eral Land Office, shall be fined not less than fifty dollars, nor more than three thousand dollars, and be imprisoned not less than one nor more than three years. (R. S., 2412.)

Protection of surveyor by marshal of district.

SEC. 121. Whenever the President is satisfied that forcible opposition has been offered, or is likely to be offered, to any surveyor or deputy surveyor in the discharge of his duties in surveying the public lands, it may be lawful for the President to order the marshal of the State or district, by himself or deputy, to attend such surveyor or deputy surveyor with sufficient force to protect such officer in the execution of his duty, and to remove force should any be offered. (R. S., 2413.)

9. More recent legislation has brought about (a) provision for the appointment of a United States Surveyor General for the District of Alaska; (b) authority for the purchase of durable monuments, to be employed in place of native material to mark public land corners; (c) penalty for the destruction of monuments of the public land surveys; (d) authority for necessary resurveys; and (e) change of survey system from contract to direct with authority for the employment of a permanent corps of United States surveyors; all as indicated by the following quotations from the United States Statutes:

Surveyor general

for the District of Alaska.

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The act of Congress approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil government for Alaska, provides "That the said District of Alaska is hereby created a land district, and the marshal provided for by this act shall be ex officio surveyor general of said district." (23 Stat., 24, sec. 8.) The act of Congress approved July 24, 1897, amends the act approved May 17, 1884, and provides "That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a surveyor general for the District of Alaska, embracing one surveying district." (30 Stat., 215, sec. 2.) The act of Congress approved May 27, 1908, provided "for the purchase of metal monuments to be used for public land survey corners wherever practicable.” (35 Stat., 347.) This authority was amplified by the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910, making appropriation for sundry civil expenses for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, and has been continued from year to year to the present time. The act approved July 1, 1918, provided, under "Surveying the Public Lands," as follows:

Purchase of metal monuments.

"That the sum of not exceeding 10 per centum of the amount hereby appropriated may be expended by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, for the purchase of metal or other equally durable monuments to be used for public land survey corners wherever practicable: *"" (40 Stat., 668.)

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Penalty for the destruction of sur

The act of Congress approved March 4, 1909, entitled "An act to codify, revise, and amend the penal laws of the United States," provides punishment for offenses against the operation of the surveying service of the Government, as follows:

vey monuments.

"Whoever shall willfully destroy, deface, change, or remove to another place any section corner, quarter-section corner, or meander post, on any Government line of survey, or shall willfully cut down any witness tree or any tree blazed to mark the line of a Government survey, or shall willfully deface, change, or remove any monument or bench mark of any Government survey, shall be fined not more than $250, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both." (35 Stat., 1088, sec. 57.)

The act of Congress approved March 3, 1909, entitled "An act authorizing the necessary resurvey of public Resurvey of pub- lands," as amended by joint resolution approved June 25, 1910, provides as follows:

lic lands.

"That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, cause to be made, as he may deem wise under the rectangular system now provided by law, such resurveys or retracements of the surveys of public lands as, after full investigation, he may deem essential to properly mark the boundaries of the public lands remaining undis posed of: Provided, That no such resurvey or retracement shall be so executed as to impair the bona fide rights or claims of any claimant, entryman, or owner of lands affected by such resurvey or retracement: Provided further, That not to exceed 20 per centum of the total annual appropriation for surveys and resurveys of the public lands shall be used for the resurveys and retracements authorized here(35 Stat., 845, and 36 Stat., 884.)

by."

The act of Congress approved September 21, 1918, entitled “An act authorizing the resurvey or retracement of lands heretofore returned as surveyed public lands of the United States under certain conditions", provides authority for the resurvey by the Government of townships heretofore held to be ineligible for resurvey

under existing regulations of the Department of the Interior by reason of disposals in excess of fifty per centum of the total area thereof. The act provides:

