The stranger who would go into the woods to make a selection of lands, ought to take with him an extract from the land office map applying to the part of the country he intends to visit. Without this, he cannot well distinguish entered from unentered grounds. He should also procure the names of the resident people, with the numbers and quarters of the sections they live on, not neglecting to carry with him a pocket-compass, to enable him to follow the blazed lines marked out by the surveyor. _Blaze_ is a word signifying a mark cut by a hatchet on the bark of a tree. It is the more necessary for the explorer to be furnished thus, as he may {155} expect to meet with settlers who will not be willing to direct him, but, on the contrary, tell him with the greatest effrontery, that every neighbouring quarter section is already taken up. Squatters, a class of men who take possession without purchasing, are afraid of being turned out, or of having their pastures abridged by new comers. Others, perhaps meditating an enlargement of their property, so soon as funds will permit, wish to hold the adjoining lands in reserve for themselves, and not a few are jealous of the land-dealer, who is not an actual settler, whose grounds lie waste, waiting for that advance on the value of property, which arises from an increasing population. The non-resident proprietor is injurious to a neighbourhood, in respect of his not bearing any part of the expense of making roads, while other people are frequently under the necessity of making them through his lands for their own convenience. On excursions of this kind, the prudent will always be cautious of explaining their views, particularly as to the spot chosen for purchase, and without loss of time they should return to the land-office and make entry. The new abode being fixed, the settler may be surrounded by strangers. Polite and obliging behaviour with circumspection in every transaction, become him in this new situation. FOOTNOTES: [84] The township system of survey was adopted in the first ordinance for the sale of public lands, passed May 20, 1785. The authorship of the plan has been a subject of controversy. It is usually attributed to Thomas Hutchins, first geographer of the United States, who had earlier embodied the idea in a plan for establishing military colonies north of the Ohio. See Hindsale, _Old Northwest_ (New York, 1888), p. 262.--ED. [85] At every land office, a register of the weather is kept. Three daily observations of the thermometer, the direction of the wind, the aspect of the sky, whether clear or clouded, fair or rainy days; and some other occasional phenomena, are noted down.--FLINT. {156} LETTER XIII Comparative Advantages of several Parts of the United States--Temperature of the Climate at Philadelphia and at Cincinnati--Pennsylvania--Ohio--Kentucky, and the Western Part of Virginia--Indiana--Illinois--Missouri--Reflections on Slave-Keeping.