and westerly from the other 

 meridians. The advantage of this method of numbering is that a 

 very little familiarity with the system will enable anyone to tell from 

 its designation the approximate location of a township. Thus 

 the northwest corner of township 62, range 20, west of the fourth 

 meridian, as shown in Fig. D. is, for practical purposes, 372 miles 

 north of the international boundary, or the 49th parallel of latitude, 

 and 120 miles west of the fourth meridian, whicn is in longitude 110 

 west of Greenwich. 



In 1915 $1,000,000 was appropriated for 70 survey parties, 

 engaged for the most part in the necessary preliminary surveys of 

 base lines and outlines or in the actual subdividing of townships. 

 In 1916, only 56 parties were in the field. To issue the necessary in- 

 structions, check, plot, and reproduce surveyors' returns requires a 

 staff of some 150, most of whom are technical graduates of recognized 

 universities, or men well experienced and qualified in their particular 

 lines of work. This staff is permanently employed at Ottawa, in the 

 Topographical Surveys Branch of the Department of the Interior, 

 under the direction of the Surveyor General. Year by year it has 

 been the endeavour to increase the accuracy of the surveying opera- 

 tions. No more modern equipment exists in America for testing sur- 

 veyors' instruments and tapes than that installed in the Comparator 

 building and in the Surveys laboratory at Ottawa. Levels, as now 

 taken on base and meridian lines and on a number of the section lines 

 in each township, provide useful contour information of the country 

 surveyed. The posts or monuments erected to define the limits of 

 sections or quarter sections have recently been made of a very per- 

 manent character. In the early surveys throughout Canada a wooden 

 post was frequently the only monument used. Such a marking soon 

 disappeared, frequently causing confusion and trouble. That now 

 used, a large iron tube filled with concrete and sunk flush with the 

 ground, with four surrounding pits, forms a monument for Dominion 

 Land Surveys that is permanent yet easily found. 



Dr. King, in his paper of 1884, previously referred to, says: 

 "For the sake of greater simplicity in making surveys, it is neces- 

 sary that all boundaries of lots shall be straight lines . . . and, as 

 the lots are intended for farms, they should be as nearly square as 

 possible, the squares of all four-sided figures containing the greatest 

 area of land for the length of fencing required, and any other angles 

 than right angles causing inconvenient corners," and in the conclusion 

 of his paper: 



