The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-01-07
FRONT STREET. FREMONT, o

Il = - " ei4et cHeCt. Alu dd
i those who knew anything Of the
; matter agreed that it was the corner.
: l adopted it, and settingmy compass
7 far enough south 70 avoid an east
and west railfenee, | sent the aa0-
I man some ten rods ahead 70 set 4
stake in the line I had chosen as
I quite near the true course. and thsn
had him set another in line about az
, much further in advance. The
chainmen could now commence
measuring the distance across the
section.
Before removing my "JaeOb-staff,"
as We term the the standard which
supports the compass, let me here
remark briefly respecting the boulder
that / assumed to be the corner.
Biologists call what are commonly
known as "hard heads" boulders
| The word is probably derived from
bOt0l, the ball ofwood or other hard
substance used in a certain play on
/ level ground, and is so called because
| Of its smoothness and roundness.
| The term is properly applied only to
those smaller stones which we call
/ pebbles and which resemble the
stones that we find on shores of
bodies of water, made smooth and
| rounding by the action of the waves:
| but we apply it to the larger and rough
er stones-aH those portions Of gran
ite or eyanite or even softer rocks
that we find scattered over the fields
and through the forests. Why did a
former surveyor chose a boulder for
the corner? Other pieces of rock
abound in the neighborhood in fact
sandstone quarTies are but a few rods
away, and both sand and lime stone
crops out all around. Those are the
very reasons; one piece of either
sand or limestone cannot be easily
told from another unless dressed to a
certain shape and the surveyor had
no means of so shaping a stone, or
he begrudged the Necessary time;
but boulder possesses the requisite
points Indifference. Now kind read
er, notice that granite and cyanits
and porphyry and trap rock un-
stratified, that is, not in layers, NAV
all, probably, be found BY delving
deep enough beneath the surface, but .
the stratifed states and gneiss must
first be passed unless dykes or veins
Of granite injected into or through
the stratified rocks, be possibly
struck. The question then ARISES,
whence are the powders? Nowhere
South of this latitude are such rocks
found, nor even north, this side Of
Lake Superior region. The truth is
our powders were brought from the
far North, some of them perhaps from
the polar region. HOwS Volumes
Of water might possibly move the
smaller pebbles along a constantly
declining plane, but not across val.
leys and far-up mountain-sides; and
if this even were possible, the por-
tions weighing tons, which we find
on hill-tOps, could not thus have
been carried. Geology, informs Us
that these boulders, large and small,
were transported on or in immense
masses of ice gradually moving
southwark, something as the same
work is being perpetually done by
glaciers in Switzerland and other as
mountainous countries. The move
ment was very sloE,. probably a few
inches aday, and powders frozen In
the sides and bottom Of the mass
not only were worn smooth, but they
cut deep grooves across the rocky
floors over which they were pushed
OF dragged; and loose powders may
have been rolled along between the
glacier and the immovable rocks un-
til they were rounded and polished,
or they may have received this action
from waves before they we're caught
up and carried southwark by the
moving ice, which, melting as it
reached this warmer climate, gradu-
ally deposited its pebbly burden in
the valleys or on the hills.
So much about things which we
daily see, but Of which the unenquir-
ing mind nows little. How true it
is that there are sermons in stones.'
To return to my knitting, as the old
lady, Mrs. Darlington would say.
Remembering what have said about
the original survey governing all
subsequent ones, my readers will
readily see that my object was to
run a true line between the east and
west quarter-pOsts, thus bisecting
the section into halves, which how
ever might not be halves because
unequel. As 1 did not know Just
what course to run to strike the OF
pOsite posts, 1 must run a ''ran-
dom line as near right as I could.
guess, and by having the distance
and tally-stakes set at
known intervals, when I saw how
far my line came out from the west
quarter-post, I could estimate how
far North and South each tally-staks
must be set to put it on the true line.
In running the line, I do not depend
on the compass after two fag-stakes
have been set, but continue the line
by setting other stakes in the same
range; because the needle Of my
may be so affected by local
as from air in the ground,
that the line would be materially
bent. Every obstacle to the sight
must be removed, whether it be grow
ing maize, bush or tree. In this in
stance the line ran across a cOrn-feld
and the stalks had to be pushed out
of the way. Then we struck a fine
beech-tree that had to be felled.
Next we had to cut down a dry elm
stub as hard as wood can well be.
By this time it was noon and we
to dinner, which was ca
tan with that relish which only the
hungry enjoy. Returning, we con-
tinued our line through thickets Of
brush and saplings, over marshes
more or less miTy, n cross the
green stumps Of trees that we had
felled and on slowly but surely till
we struck the west section line a few
links North of the quarter-pOst. As
l had started South of the line and
came out North Of it, some of the
must be moved one wav
and others another. BY the time I
had made the calculation and cor
rected my line back halfway, it was
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