258 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



later, was to become, and who is now, Surveyor General of Dominion 

 Lands, namely, Dr. E. G. D. Deville, I.S.O., D.T.S. 



In Fig. D is shown a plan of a township surveyed by me in 1910 

 in Alberta, which is typical of the general system of survey as now 

 carried out. 



The regular section of approximately one mile square is ordin- 

 arily divided into four quarter sections of 160 acres each, for home- 

 steading or other purposes. Road allowances of one chain, or sixty- 

 six feet, in width are allowed along each section line running north 

 and south, but only along every alternate section line running east 

 and west. Prior to 1881 there were surveyed a number of townships, 

 confined largely to Manitoba or its immediate vicinity, in which the 

 road allowances, unnecessarily wide as it was found, were a chain 

 and one-half (or 99 feet) in width, and were allowed along every sec- 

 tion line, whether running east and west or north and south. 



When the Canadian Pacific railway was constructed across the 

 continent arrangements were made between the Government of Brit- 

 ish Columbia and the Federal Government, by which certain lands 

 in British Columbia traversed by the railway were to be surveyed by 

 the latter government. The system, commenced in 1884 for the sur- 

 vey of lands within this "belt" of twenty miles on each side of the 

 C.P.R., is the section system as described, but modified by adding 

 to each quarter section of 160 acres an allowance of three acres for 

 roads, instead of locating this allowance along section lines. Such a 

 modification is very necessary on account of the mountainous char- 

 acter of the Railway belt. The Manual of Instructions states: — 

 "The directions for the survey of township and section lines may 

 in the mountains have to be departed from, but must be adhered to 

 as closely as the nature of the ground will allow." 



Outside of the Railway belt, and a block of 3,500,000 acres in 

 the Peace River country, the survey of Crown lands in British Colum- 

 bia is under the control of the Provincial, and not the Federal, Gov- 

 ernment. Where the nature of the country will admit, lands may be 

 surveyed into townships substantially like those laid out in the Rail- 

 way belt. In many localities the mountainous nature of the coun- 

 try would not permit of a whole township being laid out, and yet 

 certain areas are adapted to settlement. Provision has therefore 

 been made that "All Crown lands may be surveyed into quadrilat- 

 eral lots, bounded by lines run as nearly as may be true north and 

 south and east and west." Such lots may contain an area of from 

 40 acres up to 640 acres, and are generally rectangular, though a 

 body of water may form one or more boundaries of a lot. 



Before concluding this paper, it might be of interest to describe 

 very briefly how the great extent of township surveys in the Prairie 

 Provinces has been accomplished without confusion. The country 

 was first divided into strips approximately 180 miles wide, where 

 bounded on the south by the international boundary. The east 

 and west boundaries of such strips are carefully surveyed lines, known 

 as initial meridians, and, if continued northerly, should all meet at 



