If you intend to hunt in unfamiliar territory where you must depend on your compass to get you out, a map showing the topography of the land is of great benefit. These quadrangles can be secured at the State Land Office, county seat or at the United States Land Office, the Post Office Department or of the United States Geological Survey, Washington. They are compiled from the field notes of surveyors and they indicate the location of streams, lakes, roads, mountain ranges, swamps, etc. CHAPTER IV MAP READING A knowledge of the rudiments of map reading is essential to the camper who has occasion to travel into wilderness haunts. He should have a clear mental conception of the ground to be covered and the map furnishes this--the corresponding distances, the net work of streams, roads and trails, and the elevations and slopes. The starting points for all surveys are the five principal meridians which run north and south. The range of the townships are numbered on this line east and west and all reliable maps have the base lines and meridians indicated. The townships are further divided into thirty-six sections of six hundred and forty acres each and each section measures one mile square making a total section measurement of six miles square. The corners of all sections are marked in the field as follows:--In the open country mounds are placed by the government surveyors and surrounded by four pits--one pit on each section of land. Within this mound will be found a stone with as many notches cut on the east and west side as it is miles to the township line. In timbered regions instead of a stone marker the intersections of the section lines are marked by a stake and the four sides facing the sections are blazed and the data of sections, township and range marked and notched the same as on the stone markers. Midway between the half section intersections the markers will have but two pits--one on either side and representing the quarter sections and marked 1-4-S-. The United States Geological Survey topographic atlas sheets are the standard and are designated by the name of the principal town or of some prominent natural feature within its boundary. The names of the adjoining published sheets are printed on the margins. They are the base maps on which the geology and mineral resources of a quadrangle are represented. Of these the hiker is likely not interested but the map to him is invaluable because of the following: it represents to him:--