66 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 
the westerly board of sections in each township when 
surveys are accurately made. For the same purpose, 
reduction in the number of irregular units, quarter corners 
for the north and west tiers of sections are placed exactly 
forty chains from the interior corners, not at the middle 
point of the section lines. 
The Land Office instructions to surveyors contain 
several articles on the marking of lines, of which those of 
interest to the woodsman are quoted on page 24 of this 
work. Instructions for establishing corners and erecting 
monuments are also given, but are far too elaborate to be 
here quoted in full. Corner monuments consist of an ob¬ 
ject marking the corner itself and its accessories. They 
are to be set up at the intersection of all the lines noted 
in the instructions quoted above and at some other points 
to be mentioned hereafter. Several approved forms of 
corner monuments are described below. Any one may 
be used for a township, a section, or a quarter-section 
corner, the marks upon it indicating what the corner is. 
1. Stone with pits and mound of earth. 
2. Stone with mound of stone. 
3. Stone with bearing trees. 
4. Post with pits and mound of earth. 
5. Post with bearing trees. 
6. Mound of earth, with marked stone or charcoal de¬ 
posited inside, and stake in pit. 
7. Tree with pit and mound of stone. 
8. Tree with bearing trees. 
Posts of wood and stone and bearing trees have been 
employed largely as corner monuments in timbered 
country. The post is set not to exceed one foot out of the 
ground. At a standard, closing, or quarter corner it is set 
facing cardinal directions, diagonally at a corner common 
to four townships or sections. Plain figures and initial 
letters inscribed on the faces give the location, and this in 
the case of section corners is also indicated by notches cut 
in the edges or by grooves on faces. These notches, on 
account of their durability, are of much service in identi- 
