CHAPTER XXXV. North-West Land Regulations and Mode of Survey. Inauguration of the Surveys-The International Boundary-Principal Meridians-Size of Townships-Numbering of Ranges and Townships-Base Lines-Correction LinesSize of Townships-Road Allowances-How Survey Lines are Marked on the Ground -Dominion Land Regulations-Diagram showing the Division of a Township into Sections-General Regulations-Homesteads and Pre-emptions-Colonization Plan Number One-Plan Number Two-Timber for Settlers-Pasturage Lands-General Provisions-Canadian Pacific Railway Lands-Conditions of Sale-Liberality of Canadian Land Regulations-Hudson's Bay Company's Lands-School Lands-Lands at Private Sale. IMMEDIATELY after the preliminaries for the transfer of the North-West Territories had been arranged between the Imperial and Dominion Governments, Colonel J. S. Dennis, D.L.S. (late Deputy Minister of the Interior), was, on the 10th July, 1869, directed by the Hon. William Macdougall, Minister of Public Works, to repair to the Red River and prepare a plan for laying out the country into Townships. After visiting the country and consulting with the Crown Lands Department of the Dominion and the Public Lands Department of the United States, a plan of survey was drawn up and adopted by the Minister of the Interior. During the summer of 1873 the International Boundary, lat. 49°, was established by the Boundary Commission appointed by the Imperial and United States Governments. This line was fixed upon as the base of the surveys, and was thereafter known as the "First Base." From this line others were run at right angles northward and named Principal Meridians. The First Principal Meridian runs northward from a point on the International Boundary, about eleven miles west of the town of Emerson. The Second Principal Meridian is established upon the 102nd meridian of west longitude, passing about thirty miles west of Fort Ellice. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Principal After mature deliberation it was decided to lay out the country in four-sided townships of almost a square form. Each township measures on its east and west sides from centre to centre of the road allowances, which form its actual boundaries, exactly 483 chains, and on its north and south sides 486 chains more or less, subject to the deficiency or surplus resulting from the convergence or divergence of the meridians, as the case may be, caused by the curvature of the surface of the earth. In numbering these townships certain terms were adopted which gave precision to each township no matter where situated. Starting at the First Principal Meridian on the International Boundary, the first township west of the Meridian was termed Range I, the next west, Range II, and so on till the Second Principal Meridian was reached, when the numbering commenced again. It will thus be seen that the first township west of any Principal Meridian is in Range I west, and so on in regular order. The next step was to give position, and the first township was numbered Township 1, the next north Township 2, and so on as far as the surveys extend to the north. After establishing the First Base, or International Boundary, other lines were run twenty-four miles apart, parallel to this one and numbered Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Base as far as the surveys extend to the north. The country is afterwards laid out into blocks twenty-four miles square, or nearly that, each block containing sixteen townships. These blocks are contained between four straight lines, having a Base Line at the north and at the south. Exactly twelve miles from either Base a line is run east and west, named a " Correction Line," and on this line all correc ..... FEELE THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF SURVEYING A TOWNSHIP SHOWING POSITION OF POSTS AND LINES. HE OLD SYSTEM OF SURVEYING "OWNSHIP SHOWING POSITION OF POSTS ND LINES. IT tions occasioned by the convergence of meridians or any other cause are made. East of the First Principal Meridian the Ranges are numbered east of that meridian and the townships numbered as usual. Every township is sub-divided into thirty-six "sections," each containing one square mile or 640 acres, more or less. All townships are subject to the conveyance and divergence of meridians, together with certain road allowances having a width of one chain on each section line running north and south, and on every alternate section line running east and west. Under the old system of survey all road allowances were one chain and a half (110 feet) wide, but a new system was inaugurated last year by which all are now reduced to one chain (66 feet). Diagram No. 1 gives a township as laid out under the old system of survey, and No. 2, one under the new system. The following extracts are taken from an excellent little work published by Captain C. W. Allen, of Winnipeg, entitled the Land Prospector's Manual and Field Book : "Survey lines are marked on the ground by the planting or erecting of such posts, stones, mounds, or other monuments as will serve the temporary purpose of guiding Prospectors through the country, and which also constitute permanent landmarks to establish the legal boundaries of farms held by different proprietors. 66 Only a single row of posts (or other monuments) to indicate the corners of townships, sections, or quarter-sections is placed on the ground to show the line surveyed, except in the case of correction lines. Such posts are invariably planted along the western limit of the road allowance on all lines running north and south, and in the southern limit of the road allowance on all lines running east and west. It follows, accordingly, that such corner posts always stand on the northeast corner of the township, section, or quartersections to which they belong; also, that these single lines |