Land surveying includes surveys for locating and monumenting the boundaries of a property; preparation of a legal description of the limits of a property and of the area included; preparation of a property map; resurveys to recover and remonument property corners; and surveys to subdivide property. It is sometimes necessary to retrace surveys of property lines, to reestablish lost or obliterated corners, and to make ties to property lines and corners; for example, a retracement survey of property lines may be required to assure that the military operation of quarry excavation does not encroach on adjacent property where excavation rights have not been obtained. Similarly, an access road from a public highway to the quarry site, if it crosses privately owned property, should be tied to the property lines that are crossed so that correctly executed easements can be obtained to cross the tracts of private property.

 EAs may be required to accomplish property surveys at naval activities outside the continental limits of the United States for the construction of naval bases and the restoration of such properties to property owners. The essentials of land surveying as practiced in various countries are similar in principle. Although the principles pertaining to the surveys of public and private lands within the United States are not necessarily directly applicable to foreign countries, a knowledge of these principles will enable the EA to conduct the survey in a manner required by the property laws of the nation concerned.

 In the United States, land surveying is a survey conducted for the purpose of ascertaining the correct boundaries of real estate property for legal purposes. In accordance with federal and states laws, the right and/or title to landed property in the United States can be transferred from one person to another only by means of a written document, commonly called a deed. To constitute a valid transfer, a deed must meet a considerable number of legal requirements, some of which vary in different states. In all the states, however, a deed must contain an accurate description of the boundaries of the property.

A parcel of land may be described by metes and bounds, by giving the coordinates of the property corners with reference to the plane coordinates system, by a deed reference to a description in a previously recorded deed, or by References to block and individual property numbers appearing on a recorded map.

When a tract of land is defined by giving the bearings and lengths of all boundaries, it is said to be described by metes and bounds. This is an age-old method of describing land that still forms the basis for the majority of deed descriptions in the eastern states of the United States and in many foreign lands. A good metes-and-bounds description starts at a point of beginning that should be monumented and referenced by ties or distances from well-established monuments or other reference points. The bearing and length of each side is given, in turn, around the tract to close back on the point of beginning. Bearing may be true or magnetic grid, preferably the former. When magnetic bearings are read, the declination of the needle and the date of the survey should be stated. The stakes or monuments placed at each corner should be described to aid in their recovery in the future. Ties from corner monuments to witness points (trees, poles, boulders, ledges, or other semipermanent or permanent objects) are always helpful in relocating corners, particularly where the corner markers themselves lack permanence. In timbered country, blazes on trees on or adjacent to a boundary line are most useful in reestablishing the line at a future date. It is also advisable to state the names of abutting property owners along the several sides of the tract being described. Many metes-and-bounds descriptions fail to include all of these particulars and are frequently very difficult to retrace or locate in relation to adjoining ownerships.

One of the reasons why the determination of boundaries in the United States is often difficult is that early surveyors often confined themselves to minimal description; that is, to a bare statement of the metes metesToday, good practice requires that a land surveyor include all relevant information in his description.

In preparing the description of a property, the surveyor should bear in mind that the description must clearly identify the location of the property and must give all necessary data from which the boundaries can be reestablished at any future date. The written description contains the greater part of the information shown on the plan. Usually both a description and a plan are prepared and, when the property is transferred, are recorded according to the laws of the county concerned. The metes-and-bounds description of the property shown in figure 10-34 is given below.

"All that certain tract or parcel of land and premises, hereinafter particularly described, situate, lying and being in the Township of Maplewood in the County of Essex and State of New Jersey and constituting lot 2 shown on the revised map of the Taylor property in said township as filed in the Essex County Hall of Records on March 18, 1944.

"Beginning at an iron pipe in the northwesterly line of Maplewood Avenue therein distant along same line four hundred and thirty-one feet and seventy- one-hundredths of a foot north-easterly from a stone monument at the northerly corner of Beach Place and Maplewood Avenue; thence running (1) North forty-four degrees thirty-one and one-half minutes West along land of. . ."

Another form of a lot description maybe presented as follows:

 "Beginning at the northeasterly corner of the tract herein described; said corner being the intersection of the southerly line of Trenton Street and the westerly line of Ives Street; thence running S62954E bounded easterly by said Ives Street, a distance of two hundred and twenty-seven one hundredths (200.27) feet to the northerly line of Wickenden Street; thence turning an interior angle of 895916 and run-ning S833950W bonded southerly by said Wickenden Street, a distance of one hundred and no one-hundredths (100.00) feet to a corner; thence turn-ing an interior angle of. . . ."

You will notice that in the above example, interior angles were added to the bearings of the boundary lines. This will be another help in retracing lines.