rided, that if the said sum for a fine for alienation shall not be paid unto us & our heirs or such officer or officers afores'd before such alienation and the s'd alienation entered upon record either in the prov'll court or county court where the same parcell of land lyeth, within one month next after such alienation, then the said alienation shall be void and of no effect. Given under our great seal at armes this thirteenth day of September, seventeen hundred and twenty-eight.

Witness our Dear Brother Benedict Leonard Calvert, esq., governor and commanderin-chief in and over our said province of Maryland, chancellour and keeper of the great seale thereof. BEN'DT LEON'D CALVERT, [HAND.]

(Heavy wax seal attached by tape.) (Endorsed.)

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY.

Mr. Arthur Nelson, 356 acres of land.
Passed Nelson's Island.

Recorded in the land records of Maryland, Lib. P. L. N. No. 7, page 450.
Examined.

J. LAWSON, Ex'r.

The following is a warrant issued in Maryland, in 1761, by Horatio Sharpe, lieutenant-general and chief governor of the province of Maryland:

MARYLAND, 88:

FREDERICK, absolute lord and proprietary of the provinces of Maryland and Avalon, lord baron of Baltimore, &c, to all persons to whom these presents shall come greeting in our Lord GOD everlasting

KNOW YE, that for and in consideration that Arthur Nelson of Frederick County in our said province of Maryland hath due unto him thirty acres of land within our said province by virtue of a warrant for that quantity granted him by renewment the twenty-second day of September, seventeen hundred and sixty-one, as appears in our land office, and upon such conditions and terms as are expressed in our conditions of plantation of our said province, bearing date the fifth day of April, sixteen hundred and eighty-four, and remaining upon record in our said province; together with such alterations as in them are made by our further conditions bearing date the fourth day of December, sixteen hundred and ninety six; together also with the alterations made by our instructions bearing date at London, the twelfth day of September, seventeen hundred and twelve, and registered in our secretary's office of our said province; together with a paragraph of our instructions bearing date at London, the fifteenth day of December, seventeen hundred and thirty-eight, and registered in our land office. WE DO therefore hereby grant unto him the said Arthur Nelson all that tract or parcell of land called the Point of Rocks, lying in the aforesaid county, beginning at the end of the twenty-eighth line of a tract of land called Nelson's Island, the line being north fiftythree degrees east, running thence north eighty-six degrees west eighteen perches; north fifty-two degrees west twenty-four perches; south sixty-nine degrees east eighteen perches; north seventy-five and an half degrees east twenty-two perches; north thirty degrees east fifty-four perches; north eight degrees east eighteen perches; north seventy-eight degrees east twenty perches; south fifty-three degrees east seventy-seven perches, then by a straight line to the beginning, containing and now laid out for thirty acres of land, according to the certificate of survey thereof, taken and returned into our land office, bearing date the seventh day of October, seventeen hundred and sixtyone, and there remaining, together with all rights, profits, benefits, and privileges, thereunto belonging, royal mines excepted, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the same, unto him the said Arthur Nelson, his heirs and assigns, forever, to be holden of us and our heirs, as of our manor of Conegocheege in free and common soccage, by fealty only for all manner of services, YIELDING AND PAYING therefore, yearly, unto us, and our heirs, at our receipt at our city of St. Mary's at two most usual feasts in the year, viz., the feast of the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael, the archangel, by even and equal portions, the rent of one shilling and two pence half-penny sterling, in silver or gold; and for a fine upon every alienation of the said land, or any part or parcel thereof, one whole year's rent, in silver or gold, or the full value thereof, in such commodities as we and our heirs, or such officer or officers as shall be appointed by us and our heirs from time to time, to collect and receive the same, shall accept in discharge thereof, at the choice of us and our heirs, or such officer or officers aforesaid: PROVIDED, that if the said sum for a fine for alienation shall not be paid unto us and our heirs, or such officer or officers aforesaid, before such alienation, and the said alienation entered upon record, either in the provincial court, or county court, where the

same parcel of land lieth, within one month next after such alienation, then the said alienation shall be void and of no affect. GIVEN under our great seal of our said province of Maryland, this seventh day of October, anno Domini seventeen hundred and sixty-one.

WITNESS our trusty and well-beloved HORATIO SHARPE, Esq., lieutenant-general and chief governor of our said province of Maryland, and chancellor and keeper of the great seal thereof.

(Heavy wax seal attached by tape.)
(Endorsed :)

Mr. Arthur Nelson's patent 30 acres.
The Point of Rocks.

