would further be attended with the inconvenience of causing the sections to run in steps, as shown in the annexed sketch; and the advantage of a continuous line at the back of the section would be lost.

"A preferable course under all circumstances, would be to vary the size of the water-sections in the following manner, and subject to the following regulations :

The first line should be run from a point O, not more than 10 chains from the river, and the broken spaces between the line and the river should be added to the sections immediately behind them.

"Thus the first section, A, would be increased from 80 to about 100 acres; the second, B, would be something less, say about 90; the third, C, only a trifle more than 80 acres; the fourth, D, about 100; E, 150.

"At F the deflection of the river is such as to admit of an entire section, of 80 acres, being set out between the main line and the river, together with a broken portion G. F and G, taken together, will therefore form the watersection in this case, and H will be a land-section of 80 acres only.

"The same system would be pursued if the river fell off to the extent of two ordinary sections from the line, as at K, the water-section consisting always of the broken portion in addition to the next entire section. In both these last-mentioned cases, however, the measurement would be discontinued along the line O P, and carried along the parallel line which separates the broken portion from the entire section, as shown by the dotted line in the sketch.

"Thus the water-sections, while in some cases only a trifle larger than an ordinary section, would in others be nearly, though never quite, equal to twice that size, and would never exceed one mile in length. They would be suited, therefore, to the means both of large and small capitalists.

"To determine the actual contents of the water-sections, a survey of the line of the river, or coast, would be required; but if there were no time for this operation before the conveyance of the land were completed, a tolerable approximation to the quantity

might be made thus:-The distance between the two

frontage pickets on the river bank being only a quarter of a mile, or 440 yards, the direction of the river at some intermediate point, about half way between the pickets, may be observed with the theodolite, sufficiently near at least to show whether the river runs by C or D, and so to guard against any great deception in the estimated contents of the section.

"The arrangement for varying the size of the watersections has, moreover, the important advantage of removing entirely the difficulty

which might be expected to arise, from laying out the sections arbitrarily, by cardinal lines and parallels, without reference to the natural lines of the country. If, for instance, in the survey of the square mile, represented in the annexed sketch, a river

M

N

should be found to traverse it, passing through two sections only, giving to those sections an undue allowance of water frontage, and conferring advantages on them, to the exclusion of the other sections: the injustice and irregularity would be found to admit of an easy remedy as the survey proceeds, (without adding materially to its M♪♪ expense,) by merely changing the direction of the sections, measuring the line M N in an east and west direction, instead of north and south, and adding the broken

N

portions of sections to the sections immediately behind them."

If the directions of the lines be fixed by means of the divided limb of the theodolite, and preserved by careful ranging, approximate accuracy may be attained to within certain limits. And if an allowance be made to the purchaser, ample enough to cover casual errors, the possession of the full quantity of land he has paid for will be thereby secured to him; and the trigonometrical operation might consequently be deferred until ulterior objects should call for greater accuracy, and the colony be better able to pay for it.

The allowance would involve a present sacrifice of land, a loss of little moment as compared with the immediate saving of the great expenditure involved in the execution of a trigonometrical survey. As to the amount of this allowance for errors, "3 per cent. would be ample;" and this, added to a further liberal allowance of 2 per cent. on account of public roads, would reduce the purchase-money 5 per cent. on the total amount of land specified in the conveyance.

The map representing the sections, would not be held as giving a faithful copy of their exact form as set out on the ground, but would represent them as true rectangles, whatever might be the deviation from that form in the sections actually set out on the ground. On the sides of the rectangles, the place of the intersections of such rivers, streams, and other natural features as have been crossed in the regular progress of the survey would be marked, but their course in the intermediate areas would be for the time left unmeasured; and thus a skeleton map only would be formed. The allowance made to the purchasers, by securing them from loss, would render the probable distortion of the sections unimportant at first; and when future exigencies should demand accuracy, their true form and

position could, by means of an ulterior trigonometrical survey, be determined, and projected on a map, with sufficient accuracy to constitute it a just record, and conclusive evidence of the boundaries of property.

In the prosecution of this work, the surveyor would require the assistance of 2 chainmen, 2 woodmen, and 2 or more labourers according to the local difficulties of the district: with proper assistance, he could, in dense underwood or brushwood, set out a distance of about a mile per day. The Gunter's chain of 66 feet would be the most convenient for such operations, because 80 such chains constituting a linear mile, it lends itself readily to the binary division.

The necessity for economy and rapidity in the performance of surveys in all new colonies has been so strongly felt, as to lead sometimes to too wide a departure from accuracy, in order to obtain the objects in view. Time has been economized, first, by making the sections much larger than those we have described; secondly, by using less precise instruments, and bestowing less care in the ranging and measurement of the lines. By adopting the larger allotments, fewer linear miles have to be measured per square mile set out, and time is economised; but, independently of the consequent exclusion of settlers whose means are unequal to the purchase of large sections, this course diminishes the number of checks on the work, and by causing the accumulation of errors to be distributed over a more extensive space, renders their detection and correction more laborious and intricate, and thereby tends to induce their being passed over unregarded and unremedied.

Under the second head, the use of the compass as the sole means of obtaining the direction of the lines, necessarily introduces serious errors, which are again increased when the lines are not properly ranged by staves fixed in

P