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8 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.

. . . They had been purchased in anticipation of improve- ments which it was supposed would much enhance their value."^^ This is evidence that early in life Kelley possessed a certain amount of business enterprise. His subsequent busi- ness ventures were of quite another sort.

We do not know when Kelley took up the work of a sur- veyor. We do know that he was interested in higher mathe- matics, and he tells us that as early as 1815 he had conceived what he considered an improved system of geog^'aphical and topographical surveying. After declaring that the system in general use was unsatisfactory in both theory and practice, he said :

"The system which I propose scarcely admits of an error. It points out an easy and correct mode of running the line 5 re- quired in the survey. My method has many advantages over that now in practice.

"The numerous errors of the compass are entirely avoided. The interests of the land proprietor are better promoted, and the wide door so much open for litigation, which often costs him his freehold, is effectually closed. It is the only simple method by which right lines, having a given course, can be run with precision. It is attended with as much certainty as the high operation of trigonometrical surveys."^ His nearest approach to a definite description of his system appeared in the Manual of the Oregon Expedition, or General Circular, in which he set forth the manner in which divisions of lands should be made in Oregon.

"All boundaries of towns, and lots of land, will be identified with meridian lines, and parallels of latitude, — not by the parallels as found on the surface of the earth, where they are crooked, as the hills and depressions make them uneven; but by such, as they would be, provided the surface was smooth. . . . It is, however, true, that the divisions of land, as they lay south of each other, increase in quantity, in proportion to

21 Kelley, I^arrative of Events and Difficulties, 6.

22 Settlement of Oregon, ii.