Recorded in records of lands, S. No. 15, pg. 597.

HORO. SHARPE.

WM. STEWART, Rd.

CHAPTER XXXV.

METHODS OF SURVEY AND DISPOSITION OF PUBLIC OR CROWN LANDS IN CANADA, AUSTRALIA, BRAZIL, AND MEXICO.

The following several sections will show the methods of survey and disposition of public or Crown domain in the several countries named:

THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

Area, 3,483,952 square miles, or 2,229,729,280 acres.

The commissioner of lands of the Dominion of Canada, Lindsey Russell, esq., is appointed by and subject to the minister of the interior, and resides at Ottawa.

The Crown domains of the several provinces are disposed of under special laws, but the vast area of Dominion lands (corresponding with the public domain of the United States) is disposed of under the provisions of the statute known as the 42d Victoria, May 15, 1879.

Agents, known as agents of Dominion lands, are appointed in the several Territories, viz, Manitoba, Kerwatin, and Northwest Territories. These agents give notice, by publication, of the filing of maps of survey and that the lands are open to cash sale or settlement.

Surveyed townships are grouped into "districts," which are numbered from No. 1. These districts each have an agent at a local office. They are subordinate to the agent of the Territory, who is subordinate to the commissioner of the land office at Ottawa. The Dominion does not control public lands in some of the provinces. A surveyorgeneral of the Dominion is also appointed, under whom the surveys are made. His office is at Ottawa, in the department of the interior. The law relating to the Dominion lands is here given entire. It will be noticed that this statute gives the executive charged with the control and disposition of the public domain large discretionary authority.

The body of this act is based upon the best features of the land system of the United States, with beneficial additions. Many features of this statute could be engrafted upon our system with profit.

LAW RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS IN CANADA.

42 Victoria, Chap. 31.

[AN ACT to amend and consolidate the several acts respecting the public lands of the Dominion.Assented to 15th May, 1879.]

Whereas it is expedient with a view to the proper and efficient administration and management of certain of the public lands of the Dominion, that the same should be regulated by statute, and divers acts have been passed for that purpose which it is expedient to amend and consolidate: Therefore Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

PRELIMINARY-INTERPRETATION.

1. This act shall apply exclusively to the lands included in Manitoba and the several territories of the Dominion, which lands shall be styled and known as Dominion lands; and this act shall be known and may be cited as the "Dominion lands act 1879," and the following terms and expressions therein shall be held to have the meaning hereinafter assigned them, unless such meaning be repugnant to the subject or inconsistent with the context; that is to say:

1. The term Minister of the Interior means the Minister of the Interior of Canada.

2. The term surveyor-general means the said officer, or, in his absence, the chief clerk performing his duties for the time being.

3. The term agent or officer means any person or officer employed in connection with the administration and management, sale or settlement of Dominion lands; and the term local agent means the agent for Dominion lands employed as aforesaid, with respect to the lands in question; and the term land office means the office of any such agent.

4. The term Dominion land surveyor means a surveyor duly authorized under the provisions of this act to survey Dominion lands.

5. The term Crown timber agent means the local officer appointed to collect dues and to perform such other duties as may be assigned to such officer, in respect to the timber on Dominion lands.

6. The term island, as used in connection with timber, means an isolated grove or clump of timber in prairie.

7. The term belt, as used in connection with timber, means a strip of timber along the shore of a lake, river, or water course.

8. The term section means a section of this act distinguished by a separate number and the term subsection means a subdivision of any clause distinguished by a separate number or letter, in smaller type.

9. The term Canada Gazette means the official gazette of the government, published at Ottawa.

DOMINION LANDS OFFICE.

2. The department of the Minister of the Interior of Canada shall be charged with the administration and management of the Dominion lands.

1. Such administration and management shall be effected through a branch of the said department, to be known and designated as "The Dominion lands office."

2. Copies of any records, documents, plans, books, or papers belonging to or deposited in the said office, attested under the signature of the Minister of the Interior or the surveyor-general, and of plans or documents in any Dominion lands or surveys office in Manitoba or the Northwest Territories, attested under the signature of the agent or inspector of surveys, as the case may be, in charge of such office, shall be competent evidence in all cases in which the original records, documents, books, plans, or papers could be evidence.

3. No person employed in or under the Dominion lands office shall purchase any of such lands, except under authority of an order in council, or shall locate military or bounty land warrants, or land scrip, or act as agent of any other persons in such behalf.

SYSTEM OF SURVEY.

