Z 
BUOYING. 
When the Commissioners began the work imposed upon them by 
the State, about 45,000 acres of ground had been designated by town 
committees within the area of State jurisdiction. A few of the lots 
so granted were buoyed out by the owners, but not with any degree 
of accuracy, except in a few instances. The law required that these 
lots should be surveyed, mapped and buoyed under the supervision 
of the Commissioners. The aggregate area designated by the Com- 
missioners during the past three years is 38,548 acres, which have 
also to be surveyed, mapped and buoyed. The whole number of 
acres thus subject to the care of the Engineer is 83,548, besides 
15,714 acres awaiting the action of the Commissioners. The work 
thus required of the Commissioners involves not only a vast amount 
of severe labor, but extraordinary patience, exactitude and skill. It 
is due to the members of the engineering department, Messrs. Bogart, 
Sanford, and Pike, Jr., to say that they have discharged their duties 
in this perplexing and fatiguing work with an alacrity and ability that 
deserves the highest commendation. The elaborate triangulation 
work upon which the accuracy of the surveying, mapping and buoy- 
ing depends, extending from the State boundary at Rye to the Con- 
necticut River, was completed last year, and all the mathematical data 
pertaining to the angles, signal points and objects of reference have 
been tabulated for practical use. The whole number of triangulation 
points determined is 118, and this after repeated observations and 
scientific tests. Of these points, thirty-five are marked by signals 
built generally in tripod form by the Commissioners; the rest con- 
sist of prominent natural or artificial objects, such as steeples, chim- 
neys, light houses, trees, etc. 
Thus has been established fer all future time, an accurate and per- 
manent basis, in reference to which the exact position of any point 
on the water may be determined. And the ascertainment of such 
points on the water is what has occupied much of the time of the 
engineers the past year. Having possession of the data of all the 
triangulation points, the engineers had only to go upon a lot, take 
the sextant angles formed by three lines radiating from a corner and 
extending over known signal points, they could easily determine the 
exact geodetic position of that corner and place it on the map; and 
so of all the other corners. In this way not only the location of the 
lot but its correct area is secured. Experience shows that most of 
the uncertainty and difficulty of surveys on the water are avoided 
