1882. ] q ENGINEER’S REPORT. 91 
distances given were incorrect. Two of the points which should 
have been identical were about three-fourths of a mile apart. 
At Greenwich we find quite a number of designations depend- 
ing on descriptions like the following one: “North by William 
Farley; west by range of bunch of bushes on knoll over gate 
on land of the late George Ferris, Greenwich point, thence south- 
erly five rods on this range. Thence easterly on a line equal with 
William Farley’s south line.” The area is two acres. 
I do not wish to draw a one-sided picture of the character of 
the records. Certain it is that enough gf them will trouble us 
unless the owners show their own claims. 
The surveys of the past have been quite as good as could be 
expected when we consider the limitations under which they were 
made. Suffice it to say that many of them fail to meet even the 
present requirements. The old plan of each owner hiring his 
own surveyor to map his own ground has not proved successful; 
nor could perfect work be secured without adequate compensa- 
tion. In all cases certain geometrical conditions must be met or 
the result will be worthless. The plan of Town Committee work 
has its disadvantages. Often a surveyor is employed and told 
that but little is needed. Operating in this restricted way, he 
produces a map of a small area and then the committee add lot 
after lot to this little nucleus. Sometimes the additions are made 
from points which sound well determined, but which really may 
be quite indefinite. Again, a man applies for a certain number of 
acres, and the committee, if they complied with the former law, 
went out into the Sound and buoyed out the ground. They re- 
turn to the Town clerk’s office and place upon the map what pur- 
ports to be the ground just buoyed out. I submit that in most 
instances they have not marked in the right place, nor the right 
size. Thus accumulations of errors occur which reduce these 
maps to mere sketches. I instance two adjacent tracts in Milford; 
one is of four hundred acres, the other six hundred acres. They 
occupy quite equal space upon the map, Ranges taken on church 
spires, lone trees, lighthouses, or prominent buildings are very 
good, but even these are subject to change or disappearance. 
During the past summer we have essayed to use six of the church 
steeples as determined, in 1835, by the coast and geodetic survey. 
We found only one of these available. In the case of the other 
five, new edifices had been built in locations more or less remote 
from the old site. | 
