Winslow —The Mapping of Missour. 79 
The year 1815 brings us to what we may consider the be- 
ginning of the Land Office surveys in the State. During 
October of that year the Fifth Principal Meridian was begun 
at the mouth of the Arkansas river and was run north to the 
Missouri, reaching this stream December 27th, 1815.* Upon 
this line all of the subdivisions in the State are based. The 
survey was made with a compass. No record is contained in 
the copy of the field notes in the Land Office at Jefferson 
City, of any observations for the variation of the needle, but 
such must have been made, for the line to have been run 
with any approach to accuracy.f In the Land Office In- 
struction for Deputy Surveyors, dated 1856, it is stated that 
‘‘Base and Meridian Lines in the District were formerly 
run with a common compass, and in many instances are far 
from being correct.’’ Burt’s solar compass was later adopted 
whenever practicable. The instructions further specify that, 
where local attraction exists, other means than the needle must 
be used. The law did not require the determination of the 
latitude and longitude of the base lines and principal meridians. 
The Land Office surveys were pursued on what is termed the 
rectangular system, and were continued in the State up to 
about the year 1850. The surveys in Bates county and those 
in the northwestern countries of the Platte purchase were 
among the latest. In the former, work was done during the 
years 1843 to ’44, and, in Atchison county, during the years 
1846 and’47. The last contract recorded in the Missouri con- 
tracts is for April, 1852, when some small fractions of sections 
were surveyed along the Iowa line. | 
This system of surveys, though very imperfect in plan and 
inaccurately executed, furnished a vast amount of data for the 
development of cartography in the State, especially such as 
related to the details of the locations of the rivers and smaller 
streams. The results of these surveys, it will be seen later, 
are incorporated in many subsequent maps. 
* The survey was made by P. K. Robbins, under instruction from Wm. 
Rector, Surveyor of the Territory. 
+ Mr. J. S. Higgins, of St. Louis, informs the writer that such observations 
are recorded in the copy of the original field notes preserved in the Land 
Office at Little Rock. 
