ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1873. 25 



contracted to a quarter of their proper size'. Some section lines in- 

 stead of running due east and west, or due north and south, are found 

 to make considerable angles with these cardinal directions. Almost 

 every section, when accurately remeasured, is found to show either an 

 excess or a deficiency of the normaj quantity of six hundred and forty 

 acres. Eailroad engineers discover these inaccuracies while running 

 their lines with the theodolite, and connecting them with the section 

 lines. One who, under instructions, followed a section line over a 

 level country, was afterwards censured for the curves he had intro- 

 duced at almost every mile of the road, where only a straight-line was 

 intended. 



On the official plats of the surveys of the public lands, now depos- 

 ited in the office of the secretary of state, at Madison, we often lind 

 the north line of a township varying considerably from the true east 

 and west direction; while the south boundary of the next township 

 (which is the same line) shows no such variation ^. Again, the east 

 line of one plat differs from the west line of the next in the same 

 manner. In all such cases there are no means, short of actual re- 

 survey, of determining which is correct, nor what changes are required 

 in the form of the subdivisions, or the direction of their boundary 

 lines, to make them conform to these unexplained irregularities. 



If we plat one of the banks of the Mississippi or Menomonee rivers 

 by the Wisconsin surveys, and the other, upon the same map, from 

 those of Iowa and Minnesota, or of Michigan, we shall find that these 

 rivers have in some places a wonderful breadth, while at others the 

 two banks will be brought so near together as to leave scarcely room 

 for a trout brook. 



Considerable progress has already been made in an attempt to trace 

 all these irregularities; to show the offsets upon the correction lines, 

 and to construct a diagram or skeleton map which shall correctly rep- 

 resent the surface of the state. This work must be done before any 

 correct map of the state can be made. Such maps are found to be 

 matters of necessity in all civilized countries; large amounts of money 

 and many years of labor having been expended to secure this object 

 in Great Britain, Franco, and many other countries. 



The proper corrections to be made in the lines of the public land 

 surveys can only be ascertained and applied after a complete geodetic 

 survey shall be made, such as is now being prosecuted by the general 

 government, under the direction of the coast survey and of the engi- 

 neer department. Such survey contemplates the accurate determina- 

 tion of the latitude and longitude of numerous prominent points 

 ' In town 16, range 1 to 11 etusfc. ' Notably townfships 1 and 2 in range 9 east. 



