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tailed, in connection with a series of diagrams showing the progress of the work.

A Map of the Land is first made, from a careful survey. This should be plotted to a scale of 50 or 100 feet to the inch,* and should exhibit the location of obsta cles which may interfere with the regularity of th drains, such as large trees, rocks, etc., and the existing swamps, water courses, springs, and open drains. (Fig. 4.)

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The next step is to locate the contour lines of the land, or the lines of equal elevation,—also called the horizontal lines, which serve to show the shape of the surface. To do this, stake off the field into squares of 50 feet, by first running base line through the center of the greatest length of the field, marking it with stakes at intervals of 50 feet, then stake other lines, also at intervals of 50 feet, perpendicular to the base line, and then note the position of the stakes on the maps; next, by the aid of an engineer's level and staff, ascer tain the height, (above an imaginary plain below the lowest part of the field,) of the surface of the ground at each stake, and note this elevation at its proper point on the map. gives a plot like Fig. 5. The best instrument with which to take these levels, is the ordinary telescope-level used by railroad engineers, shown in Fig. 6, which has a telescope with cross hairs intersecting each other in the center of the line of sight, and a "bubble" placed exactly parallel to this line. The instrument, fixed on a tripod, and so adjusted that it will turn to any point of the compass without disturbing the position of the bubble, will, (as will its "line of sight,") revolve in a perfectly horizontal plane. It is so placed as to command a view of a considerable stretch of the field, and its height above the imaginary plane is measured, an attendant places next to one of the stakes a levelling rod, (Fig. 7,) which is divided into feet and

*The maps in this book are, for convenience, drawn to a scale of 160 feet to the inch.

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Fig. 4. MAP OF LAND, WITH SWAMPS, ROCKS, SPRINGS, AND TREES.

INTENDED TO REPRESENT A FIELD OF TEN ACRES BEFORE
DRAINING.

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Fig. 5.-MAP WITH 50-FOOT SQUARES, AND CONTOUR LINES.

fractions of a foot, and is furnished with a movable target, so painted that its center point may be plainly seen. The attendant raises and lowers the target, until it comes exactly in the line of sight; its height on the rod denotes the height of the instrument above the level of the ground at that stake, and, as the height of the instrument

Fig. 6.-LEVELLING INSTRUMENT.*

above the imaginary plane has been reached, by subtracting one elevation from the other, the operator determines the height of the ground at that stake above the imaginary plane, which is called the "datum line."

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The next operation is to trace, on the plan, lines following the same level, wherever the land is of the proper height for its surface to meet them. For the purpose of illustrating this operation, lines at intervals of elevation of

*The instrument from which this cut was taken, (as also Fig. 7,) was made by Messrs. Blunt & Nichols, Water-st., N. Y.

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one foot are traced on the plan in Fig. 8. And these lines show, with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes, the elevation and rate of inclination of all parts of the field,-where it is level or nearly so, where its rise is rapid, and where slight. As the land rises one foot from the position of one line to the position of the line next above it, where the distance from one line to the next is great, the land is more nearly level, and when it is short the inclination is steeper. For instance, in the southwest corner of the plan, the land is nearly level to the 2-foot line; it rises slowly to the center of the field, and to the eastern side about one-fourth of the distance from the southern boundary, while an elevation coming down between these two valleys, and others skirting the west side of the former one and the southern side of the latter, are indicated by the greater nearness of the lines. The points at which the contour lines cross the section lines are found in the following manner: On the second line from the west side of the field we find the elevations of the 4th, 5th and 6th stakes from the southern boundary to be 1.9, 3.3, and 5.1. The contour lines, representing points of elevation of 2, 3, 4, and 5 feet above the datum line, will cross the 50-foot lines at their intersections, only where these intersections are marked in even feet. When they are marked with fractions of a foot, the lines must be made to cross at points between two intersections, nearer to one or the other, according to their elevations, thus between 1.9 Fig. 7.-LEVELand 3.3, the 2-foot and 3-foot contour lines must cross. The total difference of elevation, between the

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