10 Report of Forest, Fish and Game Commission. 



are situated within the Park, and the remainder, 118,923 acres, 

 are outside the boundary or " blue line " as shown on the last edition 

 of the Adirondack map issued by your Commission. 



The actual acreage of the Adirondack Park is greater than the 

 area indicated by the figures given, — how much so it is difficult to 

 say. The statement of area, as reported here is based on the assessed 

 acreage of each lot, which as we have learned by experience is gener- 

 ally less than the real acreage when determined by a careful survey. 

 Most of the lands in the Adirondacks are bought and sold by the 

 assessed acreage, the old convej^ances specifying the number of acres 

 and always qualifying the statement with the words "more or less.'' 

 Whenever we have found it necessary to make a careful survey 

 and chaining of a lot, parcel or township, we have discovered almost 

 invariably that there was a surplus, that the lot "overrun" the 

 acreage called for in the various deeds, and on which the assessment 

 is made. 



This condition is largely due to the loose methods of work in use 

 by the old surveyors who made the original allotments. They 

 used a drag chain, and ran the lines as fast as they could, some of 

 them being paid by the number of acres surveyed instead of by 

 the days worked. Whenever, in their haste or carelessness, they 

 failed to tally a chain there was a corresponding increase of imre- 

 corded area; and, in some instances, as stated in their field notes 

 the colonial surveyors "threw in a few chains for good measure." 



It would be difficult to estimate, even approximately, how far 

 such methods have contributed to the difference between the assessed 

 and actual acreage; but a careful study of the facts, together with 

 many years experience in these land statistics, leads me to believe 

 that the lots will in the aggregate overrun the old surveys at least 

 five per cent; and, that while the official assessed acreage of the 

 Adirondack Park is placed here at 3,313,564 acres, the actual 

 acreage is not far from 3,475,000 acres. 



