we say, for instance, in township number 120 north, we mean it is that number north, counting from the east and west base line I have referred to. We also say such or such a range number west, meaning west of the fifth principal meridian. The number of townships from the base line in central Arkansas up through Missouri and Iowa to the south boundary line of Minnesota is 100; so that the north tier of townships in Iowa next to the state line is numbered 100, and the south tier of townships in Minnesota north of and next to the boundary line is numbered 101, the next 102, and so on. The government surveys of public lands in Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi river have as their east and west base line the south boundary of the state of Wisconsin, or, to speak more accurately, the boundary line between the states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Therefore the numbering of the townships of the public surveys of lands in Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi river is entirely different from the numbering of townships west of the river. Most of the government surveys of land in Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi river were completed very early, and before the surveys of lands west of the river were made. The two systems of surveys have no connection, except that in the northern part of our state there are lands, east of the river, which are described as being west of the fifth principal meridian. CONVERGENCY OF MERIDIANS. Very early in the history of the surveys of the public lands of this country, a difficulty arose because of what is now generally called "the convergency of meridians." It was found by actual measurement (which should have been known without) that these principal meridians, starting from points on an east and west base line and running therefrom on a true north course to their intersection with the Great Lakes, were, at such northern intersection, nearer one another than at the points where they started from the base line. The effect of this convergency of the principal meridians was to fractionalize the sections and townships in northern Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, so that in those parts of these states the government surveys produced townships six miles in length north and south, and less than two miles in width east and west, and sections a mile in length, north and south, by a few rods wide east and west, thus destroying the unit, the square acre, the section a mile square (640 acres), and the township six miles square, of thirty-six sections. It should be stated that this same serious effect is manifest in the surveys of the public lands in northern Iowa, the northern boundary of which is six hundred miles north of the base line in Arkansas. An attempt to remedy this difficulty by running a series of east and west correction lines, parallel to the base lines, only corrected the difficulty to a limited extent. In 1850 this whole matter was referred to a commission of intelligent scientific men, with Prof. Edward D. Mansfield of Cincinnati, Ohio, as chairman, who made a report to the commissioner of the General Land Office, which report was approved and adopted by that department and made the basis of instruction to the surveyor generals in the survey of the public domain thereafter. GUIDE MERIDIANS AND STANDARD PARALLELS. The change in the public surveys, as recommended by Mansfield and adopted by the government, was substantially as follows: That what should be known as "guide meridians" should be run north from an established east and west base line forty-two miles apart, offsetting a quarter of a mile at every twenty-four mile station on such guide meridian to provide against convergency. These guide meridians were to be intersected by what should be known as "standard parallels," east and west lines twenty-four miles apart, thus dividing the public lands into what were to be known and are known as cheques, measuring forty-two miles east and west by twenty-four miles north and south, with twenty-eight square townships in every cheque, except those made fractional and smaller by bordering on some great natural boundary, as, for instance, the Mississippi river. The greatest care was to be observed in running the guide meridians and standard parallels. They could only be run with an astronomical instrument known as a solar compass, one of the most perfect and useful instruments ever invented for running lines. Having adjusted its latitude and declination arcs, a line as perfect as the movement of the sun can be run with it; and the exact variation of the magnetic needle at any place is readily determined by it, as well as exact time. Two sets of assistants, compassmen, chainmen, axemen and markers, were to be employed at the same time in the running of these lines, so as to guard against possible error. The variation of the needle, as shown by the solar compass, was to be carefully noted every quarter of a mile, or oftener if necessary, as a guide to the surveyors who should come after to run the township and section lines. This new system for conducting the surveys of the public lands by the government was first inaugurated in the State of California in the autumn of 1852, and next in Minnesota west of the Mississippi river, early in the spring of 1853. SURVEYS IN SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA, 1853-55. As I had, to some extent, personal supervision and charge of that work in Minnesota in 1853, 1854, and 1855, I may be pardoned if hereafter in this paper it seems necessary to make some few references of a personal nature. Minnesota at that time was included, with Iowa and Wisconsin, in a surveyor general's district. The office of the surveyor general was at