...but apparently there no escaping the ever-present BLM Manual 😉
British Columbia
Queensborough
18th June 1859
James E. Tilton, Esq.,
Surveyor General
Olympia
Sir:
It has been determined to survey the rural lands of British Columbia on the System adopted in the United States Land districts of Oregon and Washington.
I shall esteem it an act of great courtesy if you would have the kindness to forward me a few Copies of the Books of Instructions to Deputy Surveyors, which will be invaluable to me in carrying out the details of the Survey.
Any suggestions of a practical character which your experience may lead you to consider as likely to be of service to me, with respect to officework the modes of calculating the distances and to the checking and examination of the work generally will be most acceptable and valued by me as highly as I feel convinced they will be cordially offered by you.
I have the honor to be, Sir
your most obedient servant
(signed) R. C. Moody, Col. R. E.
Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works
Those were the days when what we might now call a memo could be worth rereading merely for the way it was written. Thanks for posting that.
I hope your adventure is being rewarding.
Cheers,
Henry
Shouldn't there be one comma preceding, and one comma following, the word Sir, in the closing ?
> Shouldn't there be one comma preceding, and one comma following, the word Sir, in the closing ?
When the Royal Engineers were posted to British Columbia, the only punctuation they has access to was that which they brought as ballast in their ships on the journey from Great Britain; therefore they were judicious in its use.
The climate, nor the culture, has affected your wit, I'm happy to see:-)
As m&h point out, that note was damned polite.
Don
>> ... It has been determined to survey the rural lands of British Columbia on the System adopted in the United States Land districts of Oregon and Washington....
Several systems have been used for original surveys in British Columbia and the job is nowhere near complete. A system very much like the American system was used on Lulu Island, which is an island in the Fraser River south of Vancouver upon which the city of Richmond now stands. The system used differed from the American in that the "sections" where 1/2 mile to a side.
Most, if not all, of the Canadian Praries where surveyed with a system very similar to the American system. The most obvious difference is the order in which sections are numbered within townships.
Colonel Moody knew how to take an "expert measurer" to task (from a letter dated 20th April 1860):
With reference to the request made in your letter of this day's date I have to inform you that I purposely abstained from defining the exact dimensions of the Lots in the City of New Westminster knowing that the obstructions arising from the forest and the nature of the ground would physically preclude absolute accuracy. The lots therefore were sold as defined by the original pickets then existing on the ground.
> Several systems have been used for original surveys in British Columbia
From A History of Survey Systems by W. A. Taylor, B.C.L.S.
First System 1851 - Hudson's Bay Company Sections.
Second System 1858 - Sections and Ranges Vancouver Island.
Third System 1858 - Sections, Ranges, Blocks.
Fourth System - Variable Sized District Lots.
Fifth System 1873 - Townships in New Westminster District.
Sixth System - Provincial Townships.
Seventh System - Island Townships.
Eighth System - District Lot System.
Ninth System - Dominion Lands.
>...and the job is nowhere near complete.
I'd guess that 60%-70% of the work we're currently doing in Northeast BC is on unsurveyed crown land
LOL I concede. They'll be no matching of wit here. 😀
Still think there should be an extra comma, but thats just me.
One of the surveyors I worked for in B.C. was a "Canada Land Surveyor" as well as a B.C.L.S., and I got to participate in 2 surveys of vacant crown land for public sale. One of these surveys occassioned 1 of the 2 times I've performed a sun shot for azimuth.
Maybe you could steal one from somewhere and put it in between the "t" and "s" in "thats".
Dominion Land Survey System
> Most, if not all, of the Canadian Praries where surveyed with a system very similar to the American system. The most obvious difference is the order in which sections are numbered within townships.
To an outside observer who reads about the difficulties that ensued when roads were constructed more than a century ago over PLSS corners along section lines, the most obvious enhancement in the Dominion Land Survey Systems of Western Canada is the provision for roads and the typical placement of section corner monuments *outside* the road reserves.
I was thinking recently about the work that we do surveying on UCL, and how rare that probably is for most surveyors in North America.
A quick poll - how many other posters have ever created a parcel where there is NOTHING existing and NO previous evidence to tie into.
"I have the honor to be, Sir
your most obedient servant"
How exactly is it that Mr. Moody is a servant of Mr. Tilton?
> "I have the honor to be, Sir
> your most obedient servant"
A common salutation used in that era. Most of Abraham Lincoln's correspondence is signed in a like manner, for example.
That concluding statement was very common in the writings of subordinate members of the GLO and I guess sort of got dropped when maybe they realized how foolish it looked.
