34 SURVEY OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
he ever afterwards did; and thus, in effect, Mr. Paine became the astronomical, and Mr. 
Stevens the topographical surveyor. 
Mr. Paine, I think, in the course of this season, commenced making astronomical and 
chronometrical observations. 
When we had completed the measurement of the base line, I left the service; but I 
again engaged, as an assistant to Mr. Stevens, the following spring, and have been ever 
since connected with the survey. After Mr. Stevens had conducted the topographical 
survey about three years, he resigned his appointment. As I had assisted him in every 
part of the work which had been performed, and of course was fully acquainted with all 
that had been done, the governor thought it proper to place the survey under my charge. 
The field work of the survey I completed in the spring of 1838; and I presumed that when 
I had made the necessary trigonometrical computations, my labours would end; or that, 
if I were continued, it would be in the capacity of an assistant to Mr. Paine, since 
T supposed that Mr. Paine would at this point take charge of the construction of the map, 
and particularly of the mathematical calculations necessary to render the work complete. 
In this, however, I was mistaken, for Mr. Paine had made his final report a short time be- 
fore the triangulation was in readiness for the commencement of compiling the map; and 
thus the responsibility of completing the work unexpectedly devolved upon me. 
After I had completed the field work, and had calculated a sufficient number of the 
main triangles to cover a section of fifty miles square of the western portion of the state, I 
commenced the work of compiling the map, when I found the town maps which had 
been returned to the Secretary so incorrectly drawn as to render it impossible, in their 
actual state, to make a satisfactory map from them. I was then obliged to go into the 
field again, with four or five assistants, and make corrections; and this operation has 
been one of continued perplexity, and has cost the state, in my department alone, at 
the least estimation, ten thousand dollars more than it would have done, had the towns 
executed their portion of the work in good faith. It is my opinion that had the work 
been performed from beginning to end under the direction of a faithful and competent 
engineer, it might have been executed, at the rate of compensation which has been paid, 
for many thousand dollars less than it has now cost. 
Still the survey of the state of Massachusetts, including eight thousand two hundred 
and thirty square miles of territory, and having an indented sea coast of about three hun- 
dred miles, has been completed, in little more than ten years, at an expense of only sixty- 
one thousand, three hundred and twenty-two dollars. A brief and imperfect account of 
this work is offered in the present paper. Of its merits and the manner in which we have 
executed the trust committed to our charge, we leave others to judge. 
SECTION Il.—OF THE STANDARD SCALE AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE BASE, 
The standard of length first selected was a scale of two feet, constructed upon compen- 
sating principles, and of course unsuitable for subdivision. Being afterwards compared 
at Washington, by Mr. Hassler, Superintendent of the United States’ Coast Survey, with 
his 82 inch scale of Troughton’s construction, which is an exact copy from the well 
known Troughton scale of Sir George Shuckburgh, it was found to be 0.0018 inches too 
short, at the temperature of 57°.5 Fah. Buta part of the triangles having been, previous 
