LAND SURVEYS 



101 



in unsurveyed country. Land-survey lines are used where the 

 land has been surveyed, and where there are no land-survey 

 lines or satisfactory topographic features, metes and bounds 

 are used with proper monuments around a part or the whole 

 of the reserve. 



Foreign land grants. 

 Spanish land grants and 

 French land grants have 

 their boundaries deter- 

 mined by metes-and- 

 bounds surveys, but later 

 many of these have been 

 subdivided by private 

 owners in conformity with 

 the rectangular system. 



ADMINISTRATION 



National. The admin- 

 istration of the public land 

 surveys is vested in the 

 General Land Office, 

 which is a bureau of the 

 United States Depart- 

 ment of the Interior. 

 The Commissioner of the 

 Land Office has general 

 charge of all public lands, 

 both as to their surveys 

 and as to their disposal to 

 private individuals or corporations, and he acts as a court 

 of appeal on disputed points. For convenience in the 

 administration of the law relating to surveying and the 

 classification of public lands, offices were established in 

 each state or territorial organization and all survey work 

 relating to public lands was handled through these offices, 

 a copy of the surveyor's plats and field notes being filed 



Fig. 107. Monument 185 on the Inter- 

 national Boundary between the United 

 States and Mexico (monument made 

 of cast iron) 