Dubuque, Iowa. Hon. Warner Lewis was surveyor general. The boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota was run and established by Capt. Andrew Talcott of the Topographical Bureau in 1852, the next year after the Indian title to lands in southern Minnesota was extinguished by treaty. It was currently reported that Captain Talcottt, in running this boundary line, had with him as assistants and other employees about three hundred men. The work was not done under contract. I traversed that line from the river west a hundred and fifty miles, early in 1853. The travel of Talcott's company over the line made it like a highway then, and there were strewed along it abundant evidences that at times, at least, great hilarity must have prevailed among the men under his command. It is but just that I should state that the preliminary line of this boundary was run by Captain Marsh of Dubuque with a solar compass; and it was not changed a particle by Captain Talcott and his assistants, but was verified by them after making the most thorough scientific tests thereof. In January, 1853, the surveyor general, Warner Lewis, gave a contract to Elisha S. Norris to run the first, second, and third guide meridians in Minnesota, west of the Mississippi river, and the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh standard parallels. The work was to be paid for by the government, ten dollars per mile for running and establishing the guide meridians, and eight dollars per mile for standard parallels. Mr. Norris had been state surveyor of Maine, and he stood high as an engineer and surveyor. He had for some years been a deputy surveyor of the surveyor general's office at Dubuque; he had made a careful study of the new plan of prosecuting government surveys which had been devised and suggested by Mansfield; and, because of this, had been selected to introduce this new system in the new Territory of Minnesota. Mr. Norris had been my preceptor, and I came with him into Minnesota as one of his assistants in this work. In the beginning of this work, in the remote southeast corner of the then Territory, Mr. Norris had the misfortune to get his solar compass out of adjustment in passing through a dense thicket, slightly bending both the declination and latitude arcs. He did not discover it until the inspector of surveys, who was following closely on the line with a solar compass and chainmen, called his attention to it and at once reported the blunder to the surveyor general's office. Mr. Norris was recalled. A great clamor, born of envy and jealousy on the part of the other deputy surveyors of the office, compelled Gen. Lewis reluctantly to relieve him, and, because of his desire to make the matter as agreeable as possible to Mr. Norris, and because of the well known partiality of the surveyor general for myself, together with political influence to a certain extent from friends (we were all simon-pure Democrats then), the supervision of these surveys was given to me, then in my seventeenth year, and I established these guide meridians and standard parallels in the years 1853 to 1855. The first line established was not a guide meridian, strictly, but rather a line beginning on the state line, on the east side of range four, running north thereon till it intersected the Missis sippi river at or near where the city of La Crescent is now situated. After completing this line, we returned and went west on the state line forty-two miles to a point between ranges ten and eleven, and thence ran the first guide meridian north between these ranges, making the required offsets every twenty-four miles. This meridian intersects the Mississippi river at the foot of lake Pepin, just a little above Read's Landing. Returning on this guide meridian to the state line, we measured west thereon forty-two miles to a point between ranges seventeen and eighteen, from whence the second meridian was run north between these ranges, making the required offsets, till it intersected the Mississippi river close above the city of Hastings. Returning again to the state line, we once more measured west thereon forty-two miles to a point between ranges 24 and 25, where the south point of the third guide meridian was established; and thence we ran it north between these ranges to its intersection with the Mississippi river near Monticello. The third guide meridian passes through the "Big Woods," crosses the Minnesota river at Belle Plaine, goes about three miles west of lake Minnetonka, and thence crosses the Crow river and Pelican lake to its intersection with the Mississippi. So careful was the government in the establishment of these base lines, that the instructions were modified as to running the third guide meridian, requiring that it should be run during the winter season, after the large number of lakes which were supposed to be thereon were frozen solid, so that the chainmen could actually measure the line over them, and not trust to mathematical calculation from triangulation or other methods of determining distances across impassable places. I was engaged in establishing this meridian nearly five months, from some time in November, 1853, to some time in April, 1854. I ran the standard parallels intersecting these guide meridians. Afterward I did some township and section work, and terminated my connection with the surveyor general's office at Dubuque, January 1, 1856, at which time I came to Winona, where I have ever since resided. The plan of the government surveys of the public domain devised by Mansfield has to a very great extent answered the purpose intended. The sections and townships in Minnesota, west of the Mississippi river, were not fractionalized by the convergency of meridians; and I am also told that this is true of the survey of + |