GEOGRAPHIC WORK OF GENERAL GOVERNMENT 335 



GENERAL LAND OFFICE 



This office is charged with all matters relating to the disposal 

 of the public lands. In pursuance of this duty its first function 

 is to subdivide these lands into parcels suitable for sale or other 

 mode of disposition. The method of subdivision of the public 

 lands has been, in its main features, a consistent one from the 

 beginning. The land is divided by survey into townships six 

 miles square, and each of these into sections of one square mile. 

 These sections may be in turn Subdivided. This work is done 

 in the main by contract, at certain rates per linear mile. The 

 surveyors are required to prepare and file maps or plats of the 

 townships subdivided, and thus there has accumulated in the 

 Land Office a vast body of maps, representing an area of over a 

 million square miles. These, maps are upon the uniform scale 

 of two inches to one mile, but they are of varying degrees of ex- 

 cellence. From these plats the Land Office compiles and pub- 

 lishes state maps, at present upon a uniform scale of twelve miles 

 to an inch, and these maps form the basis of most of the atlas 

 maps in use. Besides this series the Land Office compiles a map 

 of the entire United States, upon a scale of about forty miles to 

 one inch. The state maps can be obtained upon application to 

 the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The United States 

 maps are sold at a price of $1.00. 



Besides this work of subdivision, with the resulting maps, 

 this office superintends the survey of the state and territorial 

 boundaries. • 



THE LIGHT-HOUSE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Light-house establishment is in charge of the Light-house 

 Board, under the Secretary of the Treasury. Its duties are to 

 maintain upon the coast, lake shores, and navigable rivers a 

 system of lights and buoys for the guidance of mariners. 



COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 



This organization was created by Congress in 1807, but little 

 work was done under this act until 1832. Since that time the 

 Coast Survey has been in continuous operation. It is charged 

 with the survey of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts of the 

 United States, including rivers to the head of tide-water or ship 

 navigation. It has carried on extensive deep-sea soundings, to- 

 gether with temperature and current observations, especially in 