3. Subject always to the provisions hereinafter made with respect to special cases1. The Dominion lands shall be laid off in quadrilateral townships, containing thirtysix sections of one mile square in each (except in the case of those sections rendered irregular by the convergence or divergence of meridians as hereinafter mentioned), together with road allowances of one chain and fifty links in width, between all townships and sections.

2. The sections shall be bounded and numbered as shewn by the following diagram:

3. The township therefore will, subject to deficiency or surplus from converging or diverging meridians, as the case may be, measure on each side, from centre to centre

of the road allowances bounding the same, four hundred and eighty-nine chains: Provided that the Governor in council may hereafter, should the same be deemed expedient, reduce the width of the road allowances on township and section lines in that part of the territory lying north of the line between townships eighteen and nineteen, and east of the tenth range east of the principal meridian, and west of the fourteenth range west of the said meridian.

4. The lines bounding townships on the east and west sides shall, in all cases, be true meridians, and those on the north and south sides shall be cords intersecting circles of latitude passing through the angles of the townships.

5. The townships shall be numbered in regular order northerly from the international boundary or forty-ninth parallel of latitude, and shall lie in ranges numbered, in Manitoba, east and west from a certain meridian line run in the year 1869, styled the "Principal meridian," drawn northerly from the said forty-ninth parallel at a point ten miles or thereabouts westwardly from Pembina.

6. In the territories east and west of Manitoba such other governing or guide meridians may be adopted and confirmed by the governor in council as may, from time to time, become expedient.

7. The townships shall be laid out the precise width of four hundred and eightynine chains, as aforesaid, on the base lines hereinafter mentioned, and the meridians between townships shall be drawn from such bases, north or south to the depth of two townships, that is to say, to the correction lines hereinafter mentioned.

8. The said forty-ninth parallel or international boundary shall be the first base line, or that for townships one and two. The second base line shall be between townships four and five, the third between townships eight and nine, the fourth between townships twelve and thirteen, the fifth between townships sixteen and seventeen, and so on northerly in regular succession.

9. The correction lines, or those upon which the "jog" resulting from the want of parallelism of meridians shall be allowed, will be as follows, that is to say, on the line between townships two and three, on that between six and seven, on that between ten and eleven, and so on. In other words, they will be those township lines running east and west which are equi-distant from the bases at the depth of two townships.

10. Each section shall be divided into quarter sections of one hundred and sixty acres, more or less, subject to the provisions hereinafter made.

11. In the survey of any and every township, the deficiency or surplus, as the case may be, resulting from convergence or divergence of meridians shall be allowed in the range of quarter sections adjoining the west boundary of the township, and the north and south error in closing on the correction lines from the north or south shall be allowed in the ranges of quarter sections adjoining, and north or south respectively of the said correction lines.

12. The dimensions and area of the irregular quarter sections resulting from the provision in the next preceding clause, whether the same be deficient or in excess, shall, in all cases, be returned by the surveyor at their actual measurements and con

tents.

13. Preliminary to the subdivision into townships and sections of any given portion of country proposed to be laid out for settlement, the same shall be laid out into blocks of four townships each, by projecting the base and correction lines, and east and west meridian boundaries of each block:

1. On these lines, at the time of the survey, all township, section, and quarter section corners shall be marked, which corners shall govern, respectively, in the subsequent subdivision of the block.

2. Only a single row of posts or monuments to indicate the corners of townships, or sections (except as hereinafter provided), shall be placed on any survey line. These posts or monuments, as an invariable rule (with the exception above referred to), shall be placed in the west limit of the road allowances, on north and south lines, and in the south limit of road allowances, on east and west lines; and in all cases shall fix and govern the position of the boundary corner between the two adjoining townships, sections, or quarter sections on the opposite side of the road allowance

3. Provided that in the case of the township, section, and quarter section corners on correction lines, posts or monuments shall in all cases be planted and marked independently for the townships on either side; those for the townships north of the line, in the north limit of the road allowance; and those for the townships south, in the south limit.

14. The township subdivision surveys of the Dominion lands, according to the system above described, shall be carried out and shall be performed by contract at a certain rate per mile or per acre, fixed from time to time by the governor in council.

15. Legal subdivisions as applicable to the survey, sale, and granting of the Dominion lands, shall be as follows: and it shall be sufficient that such legal subdivis ions be severally, as the case may require, designated and described by such names or numbers and areas for letters patent, that is to say:

1. A section or 640 acres;

A half section or 320 acres ;