TRIANGULATION AND SPIRIT LEVELING IN 
INDIAN TERRITORY. 
By C. H. Fitch. 
INTRODUCTION. 
An act of Congress, approved March 2, 1895, appropriated $200,000 
for the survey and subdivision of lands in Indian Territory, and the 
work was placed, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, 
in charge of the Director of the Geological Survey. 
A plan of operations was approved by the Secretary of the Interior 
March 21, 1895, Mr. C. H. Fitch was placed in immediate charge of 
the field work, and preparations were at once made for beginning 
operations. The requisite instruments, animals, and equipment were 
soon purchased and a small force took the field about the 1st of April. 
The force was increased as rapidly as consistent with economic man- 
agement until about 300 men were engaged in the work of surveying 
standard, township, and subdivision lines. 
The approved plan included the preparation of a topographic map 
of the area surveyed, which necessitated the execution of a system of 
triangulation and the running of spirit-level lines, thus affording hori- 
zontal and vertical control for the topographic map as well as the linear 
measurements. 
The first parties organized were for the establishment of standard 
and township exterior lines. Subdivision parties were next organized, 
each party being divided into two camps with two surveyors in each 
camp, under the direction of a topographer of the survey whose duties 
included superintendence of the work of subdivision by the surve3^ors 
and the mapping the country subdivided. 
An additional appropriation of $200,000 was provided by Congress 
June 10. 1896, also of $100,000 June 6, 1897, and $30,000 January 28, 
1898. The latter amount would probably not have been necessary 
had the surve}^ progressed without interruption, but the disbanding 
of the field parties in the spring of 1897, caused by the delay in the 
provision of funds and the long moves of the parties in the reorganiza- 
tion, added considerably to the expense. A resurvey of the lands of 
15 
