On Land Surveys in the United States. 137 



tliem either directly or indirectly the result of the present loose and 

 imperfect method of conducting land surveys. This evil is not how- 

 ever, it must be acknowledged, confined exclusively to the surveyors. 

 Many of our lawyers, who are intrusted with the drafting of instru- 

 ments of conveyance, are often deficient in the knowledge requi- 

 site to render their descriptions of land correct and to place them 

 beyond the possibility of a misconstruction. The only instruction 

 which this class of men usually receive on this important subject 

 is the scanty amount ingrafted into a collegiate course, embracing 

 perhaps a knowledge of the method of instituting a few proportions 

 and resolving a few problems in plane trigonometry, but which can 

 by no means be regarded as embracing a knowledge of surveying, 

 in its more enlarged and appropriate sense. It is a mistaken idea, 

 that an individual who can count the divisions on a graduated circle 

 and repeat a few propositions in geometry, is competent to the correct 

 tracing of lines or the performance of the various duties of a surveyor. 

 The directive property of the magnetic nedle is truly productive of 

 the greatest service to mankind, but like many other agents in nature 

 it loses much of its value in unskilful hands, and a similar liability to 

 error is incurred in other matters relating to the subject by those 

 who are not thoroughly and scientifically versed in the practice of 

 the profession. 



I have already alluded to the method of surveying the public lands 

 as exhibiting the least exceptionable and most agreeable feature in 

 the present system. In the planning of that method, much judg- 

 ment and foresight were displayed, but while the design is justly to be 

 approved and admired, the means for carrying it into effect are liable 

 to most if not all the objections which have been stated with respect 

 to the present mode of surveying ; and it is greatly to be feared that 

 the. beauty of the whole will be impaired and the intentions of its pro- 

 jectors in a great design defeated, unless measures are soon taken to 

 correct some of the existing evils. 



With a view of remedying many of the defects and obviating many 

 of the difficulties arising out of the present condition of things, the 

 following is presented as a general outline of the manner of organizing 

 a system adapted to each state in the Union. 



1st. There shall be in each state a Surveyor General. 



2d. This officer to be appointed by the Governor and senate, or 

 governor and council, as the case may be, and to hold his office for 

 the term of (say) six years at least. ^ 



Vol. XIX.— No. L 18 