That upon the application of the owners of three-fourths of the privately owned lands in any township covered by public-land surveys, more than fifty per centum of the area of which townships is privately owned, accompanied by a deposit with the United States surveyor general for the proper State, or if there be no surveyor general of such State, then with the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of the proportionate estimated cost, inclusive of the necessary (office) work, of the resurvey or retracement of all the privately owned lands in said township, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, subject to the supervisory authority of the Secretary of the Interior, shall be authorized in his discretion to cause to be made a resurvey or retracement of the lines of said township and to set permanent corners and monuments in accordance with the laws and regulations governing surveys and resurveys of public lands; that the sum so deposited shall be held by the surveyor general or commissioner when ex officio surveyor general and may be expended in payment of the cost of such survey, including field and office work, and any excess over the cost of such survey and the expenses incident thereto shall be repaid pro rata to the persons making said deposits or their legal representatives; that the proportionate cost of the field and office work for the resurvey or retracement of any public lands in such township shall be paid from the current appropriation for the survey and resurvey of public lands, in addition to the portion of such appropriation otherwise allowed by law for resurveys and retracements; that similar resurveys and retracements may be made on the application, accompanied by the requisite deposit, of any court of competent jurisdiction, the returns of such resurvey or retracement to be submitted to the court; that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make all necessary rules and regulations to carry this act into full force and effect." (40 Stat., 965.)

Selection of surveyors.

The act of Congress approved June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 703, 740), making appropriation for sundry civil expenses for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, provided, under "Surveying the Public Lands": "The surveys and resurveys to be made by such competent surveyors as the Secretary of the Interior may select, This provision of law

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brought to a close the contract system which had theretofore been adhered to since the beginning of the public land surveys, and the authority for the employment of a permanent corps of United States surveyors has been continued from year to year to the present time. The following comprises that part of the act of Congress approved July 1, 1918, under "Surveying the Public Lands,” relating directly to the administrative control of the surveying service: "For surveys and resurveys of public lands, under the supervision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and direction of the Secretary of the Interior, The surveys and resurveys provided for in this appropriation to be made by such competent surveyors as the Secretary of the Interior may select, (40 Stat., 668.)

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GENERAL RULES.

10. From the foregoing synopsis of congressional legislation it is evident

First. That the boundaries of the public lands established and returned by the duly appointed surveyors, when approved by the surveyors general and accepted by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, are unchangeable.

Second. That the original township, section, and quarter-section corners established by the surveyors must stand as the true corners which they were intended to represent, whether in the place shown by the field notes or not.

Third. That quarter-quarter-section corners not established in the process of the original survey shall be placed on the line connecting the section and quarter-section corners, and midway between them, except on the last half mile of section lines closing on the north and west boundaries of the township, or on other lines between fractional or irregular sections.

Fourth. That the center lines of a regular section are to be straight, running from the quarter-section corner on one boundary of the section to the corresponding corner on the opposite section line.

Fifth. That in a fractional section where no opposite corresponding quarter-section corner has been or can be established, the center line of such section must be run from the proper quarter-section corner as nearly in a cardinal direction to the meander line, reservation or other boundary of such fractional section, as due parallelism with section lines will permit.

Sixth. That lost or obliterated corners of the approved surveys must be restored to their original locations whenever it is possible to do so. Actions or decisions by surveyors which may result in changes of boundaries of patented lands and disturb questions of ownership in connection therewith are subject to review by the

courts.

THE MANUAL.

11. Various regions of the United States have been surveyed under different sets of instructions issued at periods ranging from 1785 to the present time. The earliest rules were given to surveyors in manuscript or in printed circulars. Regulations more in detail, improving the system for greater accuracy, permanency and uniformity, were issued in book form in editions of 1855, 1881, 1890, 1894 and 1902.

The Manual of Surveying Instructions has been again revised with a view to harmonizing the printed instructions furnished to the surveyors with recent legislation and current surveying practice. The use of iron-post corner monuments adds much to the permanency of the evidence of the surveys, but this calls for little change in rules except to outline the standard practice. A growing necessity for resurveys to identify and restore original surveys actually made, but poorly monumented, or to supersede grossly erroneous or fraudulent original surveys "to properly mark the boundaries of the public land remaining undisposed of"-has demanded a full discussion of the subject in this revision of the Manual. The change from the contract system to the present system under which the public-land surveys are executed by a permanent corps of surveyors employed by the General Land Office has involved changes in the administrative control without departing from previous technical procedure, and hereafter throughout the Manual all reference to administrative questions will be found to be stated in general terms in order to avoid confusing that matter with the purely technical subjects. Modern surveying practice has been introduced into the public-land surveys as far as legally consistent and efficient, which has prompted a rather full instructive treatment of the subjects of measurements with long steel tapes, stadia method and triangulations, and field observations for the determination of time, latitude and azimuth, to afford versatility on the part of the surveyor in adopting methods best suited to the ever-changing conditions under which his work must be accomplished.