Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/109



.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the disposal of the lands of the United States, directed to be sold by the act, intituled “,” there shall be four land offices established in the said territory: one at Cincinnati, for lands below the Little Miami, which have not heretofore been granted; one at Chilicothe, for lands east of the Scioto, south of the lands appropriated for satisfying military bounties to the late army of the United States, and west of the fifteenth range of townships; one at Marietta, for the lands east of the sixteenth range of townships, south of the before mentioned military lands, and south of a line drawn due west from the northwest corner of the first township of the second range, to the said military lands; and one at Steubenbille, for the lands north of the last mentioned line, and east or north of the said military lands. Each of the said offices shall be under the direction of an officer, to be called “The Register of the Land Office,” who shall be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall give bond to the United States, with approved security, in the sum of ten thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office; and shall reside at the place where the land office is directed to be kept.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the surveyor-general, and he is hereby expressly enjoined, to prepare and transmit to the registers of the several land offices, before the days herein appointed for commencing sales, general plats of the lands hereby directed to be sold at the said offices respectively, and also to forward copies of each of the said plats to the Secretary of the Treasury.

. And be it further enacted, That the surveyor-general shall cause the townships west of the Muskingum, which by the above-mentioned act are directed to be sold in quarter townships, to be subdivided into half sections of three hundred and twenty acres each, as nearly as may be, by running parallel lines through the same from east to west, and from south to north, at the distance of one mile from each other, and marking corners, at the distance of each half mile on the lines running from east to west, and at the distance of each mile on those running from south to north, and making the marks, notes and descriptions, prescribed to surveyors by the above-mentioned act: And the interior lines of townships intersected by the Muskingum, and of all the townships lying east of that river, which have not been heretofore actually subdivided into sections, shall also be run and marked in the manner prescribed by the said act, for running and marking the interior lines of townships directed to be sold in sections of six hundred and forty acres each. And in all cases where the exterior lines of the townships, thus to be subdivided into sections of half sections, shall exceed or shall not extend six miles, the excess or deficiency shall be specially noted, and added to or deducted from the western and northern ranges of sections or half sections in such township, according as the error may be in running the lines from east to west, or from south to north; the sections and half sections bounded on the northern and western lines of such townships shall be sold as containing only the quantity expressed in the returns and plats respectively, and all others as containing the