SURVEYING PRACTICE 
25 
on the sides facing the line, without any other marks whatever. 
These are called sight trees or line trees. A sufficient number of 
other trees standing within 50 links of the line, on either side of 
it, will be blazed on two sides diagonally or quartering toward the 
line, in order to render the line conspicuous, and readily to be 
traced in either direction, the blazes to be opposite each other, 
coinciding in direction with the line, where the trees stand very 
near it, and to approach nearer each other toward the line, the 
farther the line passes from the blazed trees, 
Due care will ever be taken to have the lines so well marked 
as to be readily followed, and to cut the blazes deep enough to 
leave recognizable scars as long as the trees stand. This can be 
attained only by blazing through the bark to the wood. Trees 
marked less thoroughly will not be considered sufficiently blazed. 
Where trees two inches or more in diameter occur along a line, 
the required blazes will not be omitted. 
Lines are also to be marked by cutting away enough of the 
undergrowth of bushes or other vegetation to facilitate correct 
sighting of instruments. 
These directions are ample, have been tested by use, and 
are practically the same as those issued for land survey 
work in the Dominion of Canada. Plainly, however, they 
are adapted to sparsely wooded land, for, in real timber 
growth, blazed trees two rods away from the line would be 
a source of confusion. In fact, the narrower a line is blazed, 
so long as it is clear and durable, the better. A good 
general rule to be applied in timber is to blaze those trees, 
and only those, which a man can reach with his axe when 
standing directly in the line. 
A line in ordinary woods well blazed according' to this 
method is prominent, and reasonably durable, while the 
quartering of the spots and special marking of the “ line” 
trees render it reasonably well defined. If decent care is 
used in maintenance, and if when it has become dim or 
doubtful it is thoroughly and carefully renewed, there need 
be no great trouble or expense involved in that process, 
and no trespass or dispute meanwhile. Certain identifica¬ 
tion of the “ line ” trees of a previous authoritative survey 
is a great help in renewal. In the United States system that 
is secured by notching those trees; in the province of New 
Brunswick they are blazed and the blazes hacked three 
times upward. The same thing might be secured, and in 
addition the work of the individual surveyor identified, 
